No Government Fine For United Over Passenger Dragged Off Chicago Flight in April

Dr. David Dao was dragged off of a United Express flight from Chicago to Louisville in April by Chicago airport police and bloodied — setting off a worldwide media storm and leading to changes in how US airlines handle overbooked flights.

It’s the customer backlash against the incident in which United determined that it needed to send crew to Louisville to overnight and work a flight back to Chicago in the morning, taking seats from passengers, and failing to communicate with the gate agent working the flight prior to boarding that is changing airline behavior with respect to denied boarding procedures, not government.

In fact we’re learning today that the Department of Transportation didn’t take any action following the incident. The government found that “an enforcement action against United wasn’t warranted.”

It’s never been clear of course that United broke any laws or Department of Transportation regulations, though they screwed up big time from a customer perspective and like other airlines developed a culture since 9/11 where customer service problems are turned over to law enforcement. And Chicago Aviation Police responded to United’s call with excessive force.

The Department of Transportation communicated its decision in a May 12 letter that is only just becoming public four months later as the result of a Freedom of Information Act request.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. yeah this situation was just not part of DOT purview, in the same way Antifa cannot be classified as a hate group by SPLC.

  2. United Airlines didn’t Beat Up Dr. Dao….. The Airport Police at O’Hare have That on Them. People need to Get off this Crusade to bash the Big Three US Airlines every chance they get. If YOU do not like them, don’t fly them. period

  3. UA violated their own CoC (ergo, contract law…which DOT should be able to assist with via a fine, given the courts view on airlines.)

  4. So, either:
    1. Government policy is not pro-consumer; or
    2. Protecting customer’s interest is not the norm or normal course of work.

    Then again, in democracy, you choose your leader and representatives. Means those guys making policies were choosen by yours truly.

  5. Gerrymandering, low information voters, and an electoral system that was literally designed to protect slavery gets you this. If it weren’t for the fact that European settlers had so much natural resources to rob from the Native Americans, America would be nothing more than an undeveloped third world dictatorship. At least we get to be a developed first world dictatorship.

  6. @Reese: “People need to Get off this Crusade to bash the Big Three US Airlines”

    By passengers carried? Nobody is bashing Southwest.

    You mean the Chapter 11 three?

Comments are closed.