FlyWorld

I won't argue about how many are psychotic. Suffice to say, in this environment, the consequences of tweaking one are so severe, and they are sufficiently prevalent, that I have to ASSUME each may be psychotic for my own safety and therefore interact with them as infrequently as possible.

In response to your comment about growing too fast, I would like to point out that by many measures, the airline has actually shrunk.

FlyWorld

The story is getting a life of its own:

http://rt.com/usa/263653-united-airlines-muslim-coke/

spin88

No, there was only one response to make which was to come out and immediately say:

"United Airlines does not tolerate any form of discrimination or rude treatment of any passengers on any of its flights, or on the flights of any of our express partners. Because the employees involved are not employees of United, but of our regional partner, we are actively attempting to determine what occurred on this flight, operated by ShuttleAmerica, and unfortunately I can not provide any information on what we believe occurred. Regardless of what did or did not happen, Ms. ___ had our apologies for any offense. We are reaching out to her to determine what occurred and hopefully resolve any issues. If necessary we will then work with our regional partners to insure that a future incident like this does not occur."

United's "its not our fault" , the buck does not stop on my desk, attitude is just a total disaster in the modern short time frame media/social media environment. They really need to fire their entire media team and start afresh. Alas, even a better media/social media response will not solve United's problems as long as the brand and public perception of United remain in the toilet.

"
Texas does not admit fault or say they are sorry, and as I predicted earlier, this one will get out of hand, and will become a mime in a particular demographic group which can really hurt them.

Rock214

I would love to hear from other passengers in this incident. Too many times, the initial, one sided reports of incidents like this turn out to be somewhat less than accurate reflections of what actually happened.

Javvu

I've personally experienced religious discrimination couple of times on UA flights about a decade ago and hence stopped using them since then...I thought they changed themselves..Looks like they did not..Its unfortunate to know of today's incident regarding a Hijab wearing muslim woman. Its against the very fabric of american freedom that we are so passionate about defending it all over the world...Was thinking of starting flying them again for my upcoming business trips But looks like I'll have to reconsider it now.

GUWonder

That some XYZ hasn't been proven to one or more parties doesn't mean that XYZ's not being talked about and/or hasn't taken place.

Because of what the Northwestern University-affiliated female Muslim passenger indicated occurred aboard her flight, "we are talking about in-flight xenophobic bigotry, specifically that involving beverage service and hostile/threatening passenger comments directed toward the female Muslim passenger." Whether someone want to to claim it's simply about a can of soda or not, this story is not simply about a can of soda -- it never was and never has been. Rather it's as I noted: it's about in-flight xenophobic bigotry, specifically that involving beverage service and hostile/threatening passenger comments directed toward the female Muslim passenger.

BearX220

I'm pretty sure the original incident could have happened on almost any airline. United is just uniquely bad at public communications and taking responsibility for things.

GUWonder

On almost any U.S. airline, sure. That said, "security" paranoia combined with anti-Muslim hysteria don't have an equal distribution across all airlines.

UA seems to have done a poor PR job, at least this time.

Always Flyin

I have seen no facts presented, i.e., statements or conduct by the flight attendant, that indicate that this was a result of the passenger's creed. People just love jumping to that conclusion in this PC era.

When a minority person is stopped by the police, they often claim the reason for the stop was their race. Couldn't possibly be because they just ran through a red light.

If the flight attendant had denied an unopened can to a white passenger with no obvious religious affiliations and claimed it was because of a security concern, would we be having this same discussion? No. Instead, we are left with a two-tier system. Minorities in such instances ignore the underlying conduct and just play the race/creed card.

The underlying rationale might very well have been because of the passenger's creed, but we don't know at this point and are making unsupported conclusions.

About zero these days.

So in a thread about possible religious discrimination, the content of posts demonstrate bigotry and ignorance. No surprise there.

Nice how all flight attendants are lumped into a single category and are attributed with a lack of education and huge egos.

Yeah, that's a helpful addition to this thread. Perhaps a look in the mirror is in order.

The majority of people are actually sheep everywhere. Not just on planes.

There is a separate board for OMNI posts.

The content of the post espouses having experienced religious discrimination on UA without providing any details. I, on the other, hand have experienced stupid posts that appear intended to incite rather than inform.

Perhaps a new thread would be in order where the allegations of other events of religious discrimination on UA can be discussed in detail. It certainly isn't relevant in this thread.

GUWonder

That doesn't change the following factual information:

The discussion was never just about a can of soda. From the start, the discussion -- as initiated by the female Muslim passenger -- has been about that which I mentioned above. Whether or not that passenger's version of what transpired is an example of an actual xenophobic incident or not, well that doesn't change the fact about what this discussion is and is not.

Always Flyin

My point is that there has been no evidence that this was a xenophobic incident in the first place. The passenger saying it was so means nothing.

UA, for all its many, many faults, is not responsible for any ignorant, biased statements by another passenger.

neuron

The FA made it xenophobic when she mentioned the unopened can could be used as a weapon, in light of the fact she had not opened the other man's beer can (likely non-Muslim). Whether the FA perceived her own statement or not, that comes across as you can trust the other guy, but (to Chaplain Tahera) I am a suspect and you have pointedly stated so by telling me I am a risk (but not the guy who's beer can was unopened until I pointed it out).

ani90

And this whole thread is indeed beginning to read like an OMNI post...what most of this has to do with United (or any airline) escapes me. Maybe discussing the United Response and staff behavior is relevant but the discussions seem to now go far beyond that, and also far beyond the statements available in the media. Essentially what we are discussing is a relatively frequent event on UA (and other airlines) - a passenger has been (or perceives to have been) treated poorly by an FA.

Spinning it as an issue of religion, race, xenophopia, bigotry, discrimination and other angles being proposed in this thread makes it less and less a relevant issue for discussion about United Airlines (unless we are alleging an institutional or systematic behavior from United).

GUWonder

From the start, this has been about in-flight xenophobic bigotry, specifically that involving beverage service and hostile/threatening passenger comments directed toward the female Muslim passenger, on a UA flight. Whether that female Muslim passenger fabricated key elements of the story or not doesn't change the fact that this incident is only an incident being discussed here in the manner it is because it's about an incident of suspected xenophobia.

My point is that this discussion is not just about a can of soda; it's a discussion about a story of suspected xenophobia.

The passenger saying it was a xenophobic incident means a lot, as is evidenced by the coverage of this story and the discussion here.

UA is responsible for the actions of UA's employees and contractors and any and all incidents of xenophobia perpetrated by its agents -- no less so if such behavior by persons in position of authority on a UA flight opens a door to a hostile/threatening in-flight environment with such suspected xenophobic behavior.

Worcester

RT is effectively a propaganda channel for the Kremlin. You will find only negative news stories about the US and the West, to match the narrative from Putin that the West is morally bankrupt. It's interesting to watch but I would not put great faith in their journalist integrity.