Originally Posted by
deskover54
And now you'll get a bunch of crying people on a plane trying to get a free upgrade.
I want to highlight this response as I think it is emblematic of United's thinking, and part of FT's thinking on the Dao incident: Others are "kettles" who deserve what they get, and unless they are kept in line it will make the already bad experience worse for me. It is a me vs. them mindset.
I think the woman with the stroller was clearly in the wrong. You have to gate check them, and she disobeyed instructions. However the AA FA's reaction was way OTT. The AA captain rather than backing up his FA (as often happens) tried to calm down the situation. AA management then chose to upgrade the woman on the next flight (she refused to fly on her existing flight) to address a situation handled badly by its FA.
AA is not perfect, and I dislike many of Parkers cuts, but the way they handled the situation - as a CS issue where it is not black/white - is the way businesses need to address situations in the video/social-media age. United's mistake often is to see a situation as black or white and of course anything United says must back backed up/followed. That approach does not work very well over the long term.