Calling the passenger “disruptive and belligerent”
Unbelievably, the CEO of United is unrepentant. He says it was all the passenger’s fault – you know, the passenger who had a ticket and duly boarded the plane and sat in his seat, and then was told to get out of it because the airline wanted it back. It was his fault.
United CEO Oscar Munoz doubled down in a letter to employees on Monday evening, claiming that employees “followed established procedures” when removing a passenger from a plane because it was overbooked, and calling the passenger “disruptive and belligerent.”
That’s established procedures? Smashing your face onto an armrest and then dragging you bodily up the aisle while you bleed freely from a broken lip?
Video circulated of the incident earlier in the day, showing the man being dragged from the plane and later returning with blood on his face. The incident drew scorn on Twitter and other social media, especially when Munoz used the euphemism “re-accomodate” in a public statement to describe the customers booted from the flight.
According to the letter, which was obtained by CNBC, when crew members first approached the passenger to tell him to leave, he “raised his voice and refused to comply,” and each time they asked again “he refused and became more and more disruptive and belligerent.”
I don’t care. He’d bought a ticket. You didn’t warn him it was only provisionally his. How do I know? Because I have never once been warned by an airline that they might just decide to throw me off the plane if they want to fit someone else onto it. Not once. Yes no doubt it’s in the fine print, but that’s not the same thing.
And why is he the one who is disruptive and belligerent? Why isn’t it disruptive and belligerent of United to throw him off the plane simply because it wants his duly purchased seat back?
Crew members “were left with no choice but to call Chicago Aviation Security Officers to assist in removing the customer from the flight,” Munoz wrote, and at one point the passenger “continued to resist – running back onto the aircraft in defiance of both our crew and security officials.”
Munoz acknowledged to employees that the company could learn lessons from the incident, but said: “I emphatically stand behind all of you.”
Well I emphatically stand behind all of us in saying fuck you to United Airlines and its CEO.
Me too. It is outrageous that overbooking is standard practice, in fact part of the business model. I’m trying to think of any other industry that does this sort of thing and struggling. And what happened to this man was extra outrageous. The reaction of everyone else on the plane says it all, really. Pretty much everyone was, well, outraged.
I’m having a seriously hard time believing – as the airline has stated – that the victims were chosen by a computer.
One point I haven’t seen emphasized enough: the seats were wanted so they could get airline personnel to someplace they were needed. So: United will prioritize their own operational needs over their customers’ needs, up to and including using physical violence.
I have some air travel coming up. Fortunately, none of it is booked on United, or its codeshare partner, Air Canada (or anywhere US-wards, for that matter).
Doctors. When I was trained as a medical assistant, they taught you how to overbook. The main difference is that they go ahead and see you, they just make you wait a very long time. This allows them to see many more patients in a sort of assembly line fashion, and means if someone cancels or doesn’t show up, they aren’t sitting there for five minutes without a paying customer.
Having once flown on Aeroflot back in the 70s during the heyday of Soviet luxury, I can assure you that United’s customer service is far worse.
Since we were part of an organized tour composed of westerners, the flight’s stewardesses all looked like KGB agents in drag. When one of the crew passed a fellow ( a local) who’d fallen asleep with his feet in the aisle, a stewardess just kicked his legs and told him to get them out of the way.
At one point I raised my hand and asked for a drink of water, as the plane’s air was extremely dry and I was an ardent socialist. The stewardess just scowled at me and said; “Vee haf TEA in haf hour”
So unlike United they, at least, had a way with the public.
‘Chicago Aviation Security Officers’
Oh. So not ‘real’ police. Just the guys who couldn’t meet the requirements for the ACTUAL Chicago PD. Which isn’t exactly a band of heroic public servants itself.
Iknklast,
I asked my GP about the long waiting times for the medical profession compared with other health professionals like dentists or optometrists. The reply was that medical patients present with more complicated and unexpected problems. Sounds plausible. Of course doctors could under-book to adjust, however that doesn’t seem likely.