3 ms·

People are blowing this out of proportion. About 300K people fly United every day [1] and for the most part have 0 problems (that other airlines don't have) wh

by toephu2 10y ago

People are blowing this out of proportion. About 300K people fly United every day [1] and for the most part have 0 problems (that other airlines don't have) whatsoever. This one bad incident makes the news (the definition of news) and everyone thinks United is horrible and they will never fly them again. Also remember it was the police who dragged the guy off the plane not United. Once the police got on the plane it was out of United's control. All United did was make a phone call to the them (to boot passengers off for their own employees which was wrong), so I feel people should be directing more of their anger at the police instead of United (although some anger can be directed at United too). [1] extrapolated out of my ass from 2015 data but should be close https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/press_releases/bts018_16 https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/press_releases/bts018_16

egwynn 10y ago
People felt like UAL’s decision to get the police involved made them primarily responsible for letting the situation get out of hand. And then after it all blew up, they failed to take a compassionate position for the passenger, and instead stuck to their “we get to throw anyone off our planes for any reason with any amount of force” story. So yes, it’s kinda not 100% their fault, but it’s at least partly their fault, and they didn’t have the good sense to fess up to it until it was too late.
skue 10y ago
No, it's really not about this one incident. United's customer service record has just fallen apart over the past several years, and many of us have had miserable experiences flying United. Every single one of my nightmare travel stories has been on United. Their CEO took as his mission to improve morale and build it back up, and ended up throwing gasoline on the smoldering fire instead. So when we heard the news, we didn't just say "How could an airline do that?" Instead we said "An airline knocked out a passenger and dragged him off a plane so a stewardess could have his seat? Let me guess... was this on United?" (Spirit would have an equally good guess, but at least they don't pretend to be on par with the other carriers.)
- toephu2 10y ago
  "many of us have had miserable experiences flying United." That's just anecdotal evidence, which I also have. I have flown United dozens of times, along with other carriers, and don't really have any complaints with any of them since all the issues I have run into were out of their control (the weather). I am sure I can find a dozen other people who also had miserable flying experiences on Delta for example and then claim "many of us".
mcphage 10y ago
> This one bad incident makes the news (the definition of news) and everyone thinks United is horrible and they will never fly them again. The flaw in your argument: it's not just this one bad incident. United has been in the news repeatedly for poor customer service, and many many people have their own horror stories of dealing with them—just read around in this thread. This isn't "one bad incident", this is more like "the straw that broke the camel's back".

by toephu2 10y ago

egwynn 10y ago

People felt like UAL’s decision to get the police involved made them primarily responsible for letting the situation get out of hand. And then after it all blew up, they failed to take a compassionate position for the passenger, and instead stuck to their “we get to throw anyone off our planes for any reason with any amount of force” story. So yes, it’s kinda not 100% their fault, but it’s at least partly their fault, and they didn’t have the good sense to fess up to it until it was too late.

skue 10y ago

No, it's really not about this one incident. United's customer service record has just fallen apart over the past several years, and many of us have had miserable experiences flying United. Every single one of my nightmare travel stories has been on United. Their CEO took as his mission to improve morale and build it back up, and ended up throwing gasoline on the smoldering fire instead. So when we heard the news, we didn't just say "How could an airline do that?" Instead we said "An airline knocked out a passenger and dragged him off a plane so a stewardess could have his seat? Let me guess... was this on United?" (Spirit would have an equally good guess, but at least they don't pretend to be on par with the other carriers.)

toephu2 10y ago
"many of us have had miserable experiences flying United." That's just anecdotal evidence, which I also have. I have flown United dozens of times, along with other carriers, and don't really have any complaints with any of them since all the issues I have run into were out of their control (the weather). I am sure I can find a dozen other people who also had miserable flying experiences on Delta for example and then claim "many of us".

mcphage 10y ago

> This one bad incident makes the news (the definition of news) and everyone thinks United is horrible and they will never fly them again. The flaw in your argument: it's not just this one bad incident. United has been in the news repeatedly for poor customer service, and many many people have their own horror stories of dealing with them—just read around in this thread. This isn't "one bad incident", this is more like "the straw that broke the camel's back".