re: United CEO doubles down, calls passenger "belligerent", claims United followed rules

I'm not so sure of that junky, I'm speculating (as all of us are) but I haven't heard a passenger come forward defending the airline yet, which makes me think the airline acted too soon or screwed up a communication somewhere. The point of the kid gloves is not just to treat the "suspect" fairly but also to adequately convince those surrounding the "suspect" that any and all actions were justified.

Back to communication, words matter, and I've heard some pretty unprofessional gate agents over the years. I can imagine someone saying something like "All right y'all, I need 4 more people to get off this plane, we had some United Employees show up at the gate and they needs to get to Louiseville." and at that point, all hope is lost of this being easy, especially if the agent isn't able to sweeten the offer more than what had been done by that point.

It's understandable for everyone, the gate agent sees 20 planes a day and this is just part of their day job, and it's just routine. This plane doesn't matter more than any of the others. But to the passengers it's a different story, that plane at that time is everything, especially the passengers who don't fly a lot.

Here's an article from a month ago where the united ceo oscar munoz was named PR's US Communicator of the Year

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NEW YORK: Oscar Munoz, the charismatic CEO of United Airlines, is PRWeek U.S.’s Communicator of the Year for 2017 – he is the fifth recipient of this title.

Since taking on CEO duties in September 2015, Munoz has transformed the fortunes of the beleaguered airline, galvanized staff, and set the business on a smoother course - all in the context of a tremendously difficult time personally.

Only two months and change after having undergone a heart transplant, Munoz returned to his United CEO role full time in March 2016 following the health crisis that struck just six weeks after he took on the airline’s top job.

Munoz has shown himself to be a smart, dedicated, and excellent leader who understands the value of communications. His ability to connect and share with employees his vision for the airline, and get them to rally behind it, is a key reason PRWeek named him 2017 Communicator of the Year.

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LINK

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I could never see myself resisting an officer, so I will never empathize with someone that does.

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Same here, wouldn't do it with a police officer on the street, let alone an airport. I'd take the $800 in a heartbeat and rent the car.

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WASHINGTON - Sen. Bill Nelson wants United Airlines to explain the "very disturbing" incident in which a man was violently dragged from his seat to make way for crew members.

The Florida Democrat, a member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, wrote a letter today to United CEO Oscar Munoz demanding answers to numerous questions. Committee Chairman John Thune and two other lawmakers also authored the letter.

"The images and emerging accounts of this incident are very disturbing," the letter reads. "The last thing a paying airline passenger should expect is a physical altercation with law enforcement personnel after boarding, especially one that could likely have been avoided."

In a separate statement, Nelson said: “It’s unconscionable that United Airlines chose this alternative to drag a passenger off the airplane. Why in the world did they not just raise the amount of money offered to get passengers to give up a seat?”

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I have made my opinion known and why. All you can say is you don't know anything because you weren't there.

Thanks for the comment?

ETA:

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Or is making assumptions that he was entitled to his seat all you need without reviewing everything that happened before?

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Do me a favor- list the assumptions you think that I have made and why they are wrong.

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No one accepted the increased voucher that was never offered? Yes, that is the point Radio. We are discussing what they SHOULD have done

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They did up it

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The airline offered $400 and a free hotel, passenger Audra D. Bridges told the Louisville Courier-Journal. When no one volunteered, the offer was doubled to $800. When there were still no bites, the airline selected four passengers to leave the flight — including the man in the video and his wife.

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So where do they stop? $850-$900 compensation for a ~$350 flight is more than reasonable. They moved on to selecting people.

CuseTiger, they weren't offered $800 cash, they were offered $800 in non-transferable United travel vouchers, which unless you planned on traveling on United within the year and had vacation left to spare they are useless. You would have been renting a car on your own dime

Most airlines resort to offering cash before resorting to an IDB of the passenger, that's the complaint. legally you're entitled to 400% of the plane ticket up to $1350 as cash on an domestic IDB >4 hours as well as written notice of the policy in question. Logically then, UA should come close to that (or above that due to perception risks behind the word 'involuntary') before resorting to IDB. And that's if IDB even applies in this case.

The written notice will probably by what bites UA in the end. It used to be printed on the sleeves of the ticket pouches I believe, but then electronic boarding passes happened...

The cash is key, there's a flyertalk thread where someone states that the airline values vouchers at 25% of face value. If this is the case the airline resorted to IDB before breaking $200 in value as the airline views it.

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Seems like some of the 100 people on the flight would have accepted it then. Do you understand how markets work?

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Seems like it, but it was offered and no one took it. Here we stand. One guy was picked, and he didn't like the outcome.

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Truly impressive that you can continuously be wrong and still keep it up. Nuances

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How am I wrong? They upped the nonexistent offer that you said didn't exist.

I'd say United is covered under the volunteering section offer by upping it and no one took it. So that is why they moved to involuntary.

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It boils down to:

A. Inconvenience one guy
B. Inconvenience 100+ people that were flying out of Louisville the next morning

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It doesn't boil down to the law?

Which by the way, aviation attorneys who know this shite and actually read the policy that we haven't say that they were not able to do what they did, legally speaking

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I could never see myself resisting an officer, so I will never empathize with someone that does.

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#1 -

Officer misidentifies your spouse as someone else. Forcibly grabs her in front of you and apprehends her violently. You step in and are told to back away... Do you?


Scenario #2 -

Officers raid your mansion mistaking your son for a drug dealer. Your dogs are shot before your eyes and your son grabbed in a choke hold and dragged in front of you. You step up and are told to back away... Do you?


Scenario #3 -

Late at night while driving home on a high speed limit highway, a police officer pulls out in front of you, and leaves you no room to stop. You wreck into said policeman. He is fine, you are injured. Without explaining himself, or calling a supervisor, the officer proceeds to treat you like a drunk driving suspect.. You pull out your phone to call a State Trooper. (standard course of action for crimes or incidents involving police personnel). He tells you to put phone away... Do you?





See, most every day people never ever ever plan on resisting an officer, unter the day the officer makes a request that goes against your gut feeling on the incident.

Was the guy 100% a victim? No, hell yeah you get up. Any business has the right to ask any customer to leave at any time (of course exception would be vehicle in motion). So yeah he should have left. But United screwed up. They could have put those employees on another flight and had them take a connecting flight.
They could have put customers on a competitor's flight.

I would not want to wait 24 hours for my next flight. Even with a hotel next to the airport. Only exception would be Vegas. United screwed up, they deserve the pushback.

-- In other news, their sharp stock price fall will not last forever. I am going in at a small ten shares to test the waters today. If it drops more I will get more.
This will climb back quick.

The average airline customer is just looking for lowest prices and shortest trips.

(Plus the Mediterranean box on United is the best airline snack box, hands down)