United Airlines stock has dropped today: Damn Right! United can\u2019t get what it deserves for the actions not only of its employees, but of their management in the Chicago \u201cre-accommodating\u201d incident. If you missed this one: a man was seated and buckled in on a United flight out of Chicago. At the last minute, the United management realized that they had \u201coverbooked\u201d the flight by 4 seats. This \u201coverbooking\u201d was not caused by selling the seats to passengers, it was caused by a deal with regional airline Republic that United would move their personnel (4). <\/p>\n
United offered $800 and a hotel room for anyone willing to give up their seat: three took the deal. United than randomly selected the fourth guy to go. He refused, and Airport security bodily dragged him from the plane, busting his lip. He then ran back onto the plane, chanting \u201c\u2026I have to go home, I have to go home\u2026\u201d as other passengers looked on. Finally the entire plane was cleared, and he was taken off on a stretcher.<\/p>\n
United\u2019s CEO apologized for the \u201cre-accommodating\u201d incident. He didn\u2019t apologize for United using security like goons to further the company\u2019s financial agenda. He didn\u2019t apologize for exposing the passengers on the plane to this kind of violence, and he didn\u2019t apologize for his company\u2019s crass attitude towards an actual paying customer.<\/p>\n
And, while the passengers on the plane were all willing to video the incident, and a few spoke out (including one telling the security guards \u201cgood job\u201d) no one stood up for the guy being dragged off of the plane. <\/p>\n
So what does this incident tell us about United Airline? First, your safety and security are only worth $800 and a hotel room. After that, it\u2019s onto the goon squad. Second, United is more interested in its corporate contracts than it is individual customers. Third, United is willing to go to pretty much any length to get what it wants, including bodily harm to its passengers.<\/p>\n
We all know that the ticket we hold on an airline is completely conditional. We know the plane can be delayed, changed, cancelled, or our seat \u201ccontract\u201d withdrawn for any number of reasons, which the airline is not held accountable for. We know this is the \u201cprice\u201d we pay for modern aviation, though we wouldn\u2019t accept this kind of business arrangement for any other kind of transaction (well you did buy a new car, but we going to give you a different one, and by the way, we won\u2019t deliver it for a while, and we just might completely change our mind.)<\/p>\n
A lot of the accommodations we make with airlines are actually reasonable. What we do expect is that the airline will recognize that those accommodations also imply a greater duty of the airline to take care of their passengers. What should United have done differently?<\/p>\n
Well, I would be willing to bet that if $800 and a room wouldn\u2019t do it, $1600 and a room would have. I\u2019d also be willing to bet that United wishes they had offered $1600 now!!<\/p>\n
But what I really get from this incident, is the cavalier way that we accept this kind of authoritarian violence. That those security officers,the passengers, the crew and the ground personnel would all find these actions acceptable, that is the biggest concern. If this passenger was drunk, disorderly, or in some other way dangerous, than perhaps these actions would be justifiable. But he was simply a guy who wanted to go home. He could have been you or me. <\/p>\n
In a \u201cnew\u201d society, where the cries of \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d have receded into the background as the smokescreen of \u201cTrumpian America\u201d fills our world, it is a ongoing question: what level of violence are we willing to accept in our day-to-day lives? And on a more specific matter, should United pay any cost for these actions?<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t generally fly United, they don\u2019t usually go where I want to go, but I\u2019ll make sure not to do so now. That will be the language they understand, not common decency, but cash on the barrelhead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"