Another story, pumped up to a storm via Twitter, popped up today when a United Airlines passenger was dragged off a plane.
News story here: www.google.com/…
Everyone outraged that UNITED DRAGGED A PASSENGER OFF THE PLANE! But that's nearly actual ‘fake news.’ United Airlines ain't great when it comes to airline performance and I personally avoid them if I have a choice. But United also does not deserve the outrage and poor framing on how this all went down.
United overbooked the last flight of the night to Louisville and needed volunteers to take a flight the next morning. This happens; not condoning it but it isn't as if it’s never happened before or that it’s illegal to do so. Seems to mostly happen on the first and last flights of the day from major hubs to a destination.
United did the following when they realized the problem:
1. Offered $400 to take a bump
2. Offered $400 and a free hotel room for the night
3. Offered $800 and a free hotel room
4. Notified customers that they couldn't take off without having some folks leave.
5. Notified customers that a computer would randomly select folks to have to get off the plane.
6. When a randomly-selected passenger REFUSED to leave the plane, and no other passengers stepped up, United called law enforcement.
So an entitled doctor who refused to leave the plane, threatening with his lawyer blah blah blah, got his ass dragged off the plane BY POLICE, eventually.
This is exactly how police would treat any of us in this situation, so frankly I'm glad to see at least they didn't make an exception for a doctor who was too cool to be randomly out of luck (+ receiving $800 and a hotel room or jail cell).
This is similar outrage to when a United gate agent denied access to two girls wearing only leggings as pants onto a flight...outrage from everyone about how it was poor customer service and sexist, and very little noise the day after when it came out that the women were on employee tickets which require a dress code as they represent United.
Again, United kinda sucks. They suck for allowing the flight to overbook, their customer service has never been great, as hasn't their on-time performance. But they really dont deserve the blowback from this latest incident, nor the ‘leggings’ one prior.
Take social media outrage with a grain of salt, please.
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