The story of how a passenger got dragged off a United Express flight just keeps getting crazier and crazier.
It was terribly unfortunate that United decided they needed to send 4 crew members to Louisville on a full flight. The crew were needed to operate a flight in the morning, and if they didn’t passengers in the morning weren’t going to get where they were going.
So the airline asked for volunteers — offering up $800 in travel, a night’s hotel, and a flight the next afternoon. There were no takers. So the airline moved to remove passengers from the flight to make room, and a doctor refused to go.
Crew called the airport’s police, who dragged the passenger off the plane.
@United overbook #flight3411 and decided to force random passengers off the plane. Here's how they did it: pic.twitter.com/QfefM8X2cW
— Jayse D. Anspach (@JayseDavid) April 10, 2017
Officers bloodied him to the point he was muttering “just kill me” repeatedly. While the Chicago Police Department offered an absurd statement that the “man “fell” on his face,” one Aviation Police officer has been placed on leave over the incident.
United’s CEO made a dumb move apologizing merely for ‘having to re-accommodate’ passengers… not for the terrible thing that happened after the Chicago Aviation Police were called.
United CEO Oscar Munoz at Chicago O’Hare
But it gets worse. Munoz sent a letter to United employees beginning with the most important question of why the passenger defied the police rather than why the police bloodied the passenger. What ‘compounded’ the situation was the passengers refusal of the airline’s ‘polite’ request to deplane, making it ‘necessary’ to contact the police officer who appears to have beaten the passenger.
#flythefriendlyskies @united no words. This poor man!! pic.twitter.com/rn0rbeckwT
— Kaylyn Davis (@kaylyn_davis) April 10, 2017
There is no mention in the letter from Munoz, including in the airline Chairman’s ‘recap’ of events, of the condition the passenger was left in.
Here’s Oscar Munoz’s letter to United employees, via @jonostrower:
Throughout this incident I’ve said that the passenger should have followed crew instructions, and that while the situation that started all of this is frustrating but that the airline appears to have followed its own procedures.
However the lack of acknowledgment of the worst element of what happened — whitewashing, even — that a person was dragged off and bloodied by airport police is a failure of tremendous proportions.
“They needed to board the flight”. A fully loaded airplane is waiting to leave yet the crewmembers had priority to bump passengers off the plane. Where in their contract with the passenger does they can do that? That attitude means Oscar and United have little or no respect for their customers.
It’s time to “re-accommodate” Munoz. Deep-six him.
It just goes from bad to worse. UA is just a terrible, terrible airline, and Munoz should resign. The airline did not offer enough compensation since NO ONE TOOK IT! NOT ONE PERSON! Then they deplaned PAX which was the cheap and lazy way to handle this. Finally, the public comments have been so tone deaf that even if they are in the bureaucratically correct position, they have alienated even more people than they did the the famous leggings issue. They have no idea how to talk to passengers or to the public. Shame, shame, shame. The passenger may have been ill advised to not just act like a sheep, but the airline was way better equipped to find a better end to this. Instead, they will be correctly dragged through the mud in social media, the blogosphere and the mainstream press. Everyone loves to hate the airlines and this just plays into this. In any case, Munoz needs to go. He can run a railway with freight but not an airline with passengers! He is, frankly, in over his head and has performed poorly with the sole exception of an early win with the unions.
Good to see the Tom Horn days are back for corporate America, You should be proud.
Someone need to record a new version of “United Breaks Guitars.” Perhaps title it “United Breaks Your Arms.”
Time for the Board to boot this guy. He is totally incompetent. If you look at his resume he worked at ATT (not known as an example of customer service) and CSX which is a freight railroad known for moving containers and cargo around. Thus, that may be the reason why he has zero knowledge of how to treat customers well. He may think people are like containers that you just move around and “re-accomodate” any way you want.
We all know airline lobbyist wrote all the rules and regulations. By rules, yeah United is within their right. But those rules and regulations can be changed, because they are simply immoral. United is morally bankrupt and “We follow the rules” won’t be their saving grace.
And exactly how random is that selection method? I would like to see United algorithm that selected these 4 pax.
If they need to accommodate their crew, put them on DL, AA, WN.
Yup, this letter is completely damning. If he can’t comprehend the customer’s perspective in this case, we can’t trust him on the relatively trivial #paxex matters we normally talk about on here.
Glad to see this happen. This passenger behaved like an obstinate, immature child. The real problem here is passenger entitlement, not the police. Would love to see this same response by police every time some disgusting person takes their socks off and puts their feet on the bulkhead !
#UnitedNowMyFaveAirline
From a PR perspective, this is the type of statement you release when there is no video evidence. When there is video like exists here, this response is idiotic because no reasonable reader will relate to this type of message in light of the videos. He thinks he’s defending his employees, but he just comes off as tone deaf and heartless.
Just being trump style super presidential
This letter was to employees and supports them. Oscar already lost the public, but the right move on his part is to support his employees. Nothing he states here is WRONG. Maybe this isn’t being handled with the best PR (I agree with that!) but ua did everything by the books. If your flight was delayed due to the gate agents having to play lets make a deal for over two hours because no one would take an offer, your tone would change. They went up to a thousand dollars per person. The drive was four hours. Obviously people wanted to fly on this flight. But this is a horrible confluence of events, everyone showing up for the flight (which rarely happens), the crew needing to deadhead (which it seems they didn’t know about?), and then the police going crazy. Everyone seems to be thinking that United ordered goons to come in and beat this passenger… They didn’t. Like it or not, his number was pulled when they had to invol. No one handled this situation well, but to call for the ceos head because of the action of the police and the regional partner is just dumb.
All united had to do was reroute someone’s flight to another carrier and someone would have bit. Its called customer service of course the logicpig i mean cop above me has no clue of that. Talk about entitlement? Its worse off when police find a way to always justify their brethren even when they are wrong.
United acts itself like an aggressive profiting machine while customers are just a bunch of parts to make the machine keep operating. Think back about its stupid boycott towards ME3 and later the discrepancy between US electronic bad and UK version, does it ever consider being a customer-facing corporate instead of being all dirty and stuff?
At what point does the brand damage exceed the value of the brand?
Now Untied can experience how it felt for 40 year customers to have their Mileage Minus program devalued 75%.
I notice their already deep discounting flights in heavily competitive markets. With any luck they’ll go out of business as customers discover Jet Blue and Alaska treat customers great all the time.
Gary, regardless of who each of us would blame for the United Flight 3411 debacle, I think every one of us would agree, this is a horrible memo that proves what I have argued from some time, that CEO Munoz is tone-deaf and insensitive towards his customers, the very ones that keep him in his job and keep United profitable. In fact, I have long complained ever since the United/Continental Merger that the new management team, almost entirely made up of former Continental executives, is particularly tone-deaf and insensitive towards United’s customers to the point of arrogance and disdain. Munoz’s predecessor, Jeff Smisek, also a former Continental executive, was essentially fired for corruption stemming from the “Chairman’s Flight” matter attempting to influence the Port Authority, but was also loathed by United’s customers and employees for his poor treatment of both. Honestly, until the Continental executives finally leave the leadership of United, we will continue to see this appalling attitude and disdain towards customers. Munoz needs to be fired immediately and probably will be pressured to go but it may not change United corporate culture too much and that is a shame!
Okay, that’s it. Goodbye, United. I’ll turn in my United credit card tomorrow, and you won’t see me again. This really, really isn’t how you run a company.
@LogicPolice entitled? u wouldn’t feel “entitled” to your seat that you paid for and was already sitting down on? Stop being a damn sheep and think for yourself for once instead of listening to what others tell you to do.
#Unitedsucks
On NBC news with Lester Holt it was mentioned that compensation should of been $1,350 in this particular situation according to the airlines T&Cs. The letter above says $1,000 was offered so they even got that wrong.
@Jason no, Lester Holt got it wrong, compensation is 4x the fare paid by the passenger up to a maximum of $1350
What was even more frightening there was another passenger, a loud mouthed American of course, who shouted out “Good job, way to go” to the Police thugs. This situation really is the end for me.
What right has a private company (UA) got, to call the taxpayer funded Police to deal with a private matter. We all support our Police but this was outright thuggery. There is no other words for it.
As for the recalcitrant who was yelling out “good job, way to go” I hope that loudmouthed American gets ID’d and we can all see who thinks like that. I hope his elderly Dr. father never has to endure UA’s bully-boy tactics. I wonder then if the mongrel would think it was a good job and the way to go.
I hope this man, the victim in all this, who did nothing wrong, sues UA’s sorry ass and gets millions and millions. He deserves it.
What’s happened to you UA. You mongrel dogs.
My guess is he’ll be asked to resign for health reasons or fired. In the world of social media United and the GC office and outside counsel seem to lack the skills necessary to avoid damage via lawsuits and public perception.
@Ella — What SHOULD have United done in this situation. In hindsight, I would suggest : 1) not board the passengers until they were certain how many seat they needed (not always possible, especially because they were trying to get the flight out and it was already apparently late); 2) offered more compensation, although the gate agents were clearly operating under a set of rules which seem to have served the airline well over many years; or 3) tell the police to be nicer to the passenger who refused to obey their crew member instructions.
All sound great — as Monday morning quarterbacking. But the current system gets millions of passengers to their destinations without incidents of this type happening. Obviously, in the age of social media, new strategies will need to be implemented to deal with passengers who refuse to give up their seats. I’m guessing it will start with higher compensation limits for volunteers willing to give up their seats but, at the end of the day, if nobody gives up their seats and a passenger refuses to listen to police, this incident could occur on any airline.
You can obviously fly on whichever airline you want, but being holier-than-thou regarding this very weird incident isn’t right.
The stock holders need to drag Munoz out of his office.
@Gary
You are coming across as if you are on the UA payroll.
Most of the time you make sense but keep in mind you need maintain your reputation. You have seriously undermined yourself, for example, you said:
1) “but that the airline appears to have followed its own procedures” You are wrong Gary
2) “I’ve largely felt that United was doing its best under a set of bad circumstances.” You are wrong Gary
3) “my guess is that United is the least to blame here” you even made “least” in italics. You are wrong Gary
4) “Beating Up a Doctor on a United Flight Was Terrible… But Maybe Unavoidable” Unavoidable? You are wrong Gary
5) “But the real scandal here is the police response” You are wrong Gary
“@Ben Bentzin says: April 10, 2017 at 6:33 pm Gary, You have missed the mark with your analysis. United Airlines is not the victim… Instead of acting as a United Airlines apologist, how instead holding them accountable for delivering a better customer experience?”
“@Lb says: April 10, 2017 at 6:21 pm Ick. Total airline-a** kissing propaganda. You are gross and completely in-credible, in the truest sense of the word.”
“@Tom said April 10, 2017 at 4:58 pm Gary, you are a complete idiot. I’ve lost total respect for you as a human being”
“@Aj says: April 10, 2017 at 6:41 pm Stop supporting the airline industry when they are totally wrong.”
“@Ed says: April 10, 2017 at 5:37 pm Gary, You need to re-assess what you consider wrong and right. United made a series of mistakes and situation was entirely foreseeable. ”
“@seedeevee said April 10, 2017 at 5:01 pm You don’t pass the smell test, Gary Leff”
“@Goodbye says: April 10, 2017 at 5:02 pm There is a stunning lack of empathy here. To sit here in judgement of this fellow—and then invoke the spectre of state sponsored torture— reflects a callousness such that I am no longer reading this blog.”
“@Jane said April 10, 2017 at 5:40 pm Rubbish. This is such a piece of shit article. It’s completely avoidable… And as for you, Gary, you’re just a low-form paid vassal. Shame on you for condoning this corporate activity. Your moral compass needs to extreme re-calibration”
“@Kelly said April 10, 2017 at 3:50 pm “While United is being roasted for this, the horrifying story here appears to be police misconduct.” C’mon, Gary. This is like an aviation crash: it’s a series of missteps that must be taken back to the first step. Don’t blame the crash on the engines failing because the pilot forgot to check the fuel before they took off.”
“@Fred says: April 10, 2017 at 4:27 pm If you took the airline company’s cocks out of your mouth while spouting this shit you’d be clearer you fat apologist shill.”
“@Fred says: April 10, 2017 at 4:24 pm Stop apologizing for the airlines, shill.”
No Carlos — if the Chicago Aviation Police hadn’t overreacted (and one is already on suspension), brought a disproportionate response dragging the guy on the ground and bloodying him, this would not even be a story today.
United does appear to have followed its procedures in a very unfortunate situation, though we can talk about whether those ought to be revisited (most suggestions are potentially far worse). The passenger should have complied with the airline request to get up, though it absolutely sucks that he was being booted from the flight.
By the way if United hadn’t gotten that crew there it would have sucked for everyone on the morning flight.
A very tough situation all the way around — that exploded because of the police response.
This is a terrible situation – and poor handling by UA and Munoz.
The passenger should have complied with crew member instructions – that’s what you agree to when you buy a ticket, whether you understand or like the instructions. From opening the window shades for departure/landing to, yes, leaving the plane if so ordered.
BUT United DID cause this problem by maximizing their profits over customer service:
1. Why do they not BOOK a seat for their staff – it was ok to fly staff without booking when utilization was 60% – but nowadays, it’s just contributing these issues!
2. They have a contract with the passenger and should be required to make offers until somebody takes it and not just break their contract. The law makes it easy for them to do the latter, different from any other industry. How would you like it if your car dealer says: “Sorry, we need the Cadillac you ordered as a sales demo. We give you this nice Chevy Cruze – if you don’t like it, you can sue us and get some floor mats with it!”
I don’t think we’ll see more regulation to fix this anytime soon, so customers just have to make their choice with the wallet and fly different carriers! I don’t think Southwest or Alaska would have handled it this way!
@Carlos — Gary is trying to be rational and logical about this incident. You are not being rational and logical. I know it’s hard to understand, but passengers don’t have a “right” to fly when they want to. If an airline needs your seat — and UA needed this man’s seat — it has the right to remove you from the airplane and offer you compensation. Is that fair? I think it is, although I would suggest the compensation for being involuntarily denied boarding should be higher to incentivize the airlines to offer volunteers even more money. But when a police officer tells you it’s time to leave the aircraft, you leave the aircraft. You a not a hero if you make up your own rules and demand to fly. It would appear that the police officer may not have followed proper procedures in removing the passenger, but is United to blame for this? Should it get the right to supervise the hiring and management of Chicago police officers?
While there is clearly faults on all sides here, that letter is incredibly insensitive.
@Rupert this is NOT a case of United trying to maximize profits, they were trying to recover from a bad situation while causing the least damage to the least number of people, they didn’t expect to have to send extra crew to Louisville and if they didn’t more passengers’ important travel plans would have been ruined.
I think that United could have found another flight for their staff on a competing airline for less than the max. offer, or they could make a quick decision to offer higher compensation. The way this was handled is disgusting and will alienate many future travelers from choosing UAL.
I reject the argument that United was simply following its own rules or some federal rules (that United’s and other airlines’ lobbyists helped write). Change the rules so that compensation can be higher and make the compensation in cash. Problem solved.
Looks like United PR department has mobilized into the Comments sections of news and blogs to try to put a bootlick’s shine on their shit storm. Sorry, you’re out of business United – with the worst PR disaster in American history, costlier than the value of your airline. This is the hottest item on every major media outlet in the world right now, and your handling of it has only made it worse.
To the Trumpian authoritarian bootlicks: We don’t have any history here with dictators, so while a third of the US might be stupid enough to believe fake news and elect the worst President in world history (twice), telling us to line up to kiss the corporate ring is about the same as telling us to never fly United again. Not even a nice try. Ad disoriented man was terrorized, brutalized and ran trying to find a place to hide to get home from jackboot troopers who today have shown the world how ugly corporate law enforcement can be if you don’t follow their mindless rules which would be criminal in any sane society.
@iahphx @Gary
The rational and logical situation is:
The issue is the IT scheduling department screwed up for whatever reason and these four people needed to be somewhere. That is the issue. Period. Nothing else. It is the IT dept that should have figured out options to solve that issue. There are many things they could have done as others have suggested. They should have solved their own problem and not kicked the can down the hall. That is what “exploded” not everything thereafter. If the IT dept can’t do their job, fire them. UA is the MOST to blame here, not the least to blame. Focus on that. Admit that is where it started. (Then there is blame on the person who manhandled the passenger. Then there is blame on the passenger. But these two are later and would never have happened if the first was handled correctly.)
The fact is the passenger did nothing wrong as the passenger legally purchased a ticket with money, got boarding pass, was scanned at gate and boarded flight like everyone else. Passenger did nothing wrong. There was no denied boarding. There was no involuntary denied boarding. Period. Passenger did nothing wrong. Yes I agree the passenger should have followed instructions but that is not the issue because that came later. It “exploded” because UA IT screwed up. That came first. Focus on that.
Everything else y’all have talked about (removing someone from the plane, IDB, etc.) is the aftermath of a bad situation but you have lost the focus on the issue and the fact mentioned above.
There is a quote from another reader, something like if I was sitting in a restaurant and you ejected me because someone else wanted to sit there, or if I was asleep in my hotel room, you would break the door down and pull me out of bed at 3AM because someone else needed a bed, and many other examples I am sure you can come up with. Focus on the issue.
Absolutely disgraceful. United, their airport employees and the officers that removed this passenger acted 100% inappropriately. They should have found another way to get their 4 employees to Louisville without inconveniencing paid passengers. This man was a doctor who needed to see patients the next morning so why should he be forced to deplane? If people didn’t accept the $800 they were offering they should have increased the amount to $1300 or whatever it would take to get 4 people to agree to deplane. Shame on Oscar Munoz for running such an incompetent airline. I was on the verge of booking 5 employees from LAX to ORD for a trade show next month and out of protest for that mans treatment we will not book on United.
Blame breakdown:
75% United: they made this mess, it’s their brand
10% Chicago Aviation Police: thuggery
10% Gary: for being tone-deaf himself, and increasingly out of touch by defending United, even on a technicality
5% United Express/Republic – why wasn’t it known earlier they had 4 crew who HAD to be on that flight.
Leaving aside the matter as to whether the pax should have meekly complied and deplaned, the response of Munez to his ‘Team’ was entirely inappropriate, and nowhere near adequate. No matter that he probably didn’t write it himself, he plainly thought it OK to sign off and authorize distribution.
He is paid mega-bucks for his work, and a less blinkered response to an outrageous situation that got entirely out of hand would be expected, to start making amends. He should be seriously considering his position. Way not good enough!
I will never use united again , and I travel 70 days out of the year.. I MEAN NEVER
Sack all those involved in this incident and compensate the passenger who was assaulted for no reason.
You defend United/Republic Airlines when it is very clear that standard operational procedures were not followed. Republic Airlines knew for at least a week that these 4 crew members needed to be on this flight. The gate agents worked the flight incorrectly. Before boarding, the situation should have been addressed. For United and dumbass Munoz to be making all kinds of false statements and trying to cover up what happened is beyond disgusting!
I’m not someone that comments a lot, but I think you should take a step back in your posts regarding this happening…
Gary says: “@Rupert this is NOT a case of United trying to maximize profits, they were trying to recover from a bad situation while causing the least damage to the least number of people, they didn’t expect to have to send extra crew to Louisville and if they didn’t more passengers’ important travel plans would have been ruined.”
So get the crew a rental car, or have a driver drive them while they rest. So many alternatives. But no, they decide to remove ticketed and boarded passengers. For what? UA’s convenience, obviously. I can’t believe you think that’s OK.
Time for Munoz to go. Completely incompetent. Can they figure out that the awful publicity from their mishandling of this, not to mention a likely lawsuit, will cost them thousands of times what it would have to offer sufficient compensation to get volunteers? The leggings incident was embarrassing, but harmless in the end. This one is catastrophic.
If I bomb a building just because I was “following my own rules” is that fine?
@ Gary: United may have been legally wrong. Note that per 14 C.F.R. 250.2a, “In the event of an oversold flight, every carrier shall ensure that the smallest practicable number of persons holding confirmed reserved space on that flight are denied boarding involuntarily”.
Assuming this applies, it could mean that a paid passenger takes precedence over crew members flying to work another flight.
Credit: commenter NegativeFeedback on TPG
UA simply chose to force a customer (who paid for his ticket in full at time of booking) out of his seat because they made the decision that it was more important for one of four of their employees to be in Louisville. Showed absolutely no care for the rights of this customer and when he stood up for their “company policy” he was forcibly removed. This is not right at so many levels. Everyone can sit here and say, “well that’s UA company policy and they were following it”. This is BS and weak excuse. Don’t sell a product, take the money and then force the product out of someone’s hands because another employee needed that product.
UA CEO’s statement and this email is pathetic. Be a leader and assume some responsibility for how one of your paying customers was treated and physically forced out of their seat just because you had to place an employee in that seat. It wasn’t the customers fault that UA screwed up its crew scheduling. UA is in the business and I’m sure they could’ve found a solution for this without using force to remove a 60-year old paying passenger.
Are you effing kidding me Gary? United wasn’t trying to maximize profits here? I don’t know who’s more clueless and tone-deaf, you or Oscar. If they didn’t just care about profit, why wouldn’t they offer more compensation? Airline passengers’ time is valuable. No one bit at $800, but offer $1500 and the conversation changes. For $1500 I’m calling a colleague and asking if I can get coverage for tomorrow. Of course everyone’s threshold is different, but UA thought they could get out of this on the cheap. Clearly you can get Oscar would’ve the GAs offered up $2k each rather than the millions they’re going to have to settle for now.
I used to respect Munoz. Clearly he is protégé of Smisek and has drowned in his own ignorance of what’s important – the customer. I hope people vote with their wallets by avoiding United.
Scott Kirby is sitting back rubbing his hands waiting in the wings… This is why he went to UA. Kirby is very street smart.
UA had no service recovery plan at the gate and they have none now. Pitiful.
To Miguel’s point, UA deplaned PAX with confirmed reservations for staff flying standby for positioning. This could, indeed, be contrary to the contract of carriage. However, we have allowed the airlines to legalese us into a no-win position. They hold all of the cards. I say, call their bluff!
#re-accommodatemunoz!
Gary, you said the passenger should’ve complied with crew and police – I agree with that, but you are completely taking out the human element here, which many United apologists have as well.
Try to imagine YOURSELF having to make it to your destination the next morning for an important business meeting that will decide the fate of your company, or attending your loving father’s funeral, or needing to be at the surgical table for a crucial heart transplant for a patient. I don’t think you would have just packed up your bags and left the plane. Sure, in hindsight we can say oh a rental car is an option, but during the heated situation, the majority of people will not have a clear and rational mind to think about alternatives.
Thank goodness the girls with leggings didn’t get this treatment.
You only call police knowing that serious injury or death may occur. It’s a serious call.
There were plenty of other airlines’ flights to move the extra crew on.
Munoz has to be made an example of for his gross callousness.
@Gary – I am not so certain that United followed their own procedures or even the DOT regulations unless they complied with the following –
from transportation.gov
“DOT requires each airline to give all passengers who are bumped involuntarily a written statement describing their rights and explaining how the carrier decides who gets on an oversold flight and who doesn’t. ”
If the airline employee that requested the removal did not comply with this requirement , then they did not comply with DOT regs. UA needed to provide the pax IN WRITING how he was chosen to be removed and his rights. Just getting on the PA and announcing the rules does not seem sufficient.
The media/bloggers with media connections need to ask the fellow paxs that have been on the news and UA whether they provided the pax with the written statement. If they didn’t then the escalation was a direct result of their failure to comply with DOT regs.
@ Carlos — Again, your outrage doesn’t square with the facts. UA doesn’t routinely bump passengers for crew. You may not appreciate it, but running an airline is a highly complex logistical operation, and everything is planned to avoid this type of situation. Something unusual happened that day which required these employees to be on that flight to operate a flight the next morning. We don’t know what those facts are, but I can assure you it wasn’t just somebody not doing their job.
If you had to get the crew down their on short notice, the approach taken by UA was more than reasonable. On most flights, people will take $1000 in compensation for a later flight. That’s why involuntarily denied passengers are very rare. Most of us who fly all the time have never even seen it! This isn’t an airline being callous and indifferent to its customers; it’s an airline that has used these same procedures for years, and almost nobody complains about it. And this is a business where EVERYBODY complains about everything all the time!
I know you THINK that buying an airplane ticket should be like sitting at a restaurant table or sleeping in a hotel room, and if you’re in a seat it’s yours, but that is NOT how the airline business works. And there are very good reasons for this. I can understand how this extreme incident can cause shock among people who don’t understand the business (why should you?), but we don’t need to radically change years of settled and effective bumping procedures just because one odd guy refused to follow instructions and the police used too much force to remove him.
There should be people asking if this would have happened if he were white. Non whites, knowing how they are treated have this question
Why do we need to bring race into this? I don’t see this as a race issue as I think the police would have just have easily done this to a white person in the same situation. That being said the whole he fell on his face story is BS and after looking at his injuries and the video I think there needs to be criminal prosecutions of the officers involved, especially when it comes to falsifying reports. United Airlines really disgraced themselves here and the Chicago police have shown their true colors for the world to see. That level of force should have never been employed.
@Miguel – that’s simply not what the regs mean in this context
@italdesign – except, union contracts
@ Carlos – You have it exactly right. The flight was NOT oversold. UA had a staffing problem and is trying to disguise it as an oversold flight. All the media have fallen for it, but in the courtroom the truth will come out.
@ Chris — You do realize that UA could have said “Screw it — It’s going to be too much trouble involuntarily selecting passengers to get off this flight. Let’s just cancel it.”
If they did, they legally would owe nothing except a refund to its customers. (Although I would expect them to do more than that, as they should).
People miss meetings, weddings and funerals with regularity because air travel is not perfect, and it’s not guaranteed. If you absolutely, positively have to be there, go early. I’m sorry, but that’s just the way it is, and nobody would want to pay for a completely foolproof aviation system.
There were many other flights leaving Chicago Ohare to Louisville after the boarding time of this flight (AA at 6:40 PM direct and 6:45 PM via CLT, Delta at 6:30 PM), including one by United (UA 4771 leaving at 9 PM). Why did United decide to involuntarily remove passenger who had already boarded instead of putting its crew that was needed the next day in another flight?
United Breaks Guitars. And Doctors.
@iahphx: That’s a dumb point to make. How do you know he wasn’t trying to get there “early”? How do you know he wasn’t getting his vacation cut short because of some emergencies in the office and have no choice but take this flight? The poor guy was in no way posing a security concern. There’s a reason why majority of people sided with him and this is making all the news. I get that you always want to be edgy and try to appear as an independent thinker, but through all this, you are only proving yourself as a sewage of a human being. Possibly racist, too. Possibly a Trump supporter, too. Come on, you yourself know that.
Oscar, you can do better than this. If not, then I fear for the future of UA.
Reports by passengers on the plane indicate that United offered $800, not the $1000 the Munoz claims in his letter. Which is correct? I suspect that upping the offer to $1000 would have created at least one more seat given up by a willing volunteer.
This goes to show how low US airlines have sunk . Especially that you are defending this . Would never happen on an Asian airline like Singapore airlines or middle eastern airline like Qatar airways !
@ Gary: Respectfully, that probably will ultimately be decided by the courts. My point is that there seems to be a legal argument to be made that United was wrong (apart from being morally and ethically wrong). Also, it may be in breach of Rule 21 of its Contract of Carriage, which does not seem to mention this situation as a reason to force a passenger off a plane.
I guess we’ll see.
UA is run by a retard named Oscar.
Maybe the heart attack stopped the blood flow to that tiny brain.
Or maybe Oscar was a retard to begin with.
This made me really mad. the passenger paid for his flight. Be there on time, got an operation for his patient next day morning. according by another witness video he actually volunteered for the next flight but there was not flight till next day 2 pm. What else you want from this man?? it’s not his problem that your flight is overly booked. I have not see a word of apology in this letter. The CEO of UA used the word of unfortunate and upset. This making me really mad. This man deserves more respect. You chosen him because he is an Asian. If he is a big black dude. You will not treat him with this kind of disrespect. So angry with UA and will never ever fly with your stupid crew and stupid CEO ever again.
Such a stark contrast to the tone of the post this morning. I’m guessing that the criticism and maybe subscriber loss caused a sudden compassion for the passenger? Way to go Gary.
United overbooks; a typical airline maneuver subordinating customer service to maximum profit. However, for United to allow customers who demand the service they have paid for to be physically beaten to insure the wishes of the airline, is incomprehensible. To further exacerbate an already intolerable, unforgivable United nightmare, CEO Oscar Munoz, “deflects and distracts” by alluding that it is the fault of the victim. Sound like a familiar 2017 political strategy? The only voice we have is to vote our pocketbook by boycotting. I, for one, will never book, or allow company employees of mine to book, a United flight until Munoz is fired or resigns and the victimized passenger receives a public apology and appropriate compensation.
This could have so easily been avoided. Up the offer to passengers to be “re-accommodated” until enough passengers volunteer. Also, offering vouchers is just an opportunity to give United more money. Offer cash. After all, as has been said many times before “lack of planning on your part does not mean an emergency on my part, United Airlines.” Airlines are making money hand-over-fist these days. Don’t overbook and plan for such situations, but that would mean easing up on the greed a little.
“Why do we need to bring race into this? I don’t see this as a race issue as I think the police would have just have easily done this to a white person in the same situation.”
Maybe because the Chicago police SPECIFICALLY mentioned his race.
And he was NOT denied boarding. He HAD boarded and was being kicked off. If the airline’s offer had been a good deal then people would have VOLUNTEERED to take it.
Cannot imagine such an attack on passenger is lawful.
United is now playing smart by shifting the responsibility to the police. Afterall, they can claim that they called them, but they did not state a request for a savage attack. The police took in it in their own hands to do so.
Then the police can always say United might have stated that the passenger in question is a massive threat to flight security, and non-compliant, and they should do whatever necessary.
Using these arguments, the 2 parties could possibly justify a lot of strong arm tactics.
I think if the 2 parties are allowed to get away, then such actions are not just not condemned, but further encouraged.
The name calling in this thread is ridiculous. Lets review what people say SHOULD have happened:
Option 1) The UA employees don’t get on the plane to LOU, and the return flight the next day MUST be canceled. You can’t put the employees in an Uber, their contract and the rules state they aren’t on rest time until they arrive at their host airport. You can’t just change union work rules like that. They HAD to fly on that plane. Why did this happen today? I bet you there will be a good look at that, but my bet is that to have regional employees basically lose an ENTIRE day traveling and then staying in LOU instead of working isn’t a good idea, and 99 times out of 100 having the crew fly on this plane is not a problem.
Option 2) The amount should have been raised until someone took it, because 200 bucks all the way up to 1000 didn’t get anyone to take it, so SURELY someone would have gotten off the plane if it it JUST was $1200! So now takeoff slots don’t matter at all, and planes can stay at the gate while the agents need to play “Lets Make A Deal!” to deal with an oversale, which, let me remind you HAPPENS TO ALL AIRLINES.
Option 3) UA should never have oversold! Great, how would you like that to work? With MAJOR hub operations, people OFTEN have stranded segments, missed connections, as well as just wanting to use SDC and other options to change flights. In order to do this, you overbook a flight REASONABLY. According to stats that Nate Silver posted, UA INVOLed 0.4 people per 10,000 paid passengers. Jetblue INVOLed more. So did many airlines. Most were pretty close to the UA number. This is NOT just a UA problem, its the entire industry, and its actually proof that it USUALLY works! We DON’T hear stories like this often!
Option 4) They should have offered to change who they INVOLed! So this Doctors life is more important then any other person who was on that plane? It now an airlines job to decide how important people are to their lives to determine the order they are chosen? People have insinuated that UA specifically picked this guy, and they are demanding to see the algorithm?! Why would UA specifically choose a Doctor? Why wouldn’t they choose the person with the lowest fare, and the least ability to fight back?! The fact that the first two people who were INVOLed got off the plane without incident shows that this was not a way to ‘get back at some people’.
Option 5) They should have gotten another plane. You can’t just ‘create’ a landing/takeoff slot, airports don’t work like that. You need to have a scheduled plane, or file for a special operation, neither of which could be done.
The DoT has WRITTEN rules for oversales, that REQUIRE cash to be given to the person being removed. There is regulation for this activity, and there is consumer protection! EVERY time an oversale happens, it MUST be reported to the DoT.
NO ONE is saying what happened was optimal. What we ARE saying is that the ONLY reason we are talking about it is because of the activities of the police officers. Does ANYONE wish this to have happened? No. But to call for the CEO’s head for something that is regular airline practice is just plain silly.
Stop saying this guys is IDB. He was boarded!
Following crew instructions has to do with safety, nothing to do with trying to solve a major fuck-up by the airline and then using your so called Befehl ist Befehl power as an airline employee to have a customer treated like a pig in a slaughter house by the police.
I rarely say this as i think the whole claiming culture in America is dumb, but I hope this guy gets millions and have lots of people think twice about flying United.
And what about that CEO and that statement….
@iahphx you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. There was no excuse for dragging this passenger off the plane. As many have commented the plane was not oversold they just needed 4 seats for their own employees. That is not legally the same as being oversold since their own passengers did not have confirmed reservations on the flight. How can a flight be oversold if there were no confirmed passengers left off the flight in the gate? United will pay BIG TIME for this act of stupidity and people will think twice before giving their business to a company with a CEO as brain dead as Munoz. His statement was a deliberate attempt not to criticize his employees except what he did was something you never do in business and that is to blame the customer. He should have expressed outrage, called for an immediate investigation and then contact this customer and personally apologize for the physical abuse and treatment he received. It has to be one of the dumbest public relations moves I have ever seen by a large corporation. At the end of the day this could have been any one of us and it’s not acceptable. I also have no doubt the city of Chicago will pay BIG TIME for the stupidity of these airport officers. They’ll be looking for new careers.
‘To Protect and Serve’, really ???? and It would have been cheaper to charter an aircraft to fly the ‘Must Go’ Crew to LOU , than the millions its going to cost now in court .
@Tim just because you are on the plane doesn’t mean that you can’t be taken off of it. The airline controls who gets to fly.
@Mark The statement is not the best, however nothing in it is factually incorrect. The way people are reacting you would think that Mr Munoz PERSONALLY called the police and asked for this passenger to be bloodied.
“but we don’t need to radically change years of settled and effective bumping procedures just because one odd guy refused to follow instructions and the police used too much force to remove him.” Wow…one odd guy? He bought a ticket, didn’t want to delay his trip, felt he has the right to refuse United’s bully, and he got violently dragged out and injured his face just so United can make more money on their next flight. Does this sound normal to you? Does the inconvenience of other passenages on United’s next flight really worth this? what if he is your dad? Or your kid? You sounded really inhuman.
The flight was NOT oversold. UA had a staffing problem and is trying to disguise it as an oversold flight. Sue them!! They need to take consequences for what they did!
Munoz received someone else’s heart which saved his life. But, Munoz most obviously has no heart when it comes to how he treats his own customers.
Callous doesn’t even begin to describe the man who runs his company.
COMPLETELY DO NOT AGREE. Follow instructions for getting booted off a flight because United needs to fly their own? Up the ante and offer 5K each. There is NO EXCUSE for assault. Ridiculous
I’m betting the “reporting” would be different if the airline involved was AA instead of United. The email Oscar sent appears to be factually correct. Whatever the Chicago aviation cops did was beyond United’s control. While it’s unfortunate with the outcome, it seems that Gary decided to jump on the rioter crowd bandwagon instead of analyze the facts. Thought leader in click-bait indeed.
you typically cannot get a seat assignment until that seat is paid for. once it’s paid for and the pax doesn’t show up, the airline still has it’s money, just flying with one less pax. Why they overbook is beyond me but they do. how do they overbook and assign the same seat to two people? How can overbooking even happen?
@Joel.. Mr. Munoz is the CEO of United Airlines and he is responsible for the culture at the airline and the actions taken by his employees. Even worse he is responsible for his horrendous statement after the incident which in itself is a reason for him to step down. He clearly lacks the ability to understand right from wrong and how to treat customers. Anyone that says this flight was over booked does not understand the definition of over booking. The airline should have either paid out more compensation to interest passengers or they should have arranged for an alternative way for their 4 employees to get to Louisville.
Here is the definition of over booked-
Practice of airlines, hotels, concert and other public show arrangers to SELL more tickets than the actual number of people they can accommodate. It aims to avoid empty seats or rooms due to no-shows, and is legally sanctioned so long it is not abused.
Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/overbooking.html
Politicians are already ask for investigation, media demanding changing overbooking rules.
This is what I mean, “right by the book” will not survive this type of fiasco. I know some of you guys truly believe customer is in the wrong, from “rules” stand point, I understand that. Just know this will not end well for United.
@ Bill – it’s a race issue because the guy WASN’T white. It’s easy to say to that the police would do the same with a white guy; but where’s the video of it?
There’s none, because it didn’t happen.
Can anyone clarify if putting employees on a sold-out flight at the last minute falls in under the same regulations as an oversold flight?
The flight was ultimately delayed 3 hours. A car ride from Chicago to Louisville takes 4 1/2 hours. Should have put them (the crew) in an Uber, they would have gotten there only an hour and 1/2 later than the flight.
looks like the arrogance and stupidity can be traced all the way to the top
United Breaks Guitars. And Doctors.
http://www.weslakeresort.com
@Joelfreak must either be a United troll or just …..well, a freak. Everyone seems to recognize that this incident was handled about as badly as it possibly could’ve been.
“The statement is not the best, however nothing in It is factually incorrect”?? That sounds like the BP oil spill strategy.
“Just because you’re on the plane doesn’t mean you can’t be taken off of it”?? Looks like you were right on that one. In this case, “right” will be right costly for United.
“stay at the gate while the agents need to play let’s make a deal”?? – how long do you suppose that would take? When seats are needed for airline employees the airline should bid until someone says yes. $1200 might not have done it – but this was no place for algorithms.
Much of the world is now focused on the ridiculous state of commercial airline travel. At least for a news cycle.
“Why do we have to bring race into this???” Says “Bill” the white guy who never had his face re-arranged to a bloody pulp (sorry, “re-accomodated”) for peacefully refusing to be thrown out of a place of public accomodation.
I JUST got bumped from a flight, even though I was literally the first passenger to check in, had an international connection (while others did not), and paid for a full-fare ticket. Passengers arriving 2 full hours after me at check in, in economy, were not bumped. I’m Asian. Please don’t pull this “I’m colorblind” crap. You’re “colorblind” precisely because people don’t routinely treat you like crap because of your color.
United Airlines has become an appalling entity. Under his new CEO Oscar Munoz, it shifted from an airline company with one the worst track record of customer service, to now also a track record of deliberate racism, and violence against its passengers.
Repeatedly, United Airlines offers an appalling spectacle to the world, of racist/religious discrimination against its passengers. Examples abound of muslim passengers discriminated, like for example May 2015 a young muslim woman humiliated during a flight by an attendant, or in April 2016 an entire family was kicked off a United airplane, and many other cases.
The latent racism at United does not affect only passengers, but also black pilots. In September 2016 black pilots called for an investigation to expose a pattern of racial discrimination at United.
Now in the latest incident, we see an asian man already on board, being assaulted with physical violence, and forcibly removed from the airplane.
Racism is a fact at United, as multiplication of cases show a pattern. Whether the most recent incident was caused by racist inclination, or aggravated by it, is irrelevant. It just fits the pattern.
However, it is the violence, and the total disrespect of passengers’ most elementary rights, at United, that is now the visible, verified fact.
This reality at United Airlines under the “leadership” of an obviously incompetent Oscar Munoz, should be addressed and corrected. Unchecked, I have not the shred of a doubt, that the damage to the company will become irreparable in the long run.
What image does United project to the US citizens and to the world as a sort of US ambassador? The image reflecting a country in a state of gradual decay of societal values, where aggression and regression, are the copilots of corruption.
But Oscar Munoz is also a liar, who does not care a bit about the passenger’s rights. The asian man who was kicked out violently, and traumatized, was not “belligerent”. Many witnesses declared that this passenger had appeared to be a very friendly and reasonable man, contrary to Mr Munoz’s vile allegations against the passenger. No doubt that being a medical doctor, that passenger is totally able to manage stress and human interaction, certainly far better than Mr CEO Munoz, encapsulated in his bubble. Equally appalling is Mr Munoz’s complaint against the passenger because “he raised his voice” [when said he had to disembark]. Really? Who would not raise his or her voice, in this appalling situation?
Could it be that Mr Munoz might ideologically believe that passengers are nothing but expandable cattle to be pushed around?
While the incompetence of an Oscar Munoz since his tenure as CEO is obvious, it is certain also that this deplorable situation at United could not occur if it were not for a degree of subservience and compliance that fringes mental slavery, amidst large sections of the US population. This is illustrated here in the comments, by someone who attempts to defend United and its CEO, uttering the inane argument that “running an airline is a highly complex logistical operation” … Really? With such grotesque absence of common sense, we would occasionally kick some patients off a hospital, and drag them violently down the corridors, because “running a hospital is a highly complex logistical operation”.
Ultimately, the choice will be either the rapid and dishonorable departure of this grossly incompetent business leader, or the gradual departure of United Airlines into the land of PanAm, TWA etc
You are 100% wrong. This is absolutely illegal and is not a case of denied boarding so is not covered under those regulations. This was forcible removal from an aircraft. From a lawyer on another blog:
“This myth that passengers don’t have rights needs to go away, ASAP. You are dead wrong when saying that United legally kicked him off the plane.
First of all, it’s airline spin to call this an overbooking. The statutory provision granting them the ability to deny boarding is about “OVERSALES”, specifically defines as booking more reserved confirmed seats than there are available. This is not what happened. They did not overbook the flight; they had a fully booked flight, and not only did everyone already have a reserved confirmed seat, they were all sitting in them. The law allowing them to denying boarding in the event of an oversale does not apply.
Even if it did apply, the law is unambiguously clear that airlines have to give preference to everyone with reserved confirmed seats when choosing to involuntarily deny boarding. They have to always choose the solution that will affect the least amount of reserved confirmed seats. This rule is straightforward, and United makes very clear in their own contract of carriage that employees of their own or of other carriers may be denied boarding without compensation because they do not have reserved confirmed seats. On its face, it’s clear that what they did was illegal– they gave preference to their employees over people who had reserved confirmed seats, in violation of 14 CFR 250.2a.
Furthermore, even if you try and twist this into a legal application of 250.2a and say that United had the right to deny him boarding in the event of an overbooking; they did NOT have the right to kick him off the plane. Their contract of carriage highlights there is a complete difference in rights after you’ve boarded and sat on the plane, and Rule 21 goes over the specific scenarios where you could get kicked off. NONE of them apply here. He did absolutely nothing wrong and shouldn’t have been targeted. He’s going to leave with a hefty settlement after this fiasco. “
@Thanh — And your post — calling me a “sewage of a human being” for simply disagreeing with your point of view IS the problem with social media. People who think they know more than they do can’t tolerate other opinions and discuss them civilly.
I use common sense to judge each event, same on this case. Based on the video, the UA just brought my memory about history on how in the Middle Ages, the people were being treated. Since I am a selfish guy, and I dont want to be beat on my next flight, i will not use UA anymore, and period.
Let see if UAL will hold the $71.97, this will be the best answer for UA CEO.
SNorth’s comments from a lawyer seem legally plausible in this case.
In his letter, maybe Munoz wanted to say that there’s no basis for a complaint because the passenger received an upgrade in service, as he received a free facial treatment.
If congress gets involved to change overbooking rules to eliminate the 0.09% bumping “problem”, expect higher ticket prices. There’s no free lunch.
This video has been seen over 100 million times around the world. Imagine how it looks to potential customers in Asia. Then “so-called” CEO Oscar Munoz issues a tone deaf statement to his employees. What if that doctor were a heart transplant surgeon?
Munoz should have owned this situation and described steps to prevent happening again. Bad crisis management.
@Lexy Flight – agree completely
they are on my black list for sure!
Munoz is in trouble now seeing how this is hitting the stock. As a stock analyst I can tell you once your poor executive judgement draws this kind of attention from institutional investors, you just started your own countdown clock. I would put the odds greater than 50% Munoz is out before the end of the year.
I love how Munoz says “I stand behind you all” then says we all can learn from this. No shit you can learn from this, do not board the plane if you need four seats for deadheading passengers or offer more than $800 to get people out of their seats.
@jan petersen- They won’t know about your black list, and they won’t care if they do learn about it.
I think Oscar is right. “[T]here are lessons we can learn from this experience.”
I have learned that Oscar is not CEO caliber; he’s sending a very poor message to his employees. I hate to think that the rest of the United employees will see this as condoning egregious customer-unfriendly behavior.
I have also learned to not fly on United.
Thanks United Airlines for letting us know your standard policy and operating procedures include dragging PAYING customers off the plane while unconscious and bloody. Munoz, his apology was pathetic. United Airline’s staff should have NEVER boarded the passengers to kick them off…It’s not a good policy to kick off PAYING passengers to accommodate United Airline employees regardless!!! The overall stupidity of the situation and aftermath is unbelievable. I hope the hurt passenger is awarded millions of dollars along with the passengers who had to endure such a preventable situation. FIRE MUNOZ!!!
I hope he sues the pants off of United!!!
Incredible statement from the CEO. Imagine if the videos didn’t exist. He would have sold a bill of goods that’s completely inaccurate.
I am troubled by how the CEO stands behind his employees for going beyond on this in his employee letter. It sure did go beyond something.
The paying passenger was bloody. I agree with other posters to offer up enough so a passenger will accept on their own.
Also that officer that bloodied him up on what crime? What law exactly did that doctor break to recieve that kind of treatment, then to file he fell on his face..
I am a United 1K , been a 1K for years. I average about 130 segments and 200,000 miles a year with united at the moment.
Perhaps the United Board should fire Oscar Munoz since I’m sure any other employees would have been terminated for fabricating a cover up of this magnetite.
Maybe it would take a class action before united’s board takes action. I did read united force removed less than 10,000 paying passengers between united and united express a year in another article.
Clem (United 1K, currently shopping for another carrier)
Poor planning of employees getting to work is higher priority over a paying passenger is a poor message.
Oscar , their CEO should resign or the board of United should fire Oscar.
@Gary. I noticed your post regarding the background of the individual removed has been taken down. It was classless of you to even post something like that since it’s completely irrelevant. The gentleman was abused and bloodied and he will be compensated by a jury who will stick it to Oscar Munoz and United Airlines. I hope the gentleman wins millions of dollars. As a matter of fact I wish I could be on the jury. The flight wasn’t even over booked so what United did was clearly against the law. Hopefully our spineless representatives in Congress will put a stop to this nonsense and stop protecting airlines and start protecting consumers.
He needs to sue the airlines and law enforcement!!!! He was probably picked out because he was an easy target. Looks like a very peaceful gentleman.
The best chance United has of regaining some proportion of the customers is to replace this CEO (he can resign, the Board can fire him, either way is fine).
He had a tremendous opportunity to make a horrifying situation better, and instead, made it worse. What’s worse than what happened to this passenger? Answer: The CEO supporting what happened. He could have, right away, distanced the company from this event, denounced what happened, said this is not policy, reassure everyone this will NEVER happen again to anyone in a similar situation. Of course, it is noble to protect and support your employees, generally speaking. But when a bloodied face dripping on your plane was the outcome, and getting dragged down the aisle; sorry, you cannot.
This CEO showed an inability to search for good advice, find good advice, take good advice, or some combination. Where are his financial advisers? They can quickly do the calculation of having to pay out to the passenger; and let’s suppose the worst case scenario and every passenger on the plane sues for being forced to witness what happened and experiencing trauma from this. The millions of dollars paid out are still very little compared to a bankrupt airline, and losing millions of customers from this bad publicity. You can bet United will be losing many of its Asian customers internationally- do you think they want this to happen to them?
Where was the CEO’s occupational psychologists and experts on customers? They could quickly tell him that when a customer sees this video, they will imagine that this could potentially happen to them. Let’s see, our country just elected a President, half of his platform was based on preventing terrorism. Generally, people fear being killed by terrorists on planes. Guess what their next fear will be now? Being pulled out from your seat violently and dragged down the aisle. Fear is a powerful force here, and the videos make people fear flying on United Airlines. They don’t want this to happen to themselves or their loved ones. Worse yet, even if it happened, it is clear the CEO will support the employees instead of the customer. Where were the CEO’s PR folks?
The CEO was acting like this was a car accident between 2 private citizens where you admit no fault. That’s wrong– he is in a business that depends on customers. Admitting no fault causes customers to not trust you. The CEO was also acting like police depts do when they’ve done an internal investigation and concluded their police did nothing wrong. Again, a big distinction. Even if people disagree w/the police dept’s conclusion, they will still require their services next time they call 911. An Airline is totally different. If people disagree with him, he will lose business from his customers. In fact, the adage in the business he is in is more like “the customer is always right.” The CEO forgot all of this in his initial responses, and instead worsened the trust between United Airlines and their customers. It’s so bad, that he has to go. Even though he changed his tune now, we don’t believe him, because we saw firsthand that his initial responses were callous, lacked responsibility, and it’s obvious that what happened in the video– well, the problems clearly start at the top.
Put another way, even the leggings incident was strange and is a bit of a gray area but picky to pick on kids wearing leggings. But whatever. It wasn’t going to change me flying on United. However, this current incident is making me change my behavior with United. I have been a mileage plus member for decades, have enjoyed supporting them, probably in the past would even pick United over other airlines if the same price range. Now, this week I have to book a flight to Washington D.C. for the summer and guess what? With the CEO in place and with what happened, I will definitely avoid United. Don’t want this to happen to me or to see this happen to someone else.
And no, it is not about $$ or the bottom line either. I consider myself an average traveler. I have turned down the cheapest flights in Europe when I didn’t recognize their name, or felt the planes would be too small. I have passed over cheaper flights for airlines that had safety problems. And I certainly would pass over United now for my own safety, even if they were cheaper.
@United1K – Chris
Delta is offering a status match challenge. Details here: http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/skymiles/medallion-program/skymiles-medallion-status-match-challenge.html
they asked for volunteers, that did not look like volunteering to me, They should of talked to him to see why he wasn’t going to leave his seat. The word Dr should’ve said it all, and that he needed to be home the next day. he could not wait a day. Yes i did hear the rumors about him, but they did not know any of that, when they forced him off the plane. they should of picked another volunteer . and let him go to his office the next day, you can tell how desperate he was when he tried to get back on the plane
Well, the letter to employees from Oscar Munoz is a real eye-opener. So, they’ve referred to a process for denial of boarding – but the passenger was onboard. This is actually an ‘eviction’ and from what I understand of airport procedures a passenger should only ever be evicted from a flight if they are causing trouble (and I don’t mean as a reaction to being told ‘we’re going to throw you off this flight’) or endangering the flight or other passengers.
Denied boarding means stopping someone from getting onboard the plane.
United need to be sued BIG TIME for this and boycotted by every law-abiding citizen who respects human rights.
Big Business Brutality at its Best! United….Shame on you!! Get a new PR firm, a New Tagline, as “The Friendly Skies” is now FOREVER A JOKE!! Oh, and while you are at it, dear Stockholders and Board of Directors, your CEO is an idiot! I will never fly this airline again and suggest others to do the same.
@KMU
I think you covered the important points very well. United/Republic are companies that think they can do whatever they want, to whomever, at any time. I work for large company that actually does the same thing. The policies exist when the company wants to use those policies to get rid of employees or doesn’t want to do the right thing for the customer because it would cost to much money. It is everywhere in American business. It is all about money.
But United has not planned for passengers (probably every passenger), who have cameras and can take video. Video that doesn’t lie or twist the facts. I feel sorry for the United employees who do their jobs correctly and take ownership of their jobs. Munoz is a jackass of a CEO. “Great Communicator” of what? Munoz should not be in the CEO position. For us as passengers, we need to vote with our feet. Take your business to the other airlines. Americans did this before, with BP oil spill. We can do this and we should!
It really bothers me that “Boarding Area” bloggers took the side of United first, before all the facts came out. You want to say that you are media, and then do things that are wrong. Anyone who studied journalism knows that you only report what is known as fact. You cannot be a “thought leader” when you misrepresent the facts. Or when you publicize the victims background as if it had anything to do with the United incident. You didn’t score points with that info. It made your blog look like the “National Enquirer”.