Do you have shares in United Airlines?
You might want to put them on your watch list.
North America’s fourth-largest passenger airline is going through some tough times lately - and it has nothing to do with the economy.
The company is being publicly shamed on nearly every media platform this week, for a public relations nightmare, resulting from what can only be explained as company greed.
A video surfaced early this week, of a passenger being forcibly removed from United Flight 3411 at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, Sunday.
According to passengers on the flight, the airline was attempting to bump four paid passengers from the flight, to make room for airline staff.
When only three passengers volunteered their seats, the airline made a random draw to determine who the fourth unlucky passenger would be.
The man who lost his seat - later identified as Dr. David Dao - was forcibly removed from the plane, as other passengers pulled out their mobile phones and recorded the ordeal.
Dao was dragged from his seat, down the aisle, while he screamed in protest.
He was later hospitalized for his injuries.
But the PR poop-storm did not end - or even start - there.
The CEO for United Airlines did his company no favours Monday, issuing a memo to employees defending the company for its actions, without offering an apology to Dao.
One day later, Oscar Munoz issued a statement apologizing to Dao, although without identifying him by name.
“I deeply apologize to the customer forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard. No one should ever be mistreated this way,” the statement read.
Since Sunday’s overbooking story broke, other United Airlines passengers are coming forward with similar experiences, including a first-class passenger (Geoff Fearns) who, according to an LA Times article, was threatened with handcuffs if he did not vacate his first-class seat. Fearns was quoted in the article as saying, “They told me they needed the seat for somebody more important who came at the last minute.”
But poor customer service is nothing new for this airline giant. According to CNN, United has ranked near the bottom of airline customer satisfaction indexes for several years.
In fact, one of Munoz’s directives when he took over in 2015 was to improve the company’s reputation. He needs to brush up on his skills.
As does his staff.
The most frustrating part of the overbooking reports, from a flier’s perspective, is there really is no reason for overbooking flights to begin with, other than pure company greed.
It’s not as if they lose any money with an empty seat. Unless there’s a secret way to book flights without paying that I am unaware of – and if that is the case, please, enlighten me (I sincerely mean that) – every seat on a fully booked flight has already been paid for.
It’s not like the car rental company, which will purposely oversell rentals, because of the expected 10 per cent no-shows, who have nothing to lose by not showing up. It’s free to book a car, and there are no repercussions for not following through with your rental.
A flight? That’s a different matter. You book, you pay. You don’t show up; your loss.
As for its stock, according to Reuters, shares of United Continental closed down 1.1 per cent Tuesday, at $70.71, after falling as much as 4.4 per cent earlier. The company shed as much as about $1 billion in market value before ending the day with a loss of about $250 million.
No doubt, United will survive these latest PR horrors. After all, barely two weeks have passed since another report of less-than-congenial behaviour by its staff. On March 27, a United gate agent turned away two teenaged girls for wearing leggings, stating that they did not meet the dress code for special pass travellers. And while that caused quite a stir on Twitter, it clearly had little effect on ticket sales.
We tend to have short memories, when it comes to such things. But I’m sure they lost more than just a few customers this week. As they should. I’m glad we have choice, when it comes to airlines.
Terry Farrell is the editor of the Comox Valley Record