After its recent public relations nightmare, when it forcibly removed a passenger from a seat due to overbooking (overloading) and dragged him from his seat, you would think that United Airlines would have learned its lesson. Social media and TV reports skewered United for its actions. Just this one video received more than 3.6 million views in a single week after the incident.
As a result of the continuing social media barrage — and after several PR missteps, United’s CEO finally issued a more consumer-oriented message to the public. As reported by Brandon Morse for THE BLAZE:
“United CEO Oscar Munoz has stated that in light of the recent deplaning debacle [on April 9, 2017], United Airlines will no longer use police to remove passengers from planes. In an interview with Good Morning America, Munoz stated that he felt ‘ashamed’ over how passenger David Dao was forcibly removed from the flight, and promised to review his company’s passenger removal policy. According to United spokesperson Maddie King, the passengers who witnessed the incident of flight 3411 will be reimbursed for the price of their ticket [if they sign a waiver against suing]. This news comes on the heels of the announcement that two more officers that were involved in the incident have been put on leave.”
From Fox News:
“That is not who our family at United is,” Munoz said. “This will never happen again on a United flight. That’s my promise.” In the future, law enforcement will not be involved in removing a “booked, paid, seated passenger,” Munoz said. “We can’t do that.”
So did CEO Munoz really mean what he said? You decide! On April 15, 2017, less than one week after the above incident, United removed two passengers on the way to their wedding. NPR’s Doreen McCallister reports that: “A couple flying to Costa Rica for their wedding were removed from a United Airlines flight in Houston on Saturday. The incident happened nearly a week after a video showing a passenger being dragged off a Chicago-to-Louisville flight went viral. Michael Hohl and Amber Maxwell are scheduled to get married on Thursday.“
Here’s a video clip from USA Today on this latest incident.
More!! The parodies of United Airlines are brutal. Here’s one example (recorded before the wedding couple incident).
I feel that this issue has been a long time coming, as the airlines see the necessity that people have for their services. They have continued to nickel and dime passengers with no regulations at all. The seats have become smaller, food that was offered is basically nonexistent that is unless passengers are willing to pay. The government had to step in and force the airlines to feed their passengers or let them off the airplane after being on the tarmac for a number of hours. After all of the incidents, it seems that United didn’t think this incident would receive the traction it did.