Originally Posted by
Amadis of Gaul
In the age of the 24-hour news cycle, I doubt UA will "suffer" much at all. This will be forgotten by tomorrow night at the latest replaced by Ms Kardashian's ass or something similarly extraordinarily important, and no, I don't work for UA (although, in the interest of full disclosure, I did use to fly for the "regional partner" in question).
Airlines have done much worse things...
Well, here we are a week later and the story still features prominently on major news sites. Indeed over the last week this has been the main topic of conversation with most people I have met. It has touched a particularly raw nerve.
Even now, I think we are only at 'the end of the beginning'. The politicians have yet to weigh in fully. Do not doubt they will go for the airlines because it is an easy win open goal. consider
1. Most Senate Committee members travel by air, so will have personal experience of 'US customer service';
2. Some will be facing re-election shortly and being seen to be tough on unfair airlines is easy and has no taxpayer cost;
3. The performance of the various airline parties to date has been pretty poor - so unless they up their game they will be seen as an easy mark.
While all the evidence is yet to emerge, I suspect when it does it will it will not make pretty reading. The damage to UA will not come from the lawsuit but the probability that regulation will change.