United CEO says removed passenger was disruptive and belligerent

[Raptor]

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The CEO of United Airlines has said that employees "followed established procedures" in an incident which saw a passenger dragged off a plane.
In a letter to employees obtained by US media, Oscar Munoz said he was "upset to see and hear about what happened".
But he said that the passenger had been "disruptive and belligerent".
The airline earlier said that it was investigating what happened after videos of the incident provoked an outcry on social media.
The footage taken inside the airliner shows a man being violently pulled out of his seat and dragged down the aisle.
The flight from Chicago to Louisville on Sunday evening had been overbooked.
The airline wanted to get four passengers to leave the flight to make room for four staff members.
United Airlines incident: What went wrong?
Chinese anger at United passenger removal
Some Twitter users criticised Mr Munoz for appearing tone-deaf to the level of public outcry.
He told staff in the private email that he was "upset to see and hear about what happened".
"Our employees followed established procedures for dealing with situations like this," the Associated Press quoted the email as saying.
"While I deeply regret this situation arose, I also emphatically stand behind all of you, and I want to commend you for continuing to go above and beyond to ensure we fly right."
Mr Munoz wrote that the passenger refused to voluntarily leave the plane, with staff "left with no choice but to call Chicago Aviation Security Officers to assist in removing the customer from the flight".
Jayse D Anspach, who posted the footage that went viral, tweeted: "#United overbooked and wanted four of us to volunteer to give up our seats for personnel that needed to be at work the next day."
"No one volunteered, so United decided to choose for us. They chose an Asian doctor and his wife."
"The doctor needed to work at the hospital the next day, so he refused to volunteer," Mr Anspach added.
"Ten minutes later, the doctor runs back into the plane with a bloody face, clings to a post in the back, chanting, "I need to go home."
One of the three security officers involved has been "placed on leave", the Chicago Department of Aviation said, and his actions were "obviously not condoned by the Department".
The department also said it would carry out a review into the incident, which it said was "not in accordance with our standard operating procedure".
Another passenger Audra D. Bridges, posted a video of the incident on Facebook that has been viewed over 400,000 times.
She wrote: "Please share this video. We are on this flight. United airlines overbooked the flight."
"They randomly selected people to kick off so their standby crew could have a seat.
"This man is a doctor and has to be at the hospital in the morning," she added.
"He did not want to get off. We are all shaky and so disgusted."
United said it was trying to talk to the passenger directly in order to "further address and resolve this situation".
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BBC News

[Mickey]

So they overbook a plane then ask you to kindly fck off as they need your seat for their staff

yeah right

United Airlines: Shares drop after passenger dragging video

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39563570
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Media playback is unsupported on your device
  
  
  An eyewitness describes how the passenger sitting next to her was dragged off an overbooked plane.
  
  
  
  Media captionAn eyewitness describes how the passenger sitting next to her was dragged off an overbooked plane.Shares in United Airlines' parent company have dropped after footage of a screaming passenger being dragged off an overbooked plane went viral.
  Stock in United Continental Holdings dropped by more than 3% at one point on Tuesday, and at one point nearly $1bn (£800m) was wiped off its value.
  Its CEO defended employees' conduct and said the passenger had been "disruptive and belligerent".
  But the company has come under intense criticism online.
  Outraged customers have threatened in droves to stop flying with United and the CEO's response to the incident has been criticised.
  
  
  
  
  Share prices recovered slightly later in the day, but were still below opening prices.
  The footage taken inside the airliner shows a man being pulled out of his seat and dragged, screaming, down the aisle. He is later seen with blood on his face.
  The man has not been officially identified but a passenger who sat next to him told BBC Radio 5 Live that he said he was originally from Vietnam and had been living in Louisville, Kentucky, for about 20 years. He said he and his wife were both doctors.
  The flight from Chicago to Louisville on Sunday evening had been overbooked - a fairly common practice - so the airline wanted to get four passengers to leave the flight to make room for four staff members.
  
• Image copyright Jayse D Anspach Image caption The man has not been identified but told other passengers he was a doctor, before aviation security officers forcibly removed him Three passengers - reportedly including the man's wife - agreed and left the plane. But the man said he worked in a hospital, and needed to see his patients the next day, an eyewitness tweeted.
  A video that appears to show the man dazed and with blood around his mouth, saying "just kill me", having run back on the plane, has also emerged online.
  United Airlines incident: What went wrong?
  In an email to employees, Oscar Munoz said the passenger had been "disruptive and belligerent" and refused to voluntarily leave the plane, with staff "left with no choice but to call Chicago Aviation Security Officers to assist in removing the customer from the flight".
  He told staff in the private email that he was "upset to see and hear about what happened" but defended United employees.
  "Our employees followed established procedures for dealing with situations like this," the Associated Press quoted the email as saying.
  United Airlines' public relations disaster
  Only last month, trade magazine PRWeek named Mr Munoz as 2017 US Communicator of the Year, but his airline's handling of the fallout from this incident is being mocked on Twitter.
  Users are posting under the hashtag #NewUnitedAirlinesMottos and the Merriam-Webster dictionary tweeted that volunteering means doing something "without being forced".
  United Airlines mocked online
  Asian outrage at passenger removal
  More than 60,000 people so far have signed a petition to the White House asking for an investigation into the incident.
  Image copyright Twitter/@fanqin0619 Image copyright Twitter/@Parveen_Comms One of the three security officers involved has been "placed on leave", the Chicago Department of Aviation said, and his actions were "obviously not condoned by the Department".
  The department also said it would carry out a review into the incident, which it said was "not in accordance with our standard operating procedure".
  The US Department of Transportation is reviewing whether United complied with rules on overbooking,
  "While it is legal for airlines to involuntarily bump passengers from an oversold flight when there are not enough volunteers, it is the airline's responsibility to determine its own fair boarding priorities," a spokesperson said in a statement reported by Reuters.
  United said it was trying to talk to the passenger directly in order to "further address and resolve this situation".
  Would you change your flight for the right offer?
  

  ---

  Can an airline really treat passengers like this? - by Simon Calder, travel correspondent for the Independent
  
  Yes. The captain is in charge of the aircraft. And if he or she decides that someone needs to be offloaded, that command has to be obeyed. From the moment that the unfortunate individual in this case said, "I'm staying put", he became a disruptive passenger.
  From that moment he was disobeying the captain's command. Officials were legally entitled to remove him, and as the videos show, he was dragged from the plane. It appears from the evidence that the law was broken - by him, not by the airline. But I would be surprised if United pressed charges.
  Does it happen often?
  
  No - normally airlines handle cases of too many passengers for the available seats much better than this, and generally do so at the gate. First, the airline asks for volunteers. The idea is that everyone has their price: an amount of cash, travel vouchers or other bribes such as a round trip anywhere the airline goes.
  Flexible travellers, including me, actively pursue overbooked flights to keep our travel costs down.
  So what went wrong here?
  
  It appears to have been a series of errors. A group of flight crew needed to be in Louisville, properly rested, in order to operate the next morning's plane. Had they not been able to get there, then many more passengers would have had their plans messed up. The big mistake the airline made was allowing all the fare-paying passengers on board, and then trying to entice enough people off.
  It would have been far better to conduct the auction at the gate; physically preventing someone boarding is less harmful than dragging them kicking and screaming from their seat.

[Mickey]

NSFW guy gets beat up

Spoiler:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrDWY6C1178

Spoiler:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU1HPwKrMrY

[Raptor]

The CEO of United Airlines has apologised for the 'truly horrific' removal of a passenger from an overbooked flight.
Oscar Munoz said he "continues to be disturbed" by the incident, during which a passenger was forcibly dragged, screaming, off a plane.
He said the company would "fix what's broken so it never happens again".
United's parent company's share price plummeted on Tuesday after a video of the incident went viral on Twitter.
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BBC News

[Bald Bouncer]

The CEO of United Airlines has apologised for the 'truly horrific' removal of a passenger from an overbooked flight.
Oscar Munoz said he "continues to be disturbed" by the incident, during which a passenger was forcibly dragged, screaming, off a plane.
He said the company would "fix what's broken so it never happens again".
United's parent company's share price plummeted on Tuesday after a video of the incident went viral on Twitter.
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BBC News

Yeah of course has nothing to do with the plunge in shares as his earlier statement was Earlier, Mr Munoz had defended employees' conduct and said the passenger had been "disruptive and belligerent". Employees were "left with no choice but to call Chicago Aviation Security Officers to assist in removing the customer from the flight", he added.

[reverend]

People in China are going mad over this - I'm surprised none of the news outlets have found the guy affected yet.

It's quite interesting watching the United CEO's behaviour - at first he was backing staff and not wanting to comment on what happened as it would make any lawsuit easier against them - whereas as soon as they lose a few percent on the stock price they realise it's cheaper and better PR to just pay the guy affected off.

It reminds me of the scene from Fight Club where he's going on about car manufacturers and recalls, and that they won't do a recall unless it would cost them more money in litigation.

[satzzz]

Snippets coming out now that it wasn't staff that they needed the seats for but premium passengers who are guaranteed a seat if the plane is full.

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

[cassy34]

United's new logo
http://i.imgur.com/D2A1PSf.jpg

[piggzy]

They couldn't have handled the whole thing much worse really.

Have seen loads of different videos of different angles and it is completely unjustified. He was not disruptive at all and not even rude.
I hope he sues the fuck out of them. It has come out now (if true) that the flight wasn't over booked at all but due to United's own error they had 4 staff at the wrong airport and simply wanted the space to transport their staff to the correct airport. cunts

[Mickey]

They seem not to care about its passengers



UNITED IN DESPAIR Under-fire United Airlines staff ‘forced disabled gran, 94, out of £2,800 Business-class seat into Economy for 16-hour flight’
United Airlines face a fresh accusation of mistreating a paying customer
13th April 2017, 11:49 am
STRIFE-HIT United Airlines forced a disabled 94-year-old woman out of business class on a 16-hour flight because cabin crew refused to help her with her needs, her family claims.
The family of Paz Orquiza paid £2,800 for the ticket from Los Angeles to her home in Melbourne, Australia, to make her more comfortable as she has severe arthritis and a degenerative bone condition in her neck.
Paz Orquiza's family says United staff refused to help the disabled 94-year-old
Her granddaughter Marianne Santos Aguilar says staff from United Airlines – which has been blasted after a recent viral video of a passenger being dragged from a plane emerged – would not allow Mrs Orquiza’s daughter Rose, who travelled on the same flight in economy, to help the elderly woman, but refused to help her themselves.
Instead, Rose was forced to move Mrs Orquiza into economy.
Last month Ms Aguilar vented her anger on Facebook, saying: “My aunt tried to comfort my grandmother, who was in tears, and was horrified to see how much pain she had to endure during this flight.
“Upon arrival to Australia, my grandma’s legs had swollen, she suffered from a stiff neck and her whole body ached.
“She is still in great distress and pain from this ordeal.”
Marianne added that the Air Carrier Access Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in air travel and requires air carriers to accommodate the needs of passengers with disabilities.
The family were given £400 in travel vouchers – but say they will not use them – and a refund of £690.
She added: “Humanity and compassion are lacking with this airline, who only cares about their bottom line.
"My aunt was told by another passenger that grandma's original seat was given to someone willing to pay for an upgraded seat."
United has been contacted by Sun Online for a comment.
United Airlines had a billion dollars wiped of its value at one point after a video of a doctor being dragged off a flight so airline staff could have a seat went viral.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/332409...usiness-class/

[DJ OD]

You have to pay for this kind of treatment on Ryanair.


DJ OD

[TheQuagmire]

The jokes about this even are getting real real good now

[Mickey]

I can see them being sued for millions and being the biggest joke in the aviation history

Spoiler:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TL0FguhjD8

theres now the Hitler one FFS

Spoiler:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN_5iT89-iY

OMG even the pilots are mad

Spoiler:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jW9wk_g9QY

[Teajunkie]

This really pisses me off!

if I pay for a seat how the hell can they sell that seat again?
we have been asked to give up our seats coming back from New York on a BA flight.
we had kids at home and we were moving house the next day so couldn't but they were offering $500 each and a overnight stay in a 5star hotel all expensive paid.

If you have 1500 seats you sell 1500 simple maths you don't refund the original seat purchaser if they don't turn up so that's win win anyway you save fuel and taken money.
If there's a spare seat after the gate closes then fair enough sell the spare seat then it's the purchasers problem if they missed the flight.

people sat on standby waiting for spare seats was a normal thing I thought?

[evilsatan]

I don't know what the rules are outside of the US but on Reddit some months ago there was a LPT about this sort of thing where if you are asked to miss your flight and the next flight is less than a 2 hour delay then you are entitled to double the cost of a one way ticket up to $650 and if over 2 hours 4 times the cost up to $1300. They will try to fob you off with vouchers but must provide a cheque if you press them and they can offer more money than these values if they want but these are the guidelines set to all carriers. Obviously they won't tell you this so will try to compensate any volunteers with lower value vouchers rather than the cheque they should get.

Not sure if this exists here or not, also not sure if other countries overbook quite like American Airlines do.

[Raptor]

Passenger dragged off United Airlines plane wins settlement

• Copy this linkhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39739737
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Image copyright Reuters Image caption Video of the incident quickly went viral online The Kentucky doctor dragged off a United Airlines flight from Chicago earlier this month has received a financial settlement from the airline.
  Lawyers for Dr David Dao, 69, say a condition of the payout is that the "amount remain confidential".
  United boss Oscar Munoz "said he was going to do the right thing and he has", Dr Dao's lawyers said.
  Dr Dao was violently removed by airline law enforcement officers after refusing to give up his seat to United staff.
• United Airlines incident: What went wrong?

Video of the bleeding Vietnamese-American doctor went viral online and sparked international outrage.


The airline had asked Dr Dao to leave his seat in order to allow four United staff members to get from Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky.
Media

Crystal Dao Pepper: 'Horrified, shocked and sickened'

Media captionCrystal Dao Pepper: 'Horrified, shocked and sickened'He refused, saying he had patients to see the next day.
Dr Dao's lawyer, Thomas Demetrio, said his client "has become the unintended champion for the adoption of changes which will certainly help improve the lives of literally millions of travellers".
Dr Dao suffered a concussion, a broken nose, and lost his two front teeth in an experience that his lawyer said was "more horrifying and harrowing" than his experiences during the Vietnam War.
What the plaintiff's attorneys described as an "amicable settlement" comes on the same day that United Airlines announced a shakeup of its booking policy.
Passengers will now be offered up to $10,000 (£7,700) for giving up their seats, among other changes that Dr Dao's lawyer said should be "applauded".
However, aviation experts doubt that many passengers will actually be offered such a large sum.
Delta Airlines also increased its maximum payout to $9,950 and Southwest Airlines said it will no longer overbook flights "as part of our selling process".
"Every customer deserves to be treated with the highest levels of service and the deepest sense of dignity and respect," Mr Munoz said in announcing the airline carrier's change in policy.
"Two weeks ago, we failed to meet that standard and we profoundly apologise."
On Wednesday United Airlines once again found itself in the headlines, when a giant rabbit travelling onboard one of its planes died.
The airlines has launched an investigation into the death of the 90cm-long bunny named Simon

[Mickey]

So were not going to know how much he got ?

[cyprus]

United Airlines to offer passengers up to $10,000 to surrender seats on overbooked flights


I'll be going to America in June and my internal flights are with United (booked before all the shit happened). However me and the missus are secretly hoping they offer us $10k each to get a different flight!!

[{{909}}]

United Airlines to offer passengers up to $10,000 to surrender seats on overbooked flights


I'll be going to America in June and my internal flights are with United (booked before all the shit happened). However me and the missus are secretly hoping they offer us $10k each to get a different flight!!

I dunno where I read it, but there were some posts on the original news article from people claiming they would often book on flights that were overbooked to increase their chances of being offered a fat wad to give up their seat. Mite be worth a google.

[cyprus]

I'm honestly going to ask at the check-in desk if they would like to comp me and put me on a later flight.