Posted on 04/10/2017 2:59:25 PM PDT by grayboots
My husband is a Gold member on United and is totally disgusted by what they did to that poor man. I thought of a great marketing idea for other airlines. If they offered a comparable status on their airline to fly, my husband would jump at the chance to fly with them. Do you think the other airlines would think of this? I think so many people would switch over to their airline in a heartbeat. Or is this not an option for them?
“This is corporate stupidity in the extreme and the optics alone are enough to erase $100 million in advertising.”
Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!
Doesn’t matter, and this line of thinking is short-sighted. Yes he may lose a court battle (and that’s not a certainty) but it IS United’s Fault for overbooking and then forcibly removing a paying customer and the result is horrendous PR. They will lose revenue and way more revenue than any other solution would have cost. I likely will never fly United based on this story alone and I’m sure I’m not alone in my feeling.
Because they were making space for United staff that needed to fly out of the destination airport in the AM
At this point they could have offered $10,000 and it would still be cheaper than what they are about to face.
“You are either a United senior manager or bucking to join up! With your attitude, you’ll rise right to the top of the UAL management team. And from where I sit, it sucks to be you.”
Neither actually. Just someone who understands rules and lawful orders. What part of this is hard for you to understand?
Frankly, I don’t care where you sit. It’s great to be me. Any other insults you care to share?? I’m needing a good laugh.
All the passengers had already been seated before the demand to free up four seats reached the gate crew.
I have not flown in ten years, but in the previous 20 years of flying in and out of Chicago O’Hare that I did do, I learned to not fly United. They had the least legroom of any airline and the worst habit of denying boarding if you didn’t check in at least 30 minutes early, bumping me from flights, changing my pre-assigned seat, etc.
American Airlines never did any of that to me. American always seemed to have at least a few seats left open, back then, where United was always full-or-over-booked.
Um, no. If you cannot fit in 1 seat, you MUST buy 2.
It’s bad PR; anybody can see that. They were following rules and policy, that’s it.
You won’t fly them again huh? I bet you would if they were $5.00 cheaper. Just ask Spirit...
Maybe on United. It’s not the policy on all airlines though.
“Frankly, I don’t care where you sit. It’s great to be me. Any other insults you care to share?? I’m needing a good laugh.”
It wasn’t an insult, more like an observation. Anyway, I had several posts that too my position relative to who you are. So at the moment, I’m laughing, at you!
P.S. Sometimes things that are “lawful” look “awful!” And in this case, as someone else pointed out United just blunted several hundred thousand dollars-worth of advertising with this ill-conceived “lawful” series of acts.
What act was that, specifically? Pulling a paying customer off of the plane? He threw a hissy fit like a child and got yanked off by cops. Don’t obey a lawful order, suffer the consequences. What were they supposed to do, go away since he threw a temper tantrum?
Because they were making space for United staff that needed to fly out of the destination airport in the AM
Tucker Carlson has guy from plane who shot the video on show...says the doctor was unconscious when the LE were dragging him off...and he was bloodied :(
Why not have the United staff drive to the other location as it was only FOUR hours away. Instead they do this?
I have had horrible lost luggage experiences on United...won’t use them and I am in their hub city.
They are far from friendly skies...
You have to give United some credit. They united a divide country against them.
Uh no, I won’t. I don’t make decisions based on $5 difference. I value my time and comfort way more than that.
With regard to rules and policy I’ll make a simple point. You just made the Nuremberg argument. Try to think a little deeper.
Well, for openers, not give him a concussion. I guess they would have been well-advised to defuse the situation, and find someone else among the 100+ passengers on the plane that they could “induce” to leave voluntarily. I used to be a Gold Card Flier with UAL. They are now reduced to manhandling their customers, give me a break. Our son worked for UAL for a period of six months in San Francisco as engineer in their maintenance base there before walking out in disgust. It is the most dysfunctional company I have ever seen thanks to their union workforce. When they were upset about just about anything, the union mechanics dropped tools all day.
What is with the overly ambitious false equivalencies? Employees make decisions based on company policy (because they want to stay employed) and you compare it to “just following orders” for murder? Really man? Wow...
Doing what you are employed to do is a wee bit different than following unlawful orders to murder innocent people. You’re not the first poster in this thread to jump to extraordinary comparisons.
There's no excuse for this. You can argue they have the "policy" of being able to cancel your flight and that's true, but they were all already on the plane. That creates a different situation. Then after being knocked out cold and totally delirious, he was somehow able to get right back on the plane dripping blood all over the place...doesn't say much for security of the flight. They also traumatized young children creating this scene for from their incompetence. Probably could have been avoided by bidding up the offer until someone accepted...they're going to lose a lot more business than what they would have paid out, that's for sure.
I actually have a friend who is a flight attendant for United and I sent her a message earlier today asking for any of the “other” side of the story - she said that while the story going around is that it was to make room for flight crews - that is absolutely NOT company policy - even if there was an “emergency” need for flight crews, United policy is to NEVER bump paying/ticketed customers for flight crew seats. NEVER.
So SOMETHING is amiss in all that is being reported.
It’s like the recent story also involving United about “passenger” that was booted from a flight for wearing leggings. The media never reported that the “passenger” was actually a United employee who was in violation of their dress code. It wasn’t a “paying customer”. But again - the media are not being totally honest either.
That being said - I don’t care WHAT reason United had for bumping customers, you flat out DO NOT remove passengers you already allowed to check in and board the plane.
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