Originally Posted by
eigenvector
The United "incident" today IMO goes beyond airline incompetence (although incompetence was present in spades) into larger issues of police brutality. You cannot avoid the Chicago Police by avoiding one airline.
"The officers who removed the man from the plane were Chicago Aviation Police personnel, not Chicago Police officers. Chicago Aviation Police are sworn officers who graduated from the Chicago Police Training Academy but they are not allowed to carry weapons."
http://www.pprune.org/9735101-post19.html
Back to regular programming......Neither AC nor any other *A partner is dumping UA.
Forgot to mention under the topic of we have choices: sure, for those who must fly *A and to/from the US, UA may be the choice. You can still express your displeasure at their behaviour.
And here is an example from PPRuNe (bolding mine):
"
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."
http://www.pprune.org/9735126-post21.html