I haven’t flown since 1999. All of my vacations are road trips. But if I ever do fly again, it will not be on United.
This has been my observation. The airlines can easily turn a customer service issue into a security issue. And many "law and order" types lick it right up.
In this case, UA screwed up on many levels, then used their own escalation to justify the use of Law Enforcement.
For example, if you offer what you believe to be adequate recompense for a bad customer experience, these people will take that as a sign of weakness and say that your offer is UNACCEPTABLE and they will ramp up their "mistreated" act even more. (Whereas most reasonable customers will be appreciative of the gesture).
I've been flying in commercial airplanes for years and I honestly can't say I've had a bad experience caused by the airline. Now I've had some bad experiences but they were usually caused by me. For instance, I showed up at the airport late. Or I forgot to put something good to read in my carry on. Or I sat next to an unpleasant passenger (really not the airlines fault).
Yeah, it sucks to wait in those long lines and to have to take your belt and shoes off and whatnot. Can't really blame the airlines for that. If I get to the airport early enough, I get a couple of beers at the bar to mellow out. Then I read something while I'm snaking through those lines. Once on the plane, I keep my mouth shut and don't create a hassle for anybody and I treat the stewardesses nice and I get treated nice in return. Nobody working on a plane is out to give their customers a bad experience. But there are plenty of passengers that seem to go out of their way to be angry or offended about something or other.
ping
Does the CEO fly United?
I bet he has a private jet and never gets groped by TSA.