I am a Star Alliance Gold member who has, until now, used United and its partners when it was convenient and appropriate to do so. I was so angered by this story and video that I tried calling United to voice my concerns about this incident (I have been in the aviation business for more than 45 years). It is nigh impossible to talk to a real human via their "Customer Service" phone system so I submitted an email with my comments about this bizarre, needless -- and violent -- treatment of a customer (and suggestions on how to avoid similar events in the future).

I made it clear to United that I will no longer fly on United Airlines or any of its partners and I will encourage others to do the same -- at the very least until United makes a very public apology and assures its customers that this kind of event will NEVER be handled this way again. This incident shows a significant need for customer service training, new SOPs -- and of course some obvious PR lessons must be learned.

Almost inexplicable behavior.

The BBC just picked up the story. I'll bet almost every media organization worldwide will carry the story. Terrible PR for United.

Land of the Free!?
 

Only in US.
Anyway, some PAX walked of in discust . Problem solved.

Bottom line is that it's United's aircraft. It would have been far better to deny boarding in the first place than to deboard a passenger, but the incident was escalated by the passenger refusing to leave the aircraft once told that he would not be accommodated on that flight.


I think it will set a terrible precedent if this passenger is rewarded for his behavior. The lesson learned will be that defiance of flight and ground crew and abusive behavior will get you want you want.

How is it possible to board more pax than you can have?! They must have known that dead heading crew would take this flight. This should have been taking care of at the gate, not in the plane.
With that, you never can be sure to take a flight even when you've paid the full price?

UA is not having the best news these days...

'I think it will set a terrible precedent if this passenger is rewarded for his behaviour.'

Better to set the precedent that it's acceptable to assault your customers?

twb3

You're kidding, right?

I`m sure ALL DOCTORS will think twice now when the question is asked " Is there any Doctors on board ? " Shame , shame , shame on United. The land of the free and home of the brave has turned into the land of the terrorised and the home of the stupid.

The rudest people in uniform I have seen on this planet were in the US.

Be it police, flight attendants, custom officers, security personal whatever.

Even if you accept the principle that full-fare passengers can be involuntarily offloaded through no fault of their own, according to the accounts the doctor offered a perfectly valid reason why he should be allowed to keep his seat.


Straw man argument.

United have well and truly shot themselves in the foot on this occasion.

Indeed. It's currently the #1 most read story on the BBC News website. Way to go, United.

Except they asked for volunteers...

Volunteer: "A person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task."

I suspect that most passengers simply think buying a ticket entitles them to sit down and be flown to their intended destination. :ugh:

Simple question for you guys in the industry

Why does there ever need to be an involuntary removal?

Surely you just raise the compensation until you get enough volunteers? I'm sure at $10K someone would have volunteered.

Or is it just the case the airline there's some law that says after x compensation is offered, you can do involuntary, and in this case United was too tight?

There is a limit to what airline employees can ask. Would you obey if an airline employee told you to jump out of an airborne aircraft. Of course not. It all depends on what is the definition of reasonable. It would seem to be unreasonable to ask a doctor who had business the following day to deplane.

'Unruly behaviour is more and more widespread. Sometimes it needs to be dealt with the way we see in the video. Not the first nor the last.'

Not Bashar Assad. A doctor going to work.....

Any number of reasons from technical (broken seat) to behavioural (intoxicated passenger) and everything inbetween.

I am curious why security (police) were required for what should have been an operational matter. This situation (which hasn't been fully explained) superficiously seems to be a management failure, and by that I mean how the specific situation was managed. Any experienced pilot or crew member will tell You there are many ways to "skin a cat" and resolve a difficult situation. Dragging a passenger down the aisle by their heels wouldn't be a sensible resolution for most of them, as United are no doubt about to find out.

Dragging a pax down the aisle is a measure of last resort. UA has customer service personnel trained to deal with situations such as removal, there are protocols on how to identify the unlucky pax. That they got to that level means the person picked didn't play ball.

It does look like a simple case of assault . No violence was being offered by the passenger. I wonder how far these Security officials would have gone to remove the guy? Taser? Shoot him?

Yes, I don't doubt that for one minute, and can understand how "protocols" failed. However, that usually means you find another solution that avoids getting to this situation.