Here’s some more details from the Louisville Courier-Journal about the forcible removal of a passenger.

Passengers were told at the gate that the flight was overbooked and United, offering $400 and a hotel stay, was looking for one volunteer to take another flight to Louisville at 3 p.m. Monday. Passengers were allowed to board the flight, Bridges said, and once the flight was filled those on the plane were told that four people needed to give up their seats to stand-by United employees that needed to be in Louisville on Monday for a flight. Passengers were told that the flight would not take off until the United crew had seats, Bridges said, and the offer was increased to $800, but no one volunteered.

courier-journal.com

If this report is true, then United did not overbook the flight. They filled the plane, and standby passengers in that case would be SOL. But, these standbys were special, and I suppose United has no other way to move its staff around other than to clonk random passengers on their heads and haul them bodily off the plane.

Yeah, I think I’ll fly American from now on. United’s operations department must have studied under Roman slave masters.