United CEO doubles down in email to employees, says passenger was 'disruptive and belligerent'

[brooklynite]

Source: CNBC

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."

United had to ask several passengers who had already boarded a flight from Chicago to Louisville on Sunday evening to leave, as the airline had sold too many tickets. One man refused to leave, and United called airport officials, who forcibly removed him from the plane.

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."

Read more: http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/10/united-ceo-passenger-disruptive-belligerent.html

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Sometimes, silence is golden...

[elleng]

1. Guys gonna be sorry!

[retrowire]

2. Says the CEO from his comfy suite

while another man nurses his wounds tonight.

[BlueCaliDem]

3. Is Oscar Munoz a TrumPutin fan?

Link to tweet

"

[aeromanKC]

11. Let Them Eat Cake

Of course we will be eating our cake on a different airline.

[yardwork]

4. This is the wrong way to handle this. Textbook wrong way.

This will not end well for United.

[LS_Editor]

5. No excuse.

[dalton99a]

6. Too bad Munoz got a heart transplant

[Docreed2003]

7. They left out he part...

Where they knocked him the fuck out to drag him from the plane...disgusting

[iluvtennis]

8. Video of Uniteds Re-Accommodation Team

Link to tweet

----
LMBO

[joshdawg]

23. LMAO!

Thanks, I needed that!

[Javaman]

9. we had a flight to Oregon in October booked. We just canceled it. and told them why.nt

[Juliusseizure]

10. Because fuck consumers who expect a ticket

guarantees a seat.

Dear United passengers,

Just because you gathered enough coinage from your piggy banks to buy a cheap seat doesn't mean you get one.

We overbook all flights, to make sure all our shit seats are filled with you peasants, and profit off non- refundable tickets for cancellations, then stick a $150 fee on top of that to change flights for people who don't show up.

If you pissants do show up, you might have to get kicked by off. Just STFU about it. You got nothing important to do or you'd be in business class.

[KingCharlemagne]

37. +Infinity - nt

[hank1920]

12. The State enforces bad corporate policy, and the lack of simple intelligence in AIRLINES

This guy's constitutional rights (rights that cannot be contracted away) were violated in so many ways I just cant count.

And yeah, so a corporation that screws up can now call the local thugs (oops I meant to say police) to commit assault, kidnapping and forcible confinement with no obvious and immediate consequence.

WTF? Did I just arrive in N Korea?

And as to complete corporate stupidity: What happened to basic market-driven problem solving... All these twits had to do was run an auction on compensation by open outcry on the plane. At come some point a buyer would meet the seller (of the alternative flight plan) and a nice happy person would have left the plane with some amount of compensation that wont even come close to the gross financial value of the downside these dummies are enduring and will endure.

Why are airlines ALWAYS so completely stupid and inconsiderate of the lack of joy that is air travel today?

[Flaleftist]

24. Passengers are just numbers on spreadsheets.

That's the last thing they care about.

[elmac]

13. Hey, the new reality

or continuation of the old as corporate fascists use the police state to subdue us.

[Dawson Leery]

14. After this statement and the actions of the flight crew

and police, United deserves to go bankrupt.

I stand with Bernie Sanders, NO BAILOUTS FOR ANYONE!

[steve2470]

15. this will go down in biz textbooks as how NOT to respond to a customer problem

Would not shock me if Munoz loses his job eventually over this. Absolutely horrible publicity.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

19. Especially since it wasn't a customer problem, it was a United staff assignment problem

The flight wasn't overbooked until United decided at the last minute that they needed to get 4 staff members somewhere else to fix a staffing assignment problem that they owned.

Bad planning
Bad "solution"
Bad implementation
Bad reaction
Bad double-down

Bad, bad, bad.

[steve2470]

20. yes totally agree! nt

[Stuart G]

38. Steve...YOU HIT A HOME RUN...."Munoz loses his job...." "Horrible publicity"

So many people with moving picture cameras these day>>>>>ops ....cell phones.....is that it????

Now the cop who was caught shooting someone who was running away....another example......

many, many, many moving picture cameras around these days....ops..........cell phones...

Tens of thousands of people will avoid .................'THE FRIENDLY SKYS OF UNITED'

[christx30]

16. This is the passenger after he was

beaten up and allowed to come back onto the plane:

http://imgur.com/gallery/GvamB

In case you can't read his lips, he's saying "I want to go home" over and over again. Utterly heartbreaking. This isn't the face of someone that's being "disruptive and belligerent". This is a guy that's confused, and trying to get home. I hope he is made independently wealthy from this horrible time. Or at least comfortable for the rest of his life.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

17. Not overbooked until United valued 4 staff members over 4 customers at last minute.

Because of staffing foulups (bad planning by United and last minute reaction to fix it) United needed to get 4 staff to another location.

Solution: wait till the last minute, and then try to boot passengers off the plane that had already gotten on and seated.

Result: United looks worse by the hour.

Oh, and United Breaks Guitars too.

[chia]

28. +100

ITA - not overbooked until staff added.

I hope the lawsuit moves forward asap.

[IronLionZion]

36. United definitely screwed up many many times along the way

this should have been handled earlier before anyone even got boarding passes or boarded the plane. Any other airline would have established processes to prevent it from getting this far.

A better way is to offer more money and increase it until someone voluntarily takes it. There are people who have free time and want the free tickets and hotel or whatever.

United deserves the bad publicity from this but I doubt their sales would be affected. They are often the only affordable choice to some airports.

[dalton99a]

18. Fuck Oscar Munoz. Fuck United Airlines.

[More_Cowbell]

21. Kudos to the passengers who left the plane

According to reports, an adult chaperoning high school students was the first to gather up the kids and leave (after that poor man came back, bloody and dazed) and immediately half the plane got up to follow. I'm glad that flight didn't just take off.

[LakeArenal]

22. I never trust a company with a 37,000 word contract...

Who make up their own words Re-accommodate, deplaning, de-boarding...

[Kablooie]

25. His lawyers probably told him this is the way to win the lawsuit.

You don't admit a mistake and expect the jury to believe you.

[brooklynite]

35. Be that as it may, I don't see any basis for a lawsuit.

Under the conditions of carriage (agreed to at purchase), the passenger didn't have rights to the seat if bumped. And as to physical injury, that was the result of resisting police orders, not actions by United.

[Cattledog]

26. This is the age of tRump management style.

The airline was the one who was "belligerent " and created the "disruption" in the first place.

"Get him out of here, get him out of here" DT on campaign trail.

[regnaD kciN]

27. Obviously, Boss-Man has never read his own airline's contract...

"Followed established procedures"...? United's own "Contract of Carriage" only allows passengers to be involuntarily denied boarding (Rule 25) before boarding. Once they've already boarded, Rule 25 goes out the window, and Rule 21 takes effect, which covers "refusal of transport" and only applies to specific circumstances, NONE of which applied in this incident.

Once passengers were boarded, United's only option was to keep raising the compensation until they got four passengers to accept it. Instead, it seems like they decided to lowball the situation by, first, simply declaring that four people had to leave, then offering far less than is justified under those circumstances, then calling in the thugs. All for poor planning, and the unwillingness to spend enough cash to work out an agreeable settlement. In the long run, it's likely going to be a case of "penny wise, pound foolish," as whatever they might have needed to pay to get volunteers will be a drop in the bucket compared to how much they are going to have to pay this passenger -- not to mention the millions in bad P.R.

[muriel_volestrangler]

32. Good point, and here's the contract, for reference:

https://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/contract-of-carriage.aspx

Worth noting that "denied boarding" and "removal" are seen as separate things, from phrases like "a Service Animal will be denied boarding or removed from the flight by UA if the animal cannot be contained by the passenger". So they can't say "he was denied boarding, because the flight hadn't taken off", and point to their Rule 25. "Denied boarding" has the normal English language meaning you'd expect.

(On edit: here's an interesting dilemma in the contract, in the "unaccompanied child" section:

Unaccompanied children/minors must be brought to the airport of departure by a parent, legal guardian, or responsible adult 30 minutes early (in addition to regular airport processing times shown for the airport). This parent, legal guardian, or responsible adult shall remain with the unaccompanied child(ren)/minor(s) until the unaccompanied child(ren)/minor(s) has boarded and the plane is airborne ...

So the adult has to go on to the plane, and remain on it until it's airborne, and then they can leave? Do they provide the parachute?

[Historic NY]

29. United Express worst service....

I used them more than 1/2 dz times to fly from my airport to OHare Chicago, via Detroit. Its never on time. I've seen some crazy ass episodes amongst the flight crew. We sat for 3 hrs because they couldn't find a pilot, finally they got another pilot from a different company to take the plane from Chicago to Detroit. They left us there at 100 am with vouchers for hotel that they brought us to for a 530 am flight. I've never ever been able to get back to my airport using them.

Another time I watched a stewardess screaming at the gate because she had to come back for more F--king passengers. Sure makes one comfortable. I've stopped flying them and complained to the Port Authority in several high profile social media posts. Their regional service sucks.

[DFW]

31. Second that

Last time I took United Express, it was from Washington to Charleston, SC. It was after having frown from Düsseldorf to Paris to Washington, so we were quite tired already. We had stuff to do early the next day and had prepaid the first night at the hotel in Charleston.

United canceled our flight, told us we MIGHT get out the next day, and "recommended" some local hotels for us to stay at. I said we needed to get there that evening, that we had already been on the road for 14 hours, etc. They said they did have a flight to Columbia, SC, and we might find ground transportation. I asked about our luggage, and the United agent said that 3 hours was time enough to reroute the luggage. So, we flew to Columbia, landed just before 11 PM, and our luggage was NOT on the flight. United personnel stuck around just long enough to tell us they had no idea where our luggage was. We asked a taxi outside how much he would want to take us to Charleston, and he said $250, as it was a 2 hour trip, and the round trip would take him all night. We were so exhausted, I said OK, let's go.

The next morning, I tried calling United about our luggage, but after 45 minutes of waiting, I gave up and took a taxi out to the Charleston airport, where United had live people. When I got there, our luggage was just standing there where anyone who wanted to could just walk off with it. That was the last time we actually flew with them. Ten years ago, maybe?

We had booked one United flight, against my better judgment, on United from Newark to Portland, Maine in April of 2014. United canceled the flight. We had to hear the news from my travel agent in Texas. United never told us. I had to rent a car in New York City and drive the nine hours to the Portland, Maine airport, and then pick up the car I had originally rented, thinking United would fly us there. We got to Freeport, Maine, about 10 hours late, but we got there. Since then, our travel agents on both sides of the Atlantic know to book us on a covered wagon before even considering booking us on a United flight.

[Lithos]

30. Add those zeros

It's not a matter of losing the court case, it's a matter of how many zeros are going to be on the check. He's just adding more zeros.

[Greensix1]

33. Great civic lesson

I'm thinking about using this video in my eighth grade class today to discuss what the word "options" mean. Will an eighth grader come up with a better solution than the airline did? I'll bet they can? Why did they pick the guy who wasn't white in the first place? Did he have a ticket for the flight? Was he the last one that boarded? Who let him on the plane in the first place? Did he just run down the ramp from inside the terminal? Was he traveling alone? Does a security officer have the right to beat up an innocent person just because someone from a company tells him to, over a seat on a plane?? Was anyone else asked to leave the plane? Why didn't they unload the whole plane and re-load them to defuse the situation? This is just typical of what America is beginning to expect with Trump in office: Violence is acceptable if it is done by someone with any type of authority, and Especially if it is done to someone who fits the definition of a minority.

[hank1920]

34. Airlines live by the sword, they should die by it...

The CAP is the problem. Airlines use marginal pricing to maximize the revenue for every last seat. They strive to get the maximum the market will bear. They should have to live with the discipline of the market when they are on the bid as opposed to the offer.

The market, ie. an auction process with no cap, should be how they have to price their ineptitude or the failures of their load balancing models.

The cap mis-prices the situation by definition.

Auction is the best mechanism to gauge the right price given the circumstances...

Wed aft price of missing the DC NYC shuttle, $100? Thursday night, last flight from NYC to LA the day before thanksgiving? $5000? Who knows... but it should be the people in the lounge or on the plane at hat given moment that decide the "right" price.

The airline overbook and use the price cap to artificially limit the cost of misjudging demand or making planning errors.

Remove the cap, service and satisfaction are enhanced.