Posted on 04/12/2017 8:51:15 AM PDT by Presbyterian Reporter
The adage about a picture being worth a thousand words never seemed as true as it did Monday when a video clip shot around the Internet showing a passenger being violently removed from a United Airlines plane in Chicago for refusing to be “voluntarily” bumped from the flight.
United no doubt will expend thousands of words explaining or apologizing for this incident in the coming days and weeks. It won’t help. The video is just too raw.
Indeed, the airline’s initial response to the publicity has left it covered in shame.
United’s PR department first issued a statement explaining blandly that the Chicago-to-Louisville flight late Sunday was overbooked, and that “after our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate. We apologize for the overbook situation. Further details on the removed customer should be directed to authorities.”
United CEO Oscar Munoz then made things worse with a statement of Orwellian doublespeak. “This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United,” he said. “I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers,” whatever that means.
According to CNBC, Munoz followed up Monday evening with a letter to employees defending the airline’s ground staff and describing the passenger as “disruptive and belligerent.” He said the airline agents “were left with no choice but to call Chicago Aviation Security Officers to assist in removing the customer from the flight.”
But Munoz, whose version of the episode appears to come from the playbook of how to dig oneself into an ever deeper hole, also undermined the argument that the flight was overbooked. He related that “after the flight was fully boarded,” gate agents “were approached by crewmembers that were told they needed to board the flight.” The implication is that the crew members heading to Louisville were late in arriving, that every passenger held a paid ticket and had been properly boarded, and that only belatedly did United decide to pull passengers off the plane to make room for the crew.
It’s unclear from United’s contract of carriage how either its rule regarding “refusal of transport” (Rule 21) or “denied boarding compensation” (Rule 25) applies to a passenger already seated and instructed to deplane to make room for a company employee rather than another paying passenger.
Whether United had “no choice” but to forcibly eject the passenger also is questionable, as presumably the airline could have transported its crew members to Louisville either by road (a five-hour drive) or by chartering another aircraft. In any event, Munoz in his letter asserts that “treating our customers and each other with respect and dignity is at the core of who we are.”
Plainly this was a botched job in countless ways and at multiple levels. Reports indicate the flight was the last one to Louisville on Sunday, and that United offered passengers an $800 voucher plus overnight accommodations and an alternative flight leaving Monday afternoon in order to free up four seats for a flight crew needing to reach Louisville.
When the voluntary offer failed, four passengers evidently were chosen at random to be involuntarily bumped. This happened after the plane had been loaded, which is certainly an unusual wrinkle in the annals of passenger treatment. One couple went quietly, but another passenger objected. Before being dragged off the plane, he reportedly identified himself as a doctor with patients to see Monday. When he refused to go, the ground staff summoned airport police, who physically manhandled him out of his seat and dragged him, bloodied, down the aisle as several other passengers documented the event on their smartphones.
What sort of training United offers its personnel to manage such episodes isn’t known, but plainly it stinks.
What’s even more important is what this episode says about the terms and conditions of air travel in the United States.
To begin with, the law allows air carriers to overbook flights — that is, sell more tickets than they have seats for. That’s plainly a situation that benefits the airlines almost exclusively, because it tends to ensure that every seat will be filled even at the cost of leaving some passengers behind. How many businesses do you know of that can sell you a good or service, accept payment and then withdraw that good or service unilaterally for their own purposes — much less by force?
Passengers bumped involuntarily have rights to compensation, but the airlines have great latitude to set their own priority rules for bumping travelers. Typically it’s those paying the lowest fares, lacking membership in a frequent-flyer program, or checking in late who are most at risk. Bumpees who are going to be more than two hours late to a domestic destination are entitled to compensation of 400 percent of their one-way fare, up to $1,350, plus the value of their ticket.
These rules, obviously, are in dire need of upgrading to suit modern conditions. The Department of Transportation acknowledges in its outline of passenger rights that some passengers may be more amenable to voluntary bumping than others, or more flexible in their travel plans: “Almost any planeload of airline passengers includes some people with urgent travel needs and others who may be more concerned about the cost of their tickets than about getting to their destination on time.” The agency encourages airlines to “negotiate with their passengers for mutually acceptable compensation” in order to secure needed seats.
As Daniel Gross observed at Slate.com, airlines have squeezed their overbooking privilege until it screams for mercy, even as they’re consistently flying fuller planes. In the most recent boom-and-bust airline cycle, the industry “load factor” — the percentage of seats filled — bottomed out at 72.21 percent in February 2009, in the teeth of a crushing recession, but more recently has run in the mid-80s. That appears to be as high as it’s been in this century and may be an absolute limit, because some routes will never run at 100 percent.
Tighter passenger loads have coincided with an economic recovery that makes flyers more resistant to giving up hours, even days, of inconvenience, even for a few hundred bucks. As Gross pointed out, a two-hour delay in a flight could translate to a missed family event or a lost business contract.
The solution to the conflict between an airline’s desire to fill every seat and passengers’ need to get where they’re going on time is blindingly obvious: Let the market work. The Louisville doctor’s need to get home was clearly worth more to him than $800. But so was United’s need to get a crew from Chicago to Louisville. The airline decided to cheap out by not offering passengers payment that would be enough to free up more seats. Instead of paying the true value of moving its crew, it decided to impose that cost on one unfortunate passenger.
Then, as though to prove beyond doubt that it considered its passengers the expendable players in this drama, it summoned the police to do its dirty work. Something’s wrong with the intellects running United Airlines, and if there’s any justice in the world, now they’ll really pay.
Spot on!
[I thought they still boarded passengers in groups ... although you could pay a fee and get to board early. That’s changed?]
Yes, they did board in groups. But at least when your group was called, you got to pick whatever was available.
I prefer the aisle seat so those were frequently available.
Your statement is the first comment I have read that correctly identifies the germaine legal point. The fulfillment of the legal contract is satisfied by both parties when the passenger is seated. From that point the seat belongs to the paid customer for the duration of the flight. Unless there is a violation of rules for travel, the passenger is entitled to complete travel. The “bump” rule is applicable under law only prior to boarding. Think of it like this; a person enters into a contract to lease a home for a month. At anytime leading up to occupancy there may be a valid reason for the owner to cancel the contract. However, after the leasee occupies the home for the contracted period, the owner may not evict the leasee if no infraction of rules has occurred. IMHO.
True (re: overage all thruout travel industry). But, as one blogger pointed out, you don't see a prominent hotel chain dragging a guy out of a room ("re-accommodate") in order to accommodate a hotel industry sales exec who just arrived & needs a room.
The airline industry expects travelers to plan their trips down to a "T"; they better do it themselves w/plans and contingency plans as to how they are going to shuttle their team members around...and this should be easiest to do when it comes to their Hub HQ city.
That’s funny.
The good old days I remember was the late 70s & early 80s. $15 oneway between Dallas Love Field and Houston Hobby field no reservation needed. Of course that was on SoutWest.
You bootlickers show up on every thread.
Apparently the CEO negotiated a new contract last August with the airline workers' union, and gave them lots of goodies. Here's an interesting/ironic tidbit (in reference to the United/Continental merger) from an article about that:
"Without a union contract, United couldn't update and integrate the computers that schedule flights and crews’ schedules. They were running two separate scheduling systems. As a result, United had to build in costly extra trips to move planes and flight attendants around the country."
http://www.businessinsider.com/united-airlines-ceo-oscar-munoz-recovery-2017-2
Many of the small regional jets do not have business or first class. I doubt this flight did.
Southwest did the same thing to me that United did. A few years back I bought four round trip tickets from San Antonio to Las Vegas. Keep in mind that I paid for these tickets four months in advance. I was traveling with my son, daughter-in-law, and grandson.
Everything was okay until our return trip. The return was a one stopper and change of planes at Phoenix. I should have known something was wrong as I couldn’t get a boarding pass for one of my party when we departed Las Vegas. Sure enough I was bumped from my flight from Phoenix to San Antonio. Seems someone in Phoenix had bought a ticket to San Antonio and was able to secure a boarding pass before we checked in at Las Vegas. I was livid.
I paid four months in advance and was on a return trip with a group of four and was bumped by someone who purchased a ticket the day before the flight. I was extremely upset but never made a threatening gesture nor did I raise my voice. I told the Southwest employee that this was a ridiculous turn of events. She said “Sir! This is the way it is and if it’s unacceptable to you I’ll get an security officer and perhaps he can persuade you.” Well, I finally relented. I took a later flight while the rest of my party traveled on without me. I finally got home after midnight. I’ve had a jaundiced view of Southwest ever since, even though they did pay for a meal at Phoenix and they paid me over $300.00 for my trouble. That made it a bit more palatable but I still maintain that it was shabby treatment indeed.
I meant has no value. The message in the post should not be missed.
What I have not seen mentioned is the culpability of both the flight crew and the pilot in this incident.
The flight crew is supposed to be responsible for passenger safety in the cabin and the pilot has overall responsibility for passenger safety. This was done in clear view of the flight crew and no one even attempted to stop it and get emergency medical help for this passenger.
If the pilot did indeed order this person removed from the flight, he is also responsible for the actions taken to remove them. He should lose his pilot’s license over this in addition to being sued.
Then I won’t go. . .
;-)
Something called the “flat tire” rule. However, it’s always going to cost you 50-100 for the flight change.
One thing I wondered about was, did they clean up the blood?
The guy had blood all over him. Surely some of it was on the seats, armrests, headrest, floor, seat legs, etc.
What about the guy/girl who had to sit in the bloody seat?
Maybe not =>
Per Twitter today: Media found the criminal records of one David Anh Duy Dao. The doctor on the plane was David Thanh Duc Dao.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3543469/posts?page=12#12
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Look up 'internet defamation'.
With the hot pants and free drinks?
Oh really?
Explain what those character flaws were and how they justified this?
I have noticed both from talk shows and personal communication that pilots are highly vocal defending the actions of the airline, as if the plane becomes their own private concentration camp.
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