Thursday, December 29, 2022

Overbooking by airlines - Wankiest Wankee Way


Overbooking by airlines has not been new though such unethical practices were mainly the American way of doing business, and eff you the passenger. Read this from Wikipedia:

2017 United Express passenger removal





On April 9, 2017 at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, four paying customers were selected to be involuntarily deplaned from United Express Flight 3411 to make room for four deadheading employees.

One of these passengers was Dr. David Dao, 69, a Vietnamese-American who was injured when he was literally dragged from the flight by Chicago Department of Aviation security officers. Dao, a pulmonologist, politely refused to leave his seat when directed because he needed to see patients the following day.

In the process of removing him, the security officers struck his face against an armrest, then pulled him – apparently unconscious – by his arms down the aircraft aisle, past rows of onlooking passengers.

The incident is widely characterized by critics – and later by United Airlines itself – as an example of mishandled customer service.

United removed the passengers to reposition a crew who had been delayed in reaching Louisville to staff a flight the next day. Prior to the confrontation, United agents made a general offer to the plane's passengers – of travel vouchers, accommodations, and a later flight – in exchange for their seats, but none of them accepted. United then algorithmically selected four passengers for involuntary removal from the flight, one of whom was Dao. The three other passengers cooperated with instructions to exit the plane.

Video of the incident recorded by passengers went viral on social media, resulting in anger over the use of force shown. Politicians expressed concern and called for an official investigation. President Donald Trump criticized United Airlines, calling its treatment of Dao "horrible".

The next morning, United CEO Oscar Munoz issued a statement that appeared to downplay the treatment of Dao, referring to the incident as "re-accommodating the customers". Munoz also sent an email to United staff commending the crew's actions for following established procedures and referring to Dao as "disruptive" and "belligerent".

This was contradicted by passengers' accounts and video of the incident; for example, Jason Powell asserted that Dao was not belligerent, saying instead, "He was very polite, matter-of-fact."

Munoz and United were sharply criticized for their initial statements, and United suffered a drop in its stock price. Two days after the incident, Munoz issued an additional statement, apologizing and promising that such an incident would never again occur on a United aircraft.

He said, "No one should ever be mistreated this way." In a televised interview, Munoz was asked, "Do you think [Dao] was at fault in any way?" Munoz responded, "No. He can't be. He was a paying passenger sitting on our seat in our aircraft."

Munoz's previously planned promotion to become United's chairman was delayed until May 2020 as a result of the incident. Dao reached an "amicable" settlement with United on April 27, 2017, though its terms were not publicly announced.

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Dao refused to leave his seat and was dragged screaming from it. In the process, he suffered injuries to his head and mouth when, according to another passenger, aviation security officer James Long threw him against the armrest before dragging him down the aisle by his arms, apparently unconscious. 





During the altercation, several passengers distressed by the incident voluntarily left the aircraft. Passengers stated that officers laughed as Dao was dragged from the plane. The four United employees then sat in the vacated seats.

Shortly afterward, Dao boarded the aircraft again, with blood on his face, repeatedly saying, "I have to go home," and "Just kill me". After he collapsed in a seat, he was removed from the aircraft on a stretcher.

The remaining passengers were then directed to exit the plane while the blood was cleaned up. Several passengers recorded the event on video using phone cameras and the videos were widely circulated on social media. Another passenger reported hearing Dao claim that he had been chosen because of his Asian ethnicity.

Dao was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, including a broken nose, loss of two front teeth, sinus injuries, and "a significant concussion"; the injuries required reconstructive surgery, according to Dao's lawyer.


4 comments:

  1. I was personally the victim of an overbooking incident on an MAS Penang -Singapore flight - as long as 33 years ago in 1989.
    In my case , the MAS staff were very apologetic, they had caught it during check-in, offered me a later flight + compensation discount voucher on MAS flight.

    It is no doubt very, very bad if it got to the point of asking to take someone off the plane after they already boarded.

    Such incidents are always unpleasant , but it is also a symptom of Ktemoc's brainless unrelenting hostility to the USA to simply use it to condemn it as Wankiest Wankee Way "unethical practices were mainly the American way of doing business"...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. wakakaka, poor Monster, as a pro Wankee boy, you would even go to the extent of raising an example just to show your towkay ain't no commercial aberration. Must be a damn burden for you, wakakaka again

      Delete
    2. It ain't no uniquely Wankee commercial aberration.
      MAS was practicing this more than 3 decades ago,as I experienced it very well.

      Delete
  2. Sounded more like a gangster's airline

    ReplyDelete