United removes first-class passenger to make room for 'higher-priority' traveler

I wonder if it will start impacting traveller and tourism numbers at some point. I think anyone who doesn't really need to be in the US and/or is planning travelling with kids is likely to have some second thoughts at this point.

Recently Canada's girl guides cancelled all trips to the US: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/14/canadian-girl-gui....

I wonder if this is a first step of a large trend yet to develop.

This is a global optimization problem that can be easily solved - but there are many cases where on the ground discretion is required [last minute aircraft change, weather delay]. Poorly paid, under trained and under motivated staff will always drop the ball in this situation.

The solution for United here is two fold 1) Increase training, comp, authority and motivation of gate agents to solve problems with minimal disruption. This used to be the case a bankruptcy ago. This setup is not likely to return due to a simple reason: cost. United in bankruptcy blew up the pension promises to some of their most experienced staff. They left.

2) The best outcome for United is to reduce the complexity of their product so that customer expectations of service align with the company's ability to deliver.

tl;dr: United's service is too complex for their gate agents to deliver. Service should be simplified.

1. When did this happen? The article makes it look like this just happened, but does not mention a date. I suspect the omission is on purpose (if so, boo!; if not, sorry, but please add event date).

2. The fact that the guy bumped off is rich is irrelevant (and going on and on about it dulls the message).

3. The fact that the seat the guy was downgraded was noisy (people arguing on both sides) is irrelevant.

IMO the main point is valid -- the person was first to the seat and in general whoever gets into the seat first keeps it in case of a seat collision or a duplicate ticket. He should not have been asked to free it to another passenger (who should have been downgraded instead and compensated somehow). But conflating this with unrelated issue to get on a "United stinks" meme is a cheap trick. My 2c.

The customer even paid premium price to be in first class and instead of being notified at the gate, like any respectable airline would do, he's asked to give his seat to somebody "more important" than him when already seated.

It doesn't make any sense, if that "more important person" came later, he should be the one getting compensated by the airline especially when the problem occurred because United needed to change the plane for a smaller one.

You don't kick customer, you compensate them.

You would walk up and down the aisle and punch out selected passengers. Once you had suitably subdued a passenger you click a security badge and the "Airport Rental Security" guys come and drag the passenger off.

The game timer would be a chart of United's share price. The round is over when the price hits zero.

The price could rise and fall with certain events:. A passenger stumbling back on the plane for instance.

The game would end immediately if you punched a baby - even United agents don't punch babies!

Feel free to run with it!!

This is boat allocation on Titanic all over again.

I hope for United's sake these are anomalies and not a pattern of behavior.

So he paid the cost of first class but flied economy and when they get called out on it they think all they need to do is compensate for the difference? With the way he was treated?! How can you call yourself "Customer care specialist" and think that is a way to treat customers?

First they beated a customer and now another one was moved to economy in order to make room for a certain high profile.. !!! So you truly see, this is the so-called first world, racism against minorities and immigrants despite 'they' invaded Red Indians land, and now they are demonstrating same 'social class' discrimination, that's common place in the 3rd World, minus the $+Tech, and there you have even worse of the 3rd World.

https://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/contract-of-carriag...

and explain where it allows them to refuse transport to a well-behaved passenger after boarding?

Rule 21 seems to apply, but nothing there looks like "United can refuse to transport you 'just cause'".

I've seen lots of people claim this behavior is legal, all without a shred of evidence to back them up.

There were other misreportings as well, not to mention that some news outlets ran character assassination stories and almost nobody emphasised that Dr Dao was a senior.

The best piece I've seen deconstructing this is http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/04/united-passenger-remo...

"What United and all companies need to do is to train and empower workers to deal with specific issues as they arise,” she said. “Don’t just follow whatever is written in your policies."

Unfortunately that's so often the case - one may as well be conversing with a robot in many customer service situations. I can only imagine it's just as frustrating for the disempowered service reps.

"It’s always worth asking, do we own the process or does the process own us? In a Day 2 company, you might find it’s the second."

The end result is that US airline employees see their loyalty to each other as more important than customer service.

This mentality enables the micro-selling, endless class stratification, rigid authority and the generally unpleasant demeanor of staff. They're really not friendly in the US, and strikingly different from, say, Asia-based carriers.

With the consolidation of airlines, it is much harder than it was to say you don't want to fly with them anymore and they know it.

The case with the passenger being dragged off the plane was not regular United but some lower-cost airline that has a close business relationship with United.

The CEO should have set up an on-call executive that can quickly deal with situations like these two cases. It would not be very hard to do.

I was on a connecting flight on US Air to Newark to take El-Al. The US Air flight left late and arrived late. Israeli security escorted me and 2 other passengers onto the El-Al plane to Tel Aviv but the luggage did not make it.

El-Al opens all bags that don't travel with the passenger in a bomb chamber which is located at JFK. So it took 3 or 4 days to get my luggage. El-Al gave me $75 even though it was not their fault. US Air paid suit, shoes, etc. that I had to purchase.

https://medium.com/@thisTenqyuLife/united-airlines-should-go...

I got my new monitor today, and I am happy.

The repr said because of my purchase history. I am a good customer to them, someone who have bought probably couple thousand dollars worth of goods from Amazon over the years.

AWS itself also offered to eliminate all of the charges on my account after a huge spike on billing (which is believed to be the results of network attacks) under no questions.

This is how you build a $300B company. You take constant short-term losses over long-term gains.

United Airline has a long fucking way to learn how to treat its customers. If customer B's flight had a mechanical failure, should do this:

UA: "Sorry, we have a mechanical problem, do you wish to take the next flight? We will offer you a voucher."

B: "No. I need to get there on time."

UA: "Do you wish to take an economy seat? Our first-class is full."

B: "No. I am a priority seating customer." (<--- does this shit even exist?)

UA: "I understand. We will ask if anyone on the current flight is willing to give up."

UA: "HEY PEOPLE ANYONE WANT TO GIVE UP THEIR SEAT FOR X AMOUNT OF MONEY AND INCENTIVES?"

UA: "Okay no one. Increasing. We still have a few minutes left to auction a seat for an economy seat swap."

UA: "Sorry Sir / Madam. No one is willing and the flight is destined to leave now, so we can't hold up the 365 passengers onboard. We are sorry for your inconvenience, we will see if other airlines have seats available and we can help arrange a flight for you based on your continued support of United Airlines."

Now either B take it or leave it. Done. One airplane's delay is a delay for other 100 flights waiting to leave the airport on time.

Win 100 customers over 1 customer.

This is grade-school manner, fucking grade-school manner. Change your policy now if you are so serious about good customer service and fear of law suits.

Actually now I come to think of it, airlines should build an auction/seat auction app.

It bugs me that so much of the emphasis in this article is on the idea that they dared to do this to someone wealthy.

That being said, the way this article is written makes me want to kick the author off of a plane while in flight.

"Fearns requested a full refund for his flight from Kauai and asked for United to make a $25,000 donation to the charity of his choice. This is how rich guys do it."

This is how rich guys do it? Really? ugh.

American Airlines quoted a price, but the only available seats cost (around) $33 - $58 extra for each flight -- total was $200 extra. Bait and switch? So, I switched to Delta.

But Delta's antique web design wouldn't allow a change. So, I attempted to talk to a Human. Voice menu was a bit schizoid: transitioning from voice to a touch-only menu. Love the response: "your selection was invalid" Who designs these things? A Lost in Space fan? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWwOJlOI1nU

Then I get to the part where it says: "You may choose to have us call you back ... or stay on hold ... wait time is over 3 hours". So, I cancelled.

You might be the first person in boarding group one, but you'll still be eclipsed by the 1K / Global Services / Polaris flyers who are the true elite both in status and in total dollar spend. They don't even bother to wait in line - they just show up when boarding starts and are shuffled to the front of the queue (along with a friend if they want), no questions asked.

Based on those layers it wouldn't particularly surprise me if one day as a mere Gold flyer I get bumped for higher tier elite. United has made it clear total dollar spend is how they judge the true status of flyers.

The removal was awful, and they did deserve all the bad press. This article however is just trying to ride the wave to get some clicks.

There are millions of people who travel every day. Stuff like this must happen hundreds of times every day on pretty much every airline.

These posts are often at great length, and laden with appeals to authority. Some might be trolls. But others appear to be by people who genuinely value an environment where the lowliest airline employee, no matter how poor their judgement, no matter how absent their discretion, is more right than any customer. Munoz's email to employees, of which I've not seen a retraction, takes this line wholeheartedly. It's a trait that suffuses the industry. Who the hell ARE these people?

> Fearns, 59, is president of TriPacific Capital Advisors, an Irvine investment firm that handles more than half a billion dollars in real estate holdings on behalf of public pension funds.

"placing him in the middle seat between a married couple who were in the midst of a nasty fight and refused to be seated next to each other."

Crews don't even try to move them to be seated next to each others.

We simply aren't in the "free market competition" will fix it zone with air travel. I hate air travel and do everything I can to avoid it for work. Most people think I'm crazy. Why wouldn't you jump at the chance to fly to an obscure town in India on the company dime!?!?!?

So do not expect this to affect anything unless the government gets involved

My wife and I try to fly Southwest whenever possible. They are the only airline (perhaps the only transportation organization) whose employees actually care about their customers' travel experiences.

It seems the only thing these carpetbaggers understand are lawsuits where they lose.

Its CEO deserves the boot—it happened on his watch!

I think I would rather interact with a robot than with a crew that has procedures so rigid (and dumb) that they are not allowed to have empathy.

I think that's sadly representative of the corporate mindset brought to the extreme. The consumer is not king anymore, it's a product. When did this start? I wonder.

It seems the only thing these carpetbaggers understand are lawsuits where they lose.

Its CEO deserves the boot—it happened on his watch!

It’s hard to find examples of worse decision-making and customer treatment than United Airlines having a passenger dragged from an overbooked plane. But United’s shabby treatment of Geoff Fearns, including a threat to place him in handcuffs, comes close.

Fearns, 59, is president of TriPacific Capital Advisors, an Irvine investment firm that handles more than half a billion dollars in real estate holdings on behalf of public pension funds. He had to fly to Hawaii last week for a business conference.

Fearns needed to return early so he paid about $1,000 for a full-fare, first-class ticket to Los Angeles. He boarded the aircraft at Lihue Airport on the island of Kauai, took his seat and enjoyed a complimentary glass of orange juice while awaiting takeoff.

Then, as Fearns tells it, a United employee rushed onto the aircraft and informed him that he had to get off the plane.

“I asked why,” he told me. “They said the flight was overfull.”

Fearns, like the doctor at the center of that viral video from Sunday night, held his ground. He was already on the plane, already seated. He shouldn’t have to disembark.

“That’s when they told me they needed the seat for somebody more important who came at the last minute,” Fearns said. “They said they have a priority list and this other person was higher on the list than me.”

Apparently United had some mechanical troubles with the aircraft scheduled to make the flight. So the carrier swapped out that plane with a slightly smaller one with fewer first-class seats.

Suddenly it had more first-class passengers than it knew what to do with. So it turned to its “How to Screw Over Customers” handbook and determined that the one in higher standing — more miles flown, presumably — gets the seat and the other first-class passenger, even though he’s also a member of the frequent-flier program, gets the boot.

“I understand you might bump people because a flight is full,” Fearns said. “But they didn’t say anything at the gate. I was already in the seat. And now they were telling me I had no choice. They said they’d put me in cuffs if they had to.”

You couldn’t make this up if you tried.

It shouldn’t make any difference where a passenger is seated or how much he or she paid for their ticket. But you have to admire the sheer chutzpah of United putting the arm on a full-fare, first-class traveler. If there’s anybody whose business you want to safeguard and cultivate, it’s that person.

So how could United possibly make things worse? Not to worry. This is the airline that knows how to add insult to injury.

A United employee, responding to Fearns’ complaint that he shouldn’t have to miss the flight, compromised by downgrading him to economy class and placing him in the middle seat between a married couple who were in the midst of a nasty fight and refused to be seated next to each other.

“They argued the whole way back,” Fearns recalled. “Nearly six hours. It was a lot of fun.”

Back in Southern California, he consulted his lawyer and then wrote to United’s chief executive, Oscar Munoz, who commended airline workers after the passenger-dragging incident “for continuing to go above and beyond to ensure we fly right.”

Fearns requested a full refund for his flight from Kauai and asked for United to make a $25,000 donation to the charity of his choice. This is how rich guys do it.

He received an email back from a United “corporate customer care specialist” apologizing that Fearns apparently had an unpleasant experience. But, no, forget about a refund.

As for that charitable donation, what are you kidding? A hard no on that.

Instead, the service rep offered to refund Fearns the difference between his first-class ticket and an economy ticket — about a week later, as if that wasn’t the first thing they should do in a situation like this — and to give him a $500 credit for a future trip on the airline.

“Despite the negative experience, we hope to have your continued support,” the rep concluded. “Your business is especially important to us and we'll do our utmost to make your future contacts with United satisfactory in every respect.”

I reached out to United and asked if anyone cared to comment on Fearns’ adventure in corporate catastrophe. No one got back to me.

Julia Underwood, a business professor at Azusa Pacific University, said United’s actions in both the dragged-off-the-plane episode and with Fearns reflect a coldhearted mindset utterly devoid of compassion for customers.

“They’re so locked into their policies, there’s no room for empathy,” she said.

As a result, Underwood said, situations that should be manageable spiral out of control and result in unnecessarily messy PR disasters.

“What United and all companies need to do is to train and empower workers to deal with specific issues as they arise,” she said. “Don’t just follow whatever is written in your policies.”

I couldn’t agree more. United is neck-deep in trouble this week because its workers are clearly out of their depth in handling out-of-the-ordinary events. You have to think someone on the flight crew would have been able to step up, if given the trust and authority to do so by the carrier.

Fearns said three different members of the crew on his middle-seat, economy-class return to L.A. apologized for how he was treated in Hawaii. But they said they were unable to do anything.

He’s now considering a lawsuit against United — and he certainly has the resources to press his case.

I asked if he’ll ever fly United again.

Fearns could only laugh. “Are you kidding?”