Recently on a United Airlines flight from Chicago O’Hare to
Louisville, a young looking 69 year old Asian man was forcefully pulled out of
his seat and ejected
from the plane.
Videos taken from other appalled passengers showed airport
security force dragging an unconscious man along the aisle to the front door.
Blood was streaming from his face.
According to eyewitnesses on the plane, the passenger
refused to give up his seat because he, being a physician, has patients to see
when he gets home.
United explained that the airline overbooked and had asked
for volunteers to give up their seats. Apparently not enough found the
inducements sufficiently attractive to do so.
The airline then alleged that the unfortunate passenger was
randomly drawn by computer program to “voluntarily” give up his seat. When
confronted by the bad luck of the draw, the Asian man explained that he has
patients at risk waiting for him, and furthermore he wanted to consult with his
lawyer.
The airline then called in the Chicago’s finest to bodily
eject the man from the plane without so much as a gentle “please.” The official
explanation from the airline made the matter even worse.
United CEO Oscar Munoz apologized for the airline for having
to overbook (greed made me do it) and then having to force passengers to give
up their seats. Munoz really riled public opinion against the airline when he
then sent an internal memo praising the crew involved in the incident for
“following company procedure.”
Mind you, Mr. Munoz was recently honored as “communicator of
the year,” by PR Week. “An excellent
leader who understands the value of PR,” the trade publication said.
PR professionals are now probably smacking their lips over
the prospects of the vast amount of work in store for them to help United restored
the airline’s image and reputation. Thorough review and revision of industry
practice and company procedure will likely be part of their workload.
The airlines have profited hugely from this era of big
data. Based on their accumulated experience,
they can anticipate and calculate to sell out every flight. (How often have you
as a passenger flown on a partly loaded plane nowadays?)
Thus when the airline computer makes the right call, the
company makes scads of money. Every once in a while, when more passengers come
on board than anticipated, you would expect the airline to take the ownership
of the consequences rather than ask the hapless passengers to walk off the
plank.
Apparently, the UAL stock price took a hit immediately after
the incident went viral on social media. One commonly expressed concern was
that the outraged Chinese customers would stop flying on the airline. The
lucrative China to US routes represents an important source of revenue for the
airline.
Over the long term, whether the company market cap will
continue to do well will depend on whether passengers decide to fly on United
or not. I am a million miler on United, but if the airline can force me off the
plane at random, I am not sure I will want to fly on this airline any more.
To reassure me as a passenger, United needs to tell me that
the airline does not as a matter of policy pick on Asians for arbitrary brutality.
And, from now on, the airline will have revised their standard procedure so
that I will not run the risk of being taken off any flight without my consent.
A companion
piece in the Asia Times observed that what happened on the United flight pales
in comparison with the way passengers are treated by airlines in China. I am
nonplused by the point of the beggar thy neighbor discussion.
No comments:
Post a Comment