Originally Posted by tmac100

Yup! As the Eagles sang: Every form of refuge has it's price. Humans are humans and their rationalization/private logic for their behaviour is quite amazing

Originally Posted by bocastephen

I would say your friend is not an idiot. The Asia press has been slaughtering United all week, and this is being positioned as much as a racist issue as a service issue. Based on my own conversations with friends and customers over there, along with everything I've read on social media, I would say United is dead-on-arrival in that market for the foreseeable future and will either need to absolutely slash airfares in both cabins down to bare bones levels not seen before to entice travelers back, or prepare to write off any growth potential there, and plan for a major retracement in bookings.

The depth of this issue is unprecedented. Malaysian Airlines can crash airplanes left and right and still draw business, but United will end up faring worse from this incident.

For those trying to grasp the concept and effect here, let me draw an analogy - what would happen to Lufthansa's business to/from Israel if they were caught physically abusing Jewish passengers and using nazi salutes while doing it. That same emotional response is what is occurring in Asia today. It's just that bad,.

Originally Posted by chavala

Nope. He's an idiot in my book. I've lost respect for him and ANYONE who believes everything they read on the Internet -- especially people who believe he was kicked off because he's Chinese. How ridiculous.

Originally Posted by bocastephen

For those trying to grasp the concept and effect here, let me draw an analogy - what would happen to Lufthansa's business to/from Israel if they were caught physically abusing Jewish passengers and using nazi salutes while doing it. That same emotional response is what is occurring in Asia today. It's just that bad,.

Originally Posted by notquiteaff

Has any evidence surfaced that the selection or treatment of the passenger was racially motivated?

Originally Posted by bocastephen

I would say your friend is not an idiot. The Asia press has been slaughtering United all week, and this is being positioned as much as a racist issue as a service issue. Based on my own conversations with friends and customers over there, along with everything I've read on social media, I would say United is dead-on-arrival in that market for the foreseeable future and will either need to absolutely slash airfares in both cabins down to bare bones levels not seen before to entice travelers back, or prepare to write off any growth potential there, and plan for a major retracement in bookings.

The depth of this issue is unprecedented. Malaysian Airlines can crash airplanes left and right and still draw business, but United will end up faring worse from this incident.

For those trying to grasp the concept and effect here, let me draw an analogy - what would happen to Lufthansa's business to/from Israel if they were caught physically abusing Jewish passengers and using nazi salutes while doing it. That same emotional response is what is occurring in Asia today. It's just that bad,.

Originally Posted by txflyer77

Anecdotally, this is been a good week for VX. I work for a satellite office of a big tech company in CA. On any given week 5-10 of us are flying DEN-SFO. Normally everyone flies UA due to schedule but seems like everyone's shifting to the VX flights.

Originally Posted by notquiteaff

I must have missed something in all the posts and news coverage. What behavior or action of the airline or airport police was the equivalent of Nazi salutes? Has any evidence surfaced that the selection or treatment of the passenger was racially motivated?

Originally Posted by LondonElite

I think you lost your audience with that last paragraph. It's a preposterous comparison.

Originally Posted by bocastephen

You're obviously not understanding my point. Most of the outrage is occurring in Asia. There is a perception that this incident was all, or in part, racially motivated. Again, what we think or know here is irrelevant. It is the perception that matters. It is the perception that will drive people away from United.

Originally Posted by Artpen100

Well, while everyone else is boycotting UA, I plan to continue to buy on some combination of price, upgradeability and route, without regard to loyalty, as before.

Originally Posted by bocastephen

You're obviously not understanding my point. Most of the outrage is occurring in Asia. There is a perception that this incident was all, or in part, racially motivated. Again, what we think or know here is irrelevant. It is the perception that matters. It is the perception that will drive people away from United.

My statement was made to help people here understand this perception by stating it using a more western historical context. Obviously, this is not what happened - but in the eyes of people in Asia reviewing this incident, the perception is similar to what I described as an analogy.

What this means is, customers in the US might might move on from this incident sooner and easier than customers in Asia, due to the difference in perception.

Originally Posted by LondonElite

There a quote somewhere that, the minute you use a Hitler/Nazi comparison in an argument, you've conceded defeat.

I understand your point, but the anecdote is poorly chosen.

Originally Posted by notquiteaff

Shouldn't it also drive them away from the United States? Or is their perception that United-the-airline is racist and United-States-The-Overall-Country is just fine and safe? In other words, as long as you don't try to fly United Airlines and don't come across their carefully selected racist ORD nazi storm troopers, you will be fine?

I think most people are probably a bit smarter than that.

Originally Posted by Ber2dca

We're at the point where too many people take too many moral stances about dumb crap. It makes a certain type of person feel good about themselves because I guess it makes their own plentiful moral failings look less bad.