Friday, March 29, AD 2024 8:17am

Cast Out of the Friendly Skies

 

The above video doesn’t cover the truncheon training for the new stewardess.  I have rarely seen a business commit public suicide like United Airlines:

The CEO of United Airlines apologized again Tuesday amid a global uproar sparked when a passenger was dragged screaming from his seat on a flight that, it turns out, wasn’t even overbooked.

“I continue to be disturbed by what happened on this flight, and I deeply apologize to the customer forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard,” CEO Oscar Munoz said in a statement. “No one should ever be mistreated this way.”

United has been under siege since videos of Sunday night’s violent confrontation on the plane at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport went viral, drawing hundreds of millions of views around the world. Social media outrage rained down on the Chicago-based airline.

United spokesman Jonathan Guerin said Tuesday that all 70 seats on United Express Flight 3411 were filled, but the plane was not overbooked as the airline previously reported. Instead, United and regional affiliate Republic Airlines, which operated the flight, selected four passengers to be removed to accommodate crew members needed in Louisville the next day. The passengers were selected based on a combination of criteria spelled out in United’s contract of carriage, including frequent-flier status, fare type, check-in time and connecting flight implications, among others, according to United.

Three passengers went quietly. The fourth, who was literally pulled out of his seat and off the plane, was David Dao, a physician in Elizabethtown, Ky.

Late Tuesday, CNBC reported that a pair of Chicago attorneys, Stephen L. Golan and Thomas A. Demetrio, are representing Dao. A statement from Golan said Dao is undergoing treatment in a Chicago hospital for unspecified injuries.

 

 

Go here to read the rest.  Considering this happened in Chicago, the home of random, senseless violence, the poor fellow is lucky the confrontation didn’t end with him having a bullet in his brain.  Let’s think about this shall we?  Four  passengers were thrown off a plane not overbooked in order for United to fly crew personnel needed by United in Louisville, Kentucky the next day.  What, United couldn’t have the crew fly on a feeder airline to Louisville?  They couldn’t rent a private plane to fly the personnel down?  Grief, Louisville is only 300 miles from Chicago.  It is interstate practically all the way.  Indiana, in my experience, rarely enforces the 70 mile per hour limit on the interstate.  You can do it in four hours, four and a half at the worst.  However, all of that would take someone stopping to take the time to think.  Better to bully passengers off and to brutalize one who will not go, and buy the type of publicity that will make United hated, and a laughingstock, around the globe:

 

 

 

Apparently some newshounds dug up that the Doctor has some felony convictions on his record.  Legendary newsman Brit Hume has the proper response to that on twitter:

 

Brit Hume Retweeted Courier-Journal.com

What chickens**t journalism. His “troubled past” has nothing to do with his being dragged out of his seat on that airplane.

Airline tickets are “contracts of adhesion”.  What that means is that they are take it or leave it contracts, not subject to negotiation.  Most judges and attorneys hate them because they are contracts where one side has no bargaining power, which is of the essence of real contracts that are freely entered into.  Under the contracts, the size of a small book, that United drafts on its ticket they probably were within their legal right to toss off the four passengers.  Let us see how that serves them in the court of public opinion.  It is amazing how many passengers think that once they have purchased a ticket the least they are entitled to is to be flown to their destination and not manhandled by airline staff when they are merely peaceably sitting on the plane.

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DJH
DJH
Wednesday, April 12, AD 2017 5:38am

I imagine United will survive. They’ve only lost about 1.1% over the past couple of days. July 2016, they were around $40 (according to my interpretation of their stock graph), now about $70 (down a couple of dollars). I think the public ridicule could be more damaging than the violence, so we shall see.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Wednesday, April 12, AD 2017 5:59am

“Thank you, sir! May I have another!”

“The beatings will continue until morale improves.”

This is only one of the reasons I will not fly unless it’s absolutely necessary. I needed (retired) to fly for business purposes and learned to maintain a low profile and keep moving. One trick was paying (if they didn’t ask for “free” volunteers) $30 or more for a seat in the emergency exit row, I attained early boarding and more leg room. Another trick – booze. – flight three hour-plus get two. The $6.75(?) was well spent.

Philip Nachazel
Philip Nachazel
Wednesday, April 12, AD 2017 6:24am

Another case of mandatory volunteerism gone bad. “Tonight’s in-flight film features; Fight Club, Planes Trains and Automobiles and Fist of Fury. The Captain just informed me that the offerings are complementary.”

Art Deco
Art Deco
Wednesday, April 12, AD 2017 7:40am

Whether from foolishness or consequent to federal regulations, they didn’t offer enough compensation to induce 4 people to voluntarily leave the plane. (They might have received the requisite number of volunteers had they offered cash rather than vouchers). They were also exceedingly imprudent in attempting to remove people who had already boarded. What gets you is that the crew members in question could have been transported to Louisville by car in just a few hours, but the on-site manager elected instead to yank paying customers off the plane. Critics of United maintain they bump people 2-3x as often as competing airlines, so one might suggest a deficient corporate culture is at work here.

This Dr. Dao is an embarrassingly juvenile creature.

United’s been roasted before. Eight years ago, baggage handlers for United broke a guitar owned by a traveling crew of Canadian musicians and did so almost deliberately. United refused to compensate the man for the damage (maintaining he’d missed an absurdly short deadline to file a claim), so he wrote a song about dealing with their officialdom which went viral and took a chunk off their market cap.

Airlines are a Bertrand oligopoly with thin profit margins. They really cannot afford to be repelling customers in this manner. You’d think they’d know that at United.

Murray
Murray
Wednesday, April 12, AD 2017 8:40am

Strong language warning: Fly United or Else!

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Wednesday, April 12, AD 2017 11:24am

Who is more boocoo dinky dau? United? Dr. Dao?

Philip Nachazel
Philip Nachazel
Wednesday, April 12, AD 2017 2:33pm

Oh my goodness.
That clip was precious and spot on in this thread. “Sir..CALM down.” Beautiful.

Don L
Don L
Wednesday, April 12, AD 2017 2:48pm

I’m reminded of those “COPS” shows where the perp is hauled physically out of his car, slamed to the ground by a few armed police, one of whom is kneeling on his head and they all yell “relax” as they forcefully bend his arms behind his back to cuff him.

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Wednesday, April 12, AD 2017 6:32pm
Tim (The Bear) Capps
Wednesday, April 12, AD 2017 8:16pm

The Bear has not flown commercial since 1621. In those days, aeroplanes were floating palaces.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Thursday, April 13, AD 2017 2:43pm

I am considering flying United in hopes of being booted, beaten and enriched with a multi-million dollar, out-of-court settlement.

Philip Nachazel
Philip Nachazel
Thursday, April 13, AD 2017 3:55pm

T.Shaw
? I’m certain a few barristers on TAC could come to your defense….33 and a third isn’t just an old speed for phonographs.

CAM
CAM
Thursday, April 13, AD 2017 6:18pm

Multi-millions $ sure beats the $800 and a free trip reportedly offered to 4 passengers for vacating their seats. On second thought the $800 and trip was a sure thing. The multii-millions settlement is not, if the information on http://www.thepilotwifelife.wordpress.com link is correct. More like arrest on several counts and a trial in federal court.

CAM
CAM
Thursday, April 13, AD 2017 10:47pm

LOL. That reminds of the 10 reasons why lawyers would be good substitutes for lab rats.
Sounds as if you and Mrs. McClarey will be releasing many poor souls from Purgatory with your dental appts. Good luck.
Good luck.

Nate Winchester
Nate Winchester
Friday, April 14, AD 2017 6:30am

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