windhund

I'm guessing you are being sarcastic based on your wording of 2 and 3, but I did want to point out to others that 1 would make work for a bunch of agents harder and also inconvenience people who actually need to reach them that particular time/day. So be thoughtful in your protesting, folks.

nunusguy

Outrage over United Airlines’ violent removal of a passenger in Chicago has crossed the Pacific, extending the company’s public relations fiasco to one of its most crucial international markets.
The haunting cellphone video, which shows an Asian man hurled from his seat and dragged off a flight Sunday, inundated Chinese social media Tuesday and evoked tens of thousands of livid responses.
Viewers picked up on translated comments from a fellow passenger that suggested the unidentified man thought he was selected “because I’m Chinese.”
Many accused the company of racism and urged customers to stop booking flights on United. The topic drew 110 million readers on Weibo, a Chinese rival to Twitter, and more than 72,000 comments. Petitions to boycott the airline circulated on the popular social media app WeChat.“Why are Chinese being bullied everywhere?” said one user on Weibo, where it became the day’s most popular topic.
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http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...411-story.html
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Yikes that's not good and as a UAL shareholder I know how valuable those long-haul routes to China are but wonder if the "re-accommodation" from hell could place those routes in a rather tenuous condition ?

JBord

No, this makes too much sense. People don't actually want the problem fixed and an apology. They want "justice". United must be punished! And perhaps the airport police should be fired and sent to jail too!

Honestly, they should do the things you suggest and let this blow over in a couple weeks. No question the passenger was wronged, but when your car gets a flat tire, you don't send your car to the junk yard, you fix the tire.

And as for #4 , I'd like for them to dismiss them and never rehire anyone to take their place. Social media, and the idiots who work those channels for large companies, are part of the broader issue.

N104UA

Avoid and boycott are two different things, I can avoid flying an RJ when the choices are mainline or express (ex. DEN-YYC) but I can't avoid an RJ if I need to fly to RAP or DRO, if I boycotted an RJ I would be spending a ton of time in a car.

Mike Jacoubowsky

Actionable policy? Have United hire someone away from upper Disney management again, and have all incidents like these reviewed through the perspective of that person before anybody gets to say something dumb.

You don't have time to call in a PR firm at a time like this. You need someone on staff, ready to go, 24/7.

This could have been handled so much better. As you read more about it, it becomes increasingly clear the primary issue was with the law enforcement guy(s) at ORD. It makes no sense, even initially, for Oscar to get in front of this and defend UA employees, as if there was nobody else involved. Oscar ended up taking 100% complete responsibility for significant actions that were not under United's control.

There are times and manners in which it is admirable to take responsibility and control of a situation, even though it might have been caused by someone else.

Like I said, hire someone with a track record of dramatic improvement in customer satisfaction, and not just on paper but someone who really walks the talk.

jhayes_1780

That reminded me to take a look.... Seems Barbara Higgins moved to the for profit education business, and is an executive with DeVry.

DENflyer3

I agree, it will really increase the upgrade percentages.

rrgg

I'm pretty sure he's of Vietnamese descent anyway.

davidc1

I will stop flying UA and also stop using my UA MP Card till I feel better about this. But it's me UA, not you.

Colin

finally, some sanity. i will be shifting some spend to United in response.

Ron Mexico

Unfortunately, it is the government who allowed this. Allowing the mergers in the past decade have created a new norm. The monopoly of air travel has hurt the customer while greatly benefiting American Corporate Airlines.

The solution is to allow foreign carriers to operate domestic routes.

As a conservative, I'm generally against regulation (forcing a IDB price, not allowing overbooking, etc.). I'd rather the market respond -- hopefully like they will here. However, current regulations limiting competition makes this impossible.

That said, I'm not holding my breathe.

tryintogohome

And that's fine, but there needs to be an escalation procedure, Having been an engineer, plant manager , Ops VP and board member there are situations when you call someone or you get called to make sure appropriate action is taken.
Safety issue, IR problem,major equipment failure etc etc etc. If I was running a major airline which has a miserable CS reputation I might want it go to very senior level in my company before somebody makes a decision to send the police on board to forcibly remove somebody to for a scheduling issue,knowing (unless you have just spent a decade on Mars) that it will posted everywhere in minutes. No excuse for this ,PR firm, and senior execs need to go over this.

austin_modern

Way to do the bare minimum of flair.

If you really cared, you'd cancel your UA card, cancel your UA FF account, etc.

Limp "Im gonna boycott until I forget about it" promises that are dotted all over twitter are meaningless. Its like saying you care enough to post on FB about it, then its off to screwing around on Tinder, or FT, or news, etc.

davidc1

If you say so. I'll do what I said I'll do. You do what's enough for yourself.

SFO_FT

Let's get back to the OT. If you're interested in doing something, your ideas are welcome. Don't want this thread discussing Sunday's incident, politics, or other items. If you don't want to do anything, or feel any efforts are futile, that's fine, but please don't take us off topic. Thanks!!!