Should Airlines Ever Bump Doctors From Flights?

April 20, 2017

By now everyone has seen the disturbing video of a 69-year-old physician getting dragged off a fully boarded United Airlines flight because he refused to surrender his seat to a flight crew member. As the blood runs down his face, he can be heard moaning, "Kill me now."

The incident raised a lot of questions. Can't airlines handle bumping and overbooking without resorting to brute force? Should they abandon overbooking in the first place? And here's a question for physicians: As long as airlines persist in overbooking flights, should they automatically exempt physicians from getting bumped because of their profession?

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