For anybody that thinks United Continental sees this as a “non-event” that just blows over, why not give investor relations or management a call. Spoke with them earlier, and you don’t have to be a top 50 or top 100 shareholder either (though I’m sure the big holders are extra pissed; the -4% move in UAL shares tells you everything you need to know, as if it wasn’t obvious how this was going to play out after all the backlash so far).
Anyway, the company seems to realize how the situation was handled is a real problem, and contrary to what the CEO had said on the air and the leaked memo to United Continental employees, the company is not exactly hiding behind the shield of what was “legal” and what was “policy” versus what was not. They tried that play already and failed miserably, and now they have a far bigger public relations mess to deal with.
When BS has no argument, he just calls people immature (or “man child” in this case). It doesn’t matter anyway if the passenger should have behaved differently. As a company, you should not have a 50-year-old doctor customer beat up and recorded on video under any circumstances. numi is 100% correct - things happen, but how you handle them is eminently important. Even if airlines are known for poor service, this incident has undermined investor confidence in UAL’s management, and it has even further destroyed the company’s reputation in the eyes of customers. There will be, and there already have been, meaningful financial consequences.
No, I actually emailed you about that and saying I meant to quote instead of delete. But, it’s interesting and ironic that you quoted that passage specifically. I say it’s ironic, because I figured that you of all people would have an ongoing dialogue with management teams of the airlines and would be interested in having an intellectually honest understanding of the potential financial impact. It’s part of your day-to-day job as a research analyst to cover the capital goods and transportation sector, correct?
Therefore, I’m actually *surprised* that you did not reach out to management before I did, and I don’t even cover the airlines. I’m just trying to help you.
The police did it, not the airline. They asked for him to be removed, not beaten up.
Also their former CEO called the guy “immature”, I’m simply restating a view that’s out there. Having covered this space for awhile if this case of customer service causes “meaningful financial consequences” it’ll be a first.
Nothing you have said changes the conclusion, which is that UAL is blamed for the incident, the public will side with the passenger, and that this is a PR and business disaster for UAL that could have been prevented.
This is from United’s contract on Denied Boarding Compensation:
If a flight is Oversold, no one may be denied boarding against his/her will until UA or other carrier personnel first ask for volunteers who will give up their reservations willingly in exchange for compensation as determined by UA. If there are not enough volunteers, other Passengers may be denied boarding involuntarily in accordance with UA’s boarding priority: [snip]
So United called for volunteers, but it did it after they have already boarded. The contract clearly states that they can deny boarding only if they call for volunteers before boarding and there aren’t enough. It doesn’t say anywhere that you can be removed from the plane after you’ve already boarded. In this respect, it seems very clearly to me that United has violated their contract.
I think they’re arguing they can deny boarding at any point. Where does any temporal language appear in the contract suggesting that all this MUST happen before you’re on the aircraft?
Can we all just take a minute to appreciate that UAL is on track to lose a billion dollars worth of market cap over its closing price yesterday, probably as a result of this?
If you look carefully at the video just after his shirt rides up around his nipples, you can clearly see that he’s wearing leggings. That must have been why he was picked.
And in other news, chechnya is now starting concentration camps for gays, and they’re claiming that there are no homosexuals in the country. And China is moving tens of thousands of troops to the N Korean border, and telling their traders to cancel all trades with the country, and send back millions of coal.
Was the flight oversold? It is my understanding that the need to give up seats was to accommodate a flight crew that was needed in Louisville, not other passengers.
