Not a coddled 45 year old American who grew up watching "Growing Pains", "Different Strokes", and "T.J. Hooker", who was taught that Officer McFriendly had your best interest at heart, and to be a Grown Up is to just listen to what you were told by those above you and follow orders from someone in Uniform.

There are certain expectations of respect Dr. Dao has due to his age, and the fact that he purchased a ticket and had already been seated. My own 75+ year old mother would refuse to leave in similar circumstances, it's hard enough for her to manage her baggage and negotiate the airport; and the vouchers they were offering would not make up the difference in money, time, and physical effort she would have to pay for being bumped. Plus, if she was travelling with checked luggage, she wouldn't want to be separated from the medication and other items she would have had to have packed for the trip, similar to most 70+ people.

Vouchers are bullshit and useless. I wouldn't give up my legitimately purchased seat for a voucher that I probably couldn't ever find a use for and a "promise" that maybe there would be a seat for me on some flight over the next couple days that I wouldn't be bumped from; it would have to be an actual ticket, a rental car, or cash money.

There was absolutely no reason for him to give up his seat once he had been boarded; he wasn't being combative, he wasn't drunk and raising one's voice to be heard and get attention when someone puts their hands on one is not an unexpected response. And I've read several comments purportedly from other passengers that when he was yanked from his seat, he and his wife were in the process of trying to get United to pay for a f'ing rental car so they could just drive the 4 hours back home instead of having to put up with the B.S. the airline was trying to pull on them.

So yes, I would yell if someone grabbed me to pull me out of my seat. I would be selfish if I thought a company was randomly cheating me - especially if I were a minority who knew I looked like easy prey to an authoritarian.

He wasn't acting inappropriately before they grabbed him. He was just standing up for his rights as a paying customer that was already in the process of receipt of the service, as well as someone who was in a reasonably protected legal status - the burden it would be on an elderly or disabled person to be deplaned after they had already been seated is significant, which is why there's special seating for them.

Being a doctor, or having a checkered past, has nothing to do with it.

Haele