United, you fail

Forcibly ejecting a passenger is a new low

Those pat-downs at the airport security line don’t seem all that intrusive now that United Airlines has set a new low for treating passengers. Have the temerity to balk when United employees try to bump you from a flight you’re already on and they’ll summon an airport goon squad to knock you on the head and drag you from the plane.

That’s essentially what happened as United Express Flight 3411 sat at the gate Sunday at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. After passengers boarded the plane, the airline decided to bump four of them and give the seats to a United flight crew that the airline claimed needed to make the trip to Louisville, Ky. The airline offered vouchers as an incentive for passengers to give up their seats voluntarily but didn’t get any takers. It then selected four passengers for bumping, but one of them refused, saying he was a doctor who needed to make the trip to Louisville so he could see patients the next day.

When airline employees couldn’t talk the man out of his seat, they summoned Chicago Department of Aviation security, which dragged him across an armrest and off of the plane. He later rushed back on, collapsed and was removed on a stretcher. Horrified passengers captured the bloody incident on cell-phone video, which went viral, generating disgust across the nation and providing grist for the late-night television comedy shows. A guard has been suspended, the U.S. Transportation Department is investigating, there is outrage in China because of the injured passenger’s Asian ethnicity, and the value of the airline’s stock fell hundreds of millions of dollars on Tuesday.

Well done, United. Time to summon memories of your bankruptcy proceedings from 2002 through 2006.

This appalling incident was bound to happen in an era of airline deregulation and poor customer service as a business model. The post-9/11 focus on security has created an atmosphere in which airlines feel comfortable getting tough with passengers, for whatever reason, and cowed passengers take whatever is dished out so they can get to their destinations with as little friction as possible.

This attitude was reflected in the reaction of United CEO Oscar Munoz, a master of corporate doublespeak, who on Monday sent a letter to employees describing the “upsetting event” at Chicago and lamenting the unfortunate need to “re-accommodate” four passengers. Mr. Munoz went on to criticize the injured passenger for refusing to give up the seat he paid for and vowed to “emphatically stand behind” a hardworking United workforce. As CNBC said Tuesday, United’s board of directors might want to “re-accommodate” Mr. Munoz at this point. By Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Munoz was goaded into apologizing to the passenger.

Airline apologists have pointed out the limited options United faced in Chicago. It has only so many ways to get flight crews from one point to another and stranding one means grounding an entire flight somewhere along the line.

However, United should have addressed the situation before a single passenger got on the plane. An airline ought to know where its flight crews are going and how passengers might be affected so that employees don’t show up to demand seats on a plane about to take off. Under no circumstances should paying passengers be ejected from a flight to make way for employees. United needs to have a charter service on speed-dial, ready to shuttle crews if needed.

It all comes back to the major airlines’ arrogant attitude toward customers. Until that changes, Sunday’s “upsetting event” may not be the last.