Oscar Munoz, the United Airlines CEO who overcame a heart attack and heart transplant surgery, may not be able to overcome an incident that has galvanized the nation and indeed the world. Is Munoz in danger of losing his job?
I’ve been shocked by the number of comments and tweets I have received over the past 24 hours calling on Oscar Munoz to either step down or be removed. Munoz’s public statement on the dragging incident and letter to employees aroused outcry. Many declared Munoz out of touch and more have called for his head in exchange for the wounded head of the doctor dragged off Flight 3411.
My question to those who want to see Munoz go: what would it solve?
Even as I defended Munoz’s need to back his employees, I lamented his tone deaf response to the incident. But for those who demand a sacrificial lamb to atone for the dragging incident, should Oscar be the chosen one? For those who say yes, I ask these three questions:
First, how does removing Munoz solve the problem? The involuntary-denied-boarding policy may need revisiting. The method of removing unwilling passengers by brute force certainly must be disavowed. Shouldn’t Munoz be given a chance to conduct the promised investigation and weigh what policy changes should be made?
Second, who will take his place? Bring Brett Hart back? He’s an ex-Continental guy as well with a similar mindset. Scott Kirby? I’m sure he’d want it but his leadership tenure is marked by a steep regression of the customer experience at American Airlines. At the helm of United Airlines would he dismantle recent clawbacks in pursuit of short-term profit? Someone from the outside? Who? Munoz may not be perfect but you cannot talk about replacing him without talking about who his replacement would be.
Third, is retribution really necessary? As always in situations like these, there are calls for someone’s head to roll. But bloodlust reflects an “eye for eye” mentality that does not necessarily promote justice. Can’t valuable lessons be learned without revenge? Wasn’t the violent Chicago Airport Police Officer the proper person to be placed on leave?
CONCLUSION
I don’t believe removing Munoz is the right move. However, he now faces a greater trust deficit with the public than ever before. It is imperative that he recalibrates his words to express unequivocal empathy for the injured man, even if he sincerely believes man was at fault. It is an optics issue now. How ironic that Munoz was awarded PR Week’s “Communicator Of The Year” award just a few days ago.
Well, Wall St sees it different. United shares are melting today. There is an article on CNBC saying shareholders are questioning the competence of management in handling crisis scenarios. It is probably time for Mr. Munoz to start polishing his resume.
United is a poorly run airline anyway, that should be enough reason for him to go. Inconveniencing a doctor who paid for a ticket, because of their mismanagement of crew schedules, is just a glaring example of all the other problems.
Well, the old saying goes ‘the fish stinks at the head’. If his management of this company didn’t allow this type of thing to happen (not to mention his blaming of the assaulted patron) it wouldn’t have happened. He needs to go. The crew of the plane needs to go (where the hell was the captain? Isn’t s/he supposed to be in charge of the plane?). Plus the airport police need to go. This did not happen in a vacuum. This took employees who were pissed off because their will was being thwarted by paying customers who wouldn’t do what they were told. And it escalated into the assault of a man who stood his ground. The whole damned company is broken if they, or anyone, think this is acceptable. And you fix it by starting at the top.
Tanking? Down 1% at the close. Big deal.
I agree that Munoz must go, it sends a message that there is a limit to airlines callous treatment. And limit has reached. Last year, I traveled to South America, Europe and Asia and customer facing airlines staff in USA wins hands down reward for RUDEST ever flown. They hide behind overreach given to them after 9/11 and make even toilet trip as security issue. If I go by Tipping Point theory something must be rocked to bring some semblance in the system. I am not saying security concerns must be lightened but every thing is not security issue and give travelers a reasonable break.
Also, I still think that incident is wrongly reported. Flight was not overbooked, 4 employees did not book the flight, actually they can’t book it unless there are seats. They showed up because UAL planners screwed up. It is like I ordered food and paid for it and then chef decided to eat it and keep my money as well, saying that he will serve me another day. My foot, this is not overbooking by any definition, it is UAL needing seats for its own purpose….report it to what it is….go Munoz go, and get ready to be “to be dragged out of the CEO seat, it has been overbooked”
For me he crossed the line when he supported his employees until his stocks started plummeting then his sympathy kicked in. Too late for that by then.
Answers to the author’s questions:
1) Removing Munoz may not solve the problems immediately, but may incentivize the next CEO to work a little bit harder to acknowledge the problems and solve them.
2) Why ask consumers this question? This is the job of the UAL board of directors. We just want the problems fixed.
3) Actions have consequences. The violent officers should also be fired.
Fire this jerk – He is stealing sand from the beach in Florida- while others are paying to build back their property after the hurricanes.
The head guy must be fired. That’s how internet outrage works.
Matthew, I have to disagree with you! United is particularly arrogant and disdainful towards its customers, especially since its merger with Continental. For some reason, Continental executives took over the merged company and corporate culture changed overnight into a customer hostile greedy company that charged fees on top of fees and was a leader in soaking its customers while repeatedly coming in last in customer satisfaction surveys as compared with other US Carriers. United’s pitiful responses to this crisis show that this former Continental executive and his Continental cronies are completely out of their league in running an international company well and guiding it through troubled times. This leadership needs to go, fired, retired, resigned, whatever, just get out and take your Continental cronies with you! Nothing good has come from that merger and the faster we can get rid of the Continental executives with their Continental management style and corporate culture, the better off United will be. Taking Munoz out is the first step in changing United and that is why it is important that Munoz be fired!
Munoz is an old railroad CEO and I don’t think he was part of the Continental team that took over United. Continental was a great airline and it was a low point when they merged with United. Kellner left because he saw the writing on the wall with the merger and knew United was so poorly run that Continentals culture would never survive the merger. Especially with the new CEO being a man that never saw a fee he did not want to charge. Never had a bad Continental flight before the merger and now cattle car Southwest is a better choice.
The airline management teams really need to do a better job of finding a middle ground of fulfilling their fiduciary duty to shareholders and providing good customer service to their customers. The current climate just shrugs off poor treatment of customers because they know, for every angry customer they lose, they take in one from a competing airline. No matter how much a customer is inconvenienced, the airline cares more about the economic outcome for them than fulfilling their obligations to the satisfactory of the customer. Just this last week I saw a blog post of a family making $11,000 in bumps from the mess. In this case, I’m sure there is some formula that says go up to $800 and then yank someone off….because it is more cost beneficial for UA. Who know what would have happened if they went to $1,000, or $1,200, or more. Is that cost effective for UA….No. But why do airline customers constantly have to foot the bill for airline mismanagement and inefficient operations?
I do think Oscar’s handling of this situation is cause for him to be let go and United move in a different direction. His response was as legally cautious as you can get. Instead of trying to express regret or assure customers a full investigation is underway, he tried to diminish their legal culpability. I honestly think saying nothing or expressing anger and throwing the police under the bus would have been a better strategy.
I think if this is like most viral stories and goes away in a few weeks..his job is safe. But if there is noticeable traffic that moves away from UA, like the Asian market or a noticeable amount of Americans, he’s done.
You can’t have an ‘amount of Americans’. You can have a ‘number of Americans’. The first version is grammatically incorrect.
Of course, the real culprits in all this are those fellow passengers who filmed the doctor’s “re-accommodation,” without his express consent. As Matthew is well aware, UA’s photography policy provides that, “Photographing or recording other customers or airline personnel without their express consent is prohibited.” UA should follow-up its PR blitz, by banning these fellow passengers for life!
LOL then be seen as the airline that beats people and then bans people who wanted the world to know about it? If this wasn’t recorded no one would have known what happened and UA could’ve covered their asses. Banning those people is the last thing they would do at this point, it would make UA look worse.
you are crazy, totally focus on the wrong thing! Are you telling me the focus should have been on the people who filmed this? just because the policy doesn’t allow them to? what were you thinking? Aren’t you glad someone had witness this and showed it to the public what a wrongful doing this is? the reason why there is so many problems and wrong doing because of people like you
what’s wrong with you?? you are crazy, totally focus on the wrong thing! Are you telling me the focus should have been on the people who filmed this? just because the policy doesn’t allow them to? what were you thinking? Aren’t you glad someone had witnessed this and showed it to the public what a wrongful doing this was? the reason why there is so many problems and wrong doing because of people like you
Sheesus! Try looking up sarcasm, you morans (sic)
Do you even sarcasm?
Haha, that is hilarious! Yes, that would be a BRILLIANT move to solidify their PR bomb into PR oblivion. (and the rest of you who responded in outrage to this suggestion do not know a good joke when you read one!)
if he had said united would review the policy regarding VDB and IDB, it would be different. UA likes to copy delta. delta gave amex gift card. I used to take UA vouchers regularly (as 1k) i stop caring for status after the rdm is revenue based and wont take VDB vouchers as those are just funny money (i have cash to book tickets of i have a neef and over 2M airmiles) I used to take vouchers for mileage running, but there is no neef now. delta recognizes that there are fewer takers under the revenue based system for VDB and react by giving amec gift card. UA follows delta move to revenue based but not in.addressing VDB.
UA could oversold many earlier flight that a flight 22 hours to induce VDB, it can rebook on AA to get VDB. the corporate policy wont allow, this is clearly the fault of the management who didnt anticipate how things are inter related. adding the insensitive comments by oscar, he must go.
Matthew, I told you yesterday at this time that this whole smelled and that the displaced flight crew was booked in advance. You defended UA and Muniz. I also requested that you check your facts before you blog.
Reliable bloggers like Lucky and Gary Leff are reporting that this was not denied boarding, instead it was “refusal to transport”. Nowhere in COC, rule 21 does it give UA the right to remove a seated passenger to transport employees for the convenience of the airline. UA allowed their scheduling to result in a barbaric display of treatment of an elderly, Asian man. Matthew, there is no way you can clean up this mess so stop praising Munoz for supporting his employees. They made a gross error(s) of judgment.
He needs to go
Passenger brutality
Leggings incident
UA race to the bottom of the airline industry.
You may have a bromance with Munoz but everyone else knows he needs to go.
Actually, I respectfully disagree with Lucky on the issue of whether he was denied boarding. A post will be up later today. Gary disagrees as well (you can see his comment in Lucky’s post). So no, you are incorrect here, at least in terms of Gary’s opinion. Does that make him “unreliable” too?
Then you are just plain wrong. Full stop.
The man was not “denied boarding”.
He was most obviously and emphatically allowed to board the flight …
… and then only afterwards he was forcibly (and violently) removed from his seat.
Ooops, I meant to say the flight crew was NOT booked in advance, they were walkups (standby pax). When do seated pax get thrown off flights for standbys?
I don’t agree with Matthew on Munoz, but he it totally apolitical as is Lucky and that’s why they are the only two bloggers worth my time, i.e. reliable. Gary has become a political hack as are most other bloggers.
Hey Brown noser. This guy is toast.he got a new heart but needs brain transplant.he has pissed the world off with his stupid comments.he is a,heartless jerk .he has caused irreversible damage to United.I will not fly United.ever!.
The race card has already been raised in this incident. Chinese are outraged. Vietnamese are angry. Both because the media reports that this immigrant is either Chinese or Vietnamese. No one knows. But there are no protests for the other three who left their seats without invoking the drama queen routine. I side with United and the Chicago Aviation Police. This guy brought it on himself. Sick of the emotional reactions taking over critical thinking. The man behaved like a petulant 7 year old. He invoked a sadly too often observed cultural trait in Chinese and Vietnamese. Google youtube for more outrageous behavior episodes on planes from such cultures.
Wow, Mr Alan S. You must NOT be an Asian descent then. It is so obvious from your insensitive tone – not only to people of not your color/breed, but also to this glaring lack of business courtesy. You and Munoz can probably board together – I could care less where. And burn!
It’s so sad the some people are still seeing the world thru their biased, and racist binoculars nowadays. SMH…
I would have done what the Doctor did. Especially since He was seated already. It doesn’t matter who I am. Keep asking for someone who is willing to give up their seat. If no one volunteers then your employees can wait for another flight. We pay for a service. United in this case could deliver. Munoz, those police officers, the crew involved, and the Captian of the plane should be disaplined accordingly after a proper investigation
He’s clearly shown he’s not CEO material in an era of internet and social media. He just doesn’t get it. And UAL stock capital is showing that.
The CEO is the captain of the ship and is ultimately responsible for all activities on that ship. It’s time CEOs felt the consequences of out of touch and arrogant behavior! He must go to send the right signal, CEOs are accountable, period!
It is disgusting that one of the largest Airlines in the United States intentionally violate basic human rights in order to cover up their own mistakes. We demand United Airline CEO Oscar Munoz to resign!!! This is the only way to get things right!!!
The author of this article seems to be improbably obtuse. Does he seriously not get it?
“First, how does removing Munoz solve the problem?”
Really? So if Munoz loses his job over this, you don’t think his replacement and other airline CEOs won’t revisit appalling treatment of passengers? Even if only in the interest of self preservation?
“Shouldn’t Munoz be given a chance to conduct the promised investigation and weigh what policy changes should be made?”
No.
He already had his chance.
But with his initial quasi-apology (which was really a non-apology) and then his disgraceful email to employees blaming the victim of the violent assault, Munoz does not deserve any more “chances”.
Replacing Munoz is essential to restore competence—and confidence; if his successor is not immediately obvious, an extended search will uncover someone who understands –without consulting PR consultants–that assaulting a paying customer in his seat is wildly unacceptable. It now appears that declining UAL shares and a growing Chinese boycott of the profitable long haul route will help facilitate his ‘reaccommodation.’
Yes, in America there are consequences for disastrous decisions, a fact that likely eluded Mathew, who has apparently spent much of his working life with the largely consequence-free federal government. Would also like to see a disclosure of what involvement this fellow has with United in his role advising on travel and mileage award decisions.
If the United Board are wise they will fire Munoz quickly. His letter to employees took a bad situation and made it a PR disaster. Grade for his response F. Remove him quickly. If they don’t United business and stock will continue to go down.
He should be fired. The core of this is that a human being has been physically abused and humiliated, and that the head of the organisation responsible has attempted to justify that treatment. All the rest of the context is window dressing. There is also a broader point here, and that is that the outrage from the online travelling world is, at some level of consciousness, because this physical assault is now the simple logical continuation from the myriad smaller agressions and humiliations meted out by airport and airline authorities every single day. People are saying enough is enough and human dignity needs to be put firmly back into the minds of those who would seem to have forgotten all about it. If bringing down a CEO, or even an airline, will focus minds on that, then so be it.
This guy works in the hospitality industry where customers are always right. This is not a manufacturing or IT company where ur employees are better than ur customer. If he can’t make clear of this difference, he is truly incompetent.
We’ve come a long way from “the customer is always right.”
If Munoz stays CEO, United has no intention of changing its abuse of passengers, much less any real desire to “make things right”. Munoz must resign or be fired.
Absolutely the CEO must go. No question about it. United should probably change its name as well. I think of my own father when he was 69 years old. You couldn’t tell he was unhealthy by looking at him sitting down but he had cancer, heart disease and a bad back. I know he would have stood his ground and am sure that assaulting him this way would have had a catastrophic impact on his health. Then I think of my 9 year old granddaughter who would like to fly alone so she can have regular visits with her father during school breaks. Putting her on a plane alone would be like feeding her to wolves. Finally, I think of my husband. If he was assaulted in that manner he would have fought back. He would have ended up in jail and on the no-fly list. If Munoz is fired and dragged out by his hair, I might considered flying United a decade from now. No, on second thought, just get rid of him as a warning to other carriers.
Removing Munoz will, in and of itself, not solve the problem. It would be incumbent on those choosing his successor to have a shift in their own point-of-view so that they can select someone who will set a different tone from top to bottom. For me, it’s not retribution, it’s finding someone credible to solve the problem.
Munoz has to go, and the Board of Directors needs to fire him. I don’t think they’ll be asking you, Matthew, who to replace him with. You don’t pay someone $53 million plus amazing perks to make a really bad situation much worse. Oscar came back a day later, when the Board must have told him to fix it fast, and pompously announced “it’s never too late to do the right thing”. I disagree. I won’t use my United credit again, and I won’t pay United a dime again – unless the BoD can fix this, and fast. If the Board lets this go to the point where this sinks UAL, well, so be it. That leaves room for newer, smaller airlines that will put service first.
Let me give you a for-instance of exactly how all of this really is Oscar’s responsibility. Say I hire you to wash my car. You grab a “will work for food” guy or a sullen teenager, who manages to let my car roll of a cliff. My legal relationship is with you, the guy I hired and paid. You do, indeed, bear responsibility for what your subcontractor did to me. Exactly the same with everybody’s United cobranded flight, though Oscar tried to say differently. I wouldn’t trust this guy to get my car washed safely.
Let me start by saying that I have been rooting for United Airlines for decades now, Mileage Plus member most of that time. I’m not a picky traveler, and not had any beefs with United. I actually LIKED United Airlines till last weekend, and even preferred to travel with them. Several friends work for them, including a friend who is a United Flight Attendant– in fact, I’m a little bummed I was supposed to see her tonight and would have wanted to see what she thinks (back in the day, she was a Pan Am flight attendant). She is hardworking and doesn’t deserve to be affected by the loss of business United will be facing because of a few people’s bad decisions. I actually would like United to recover from this for people like her.
So, that’s where I’m coming from… and with that, a resounding YES, the CEO needs to go. It is the only way to give United the best chance of recovering from this.
As a lay person, I didn’t know who Mr. Munoz was before this, and didn’t know who the CEO of United was. You probably did, since you are in the travel business. With all due respect, he might be a nice guy who has overcome his health issues, but he cannot stay if United wants to optimize its recovery.
We can argue till the cows come home about who was right who was wrong, but at the end of the day, United’s business relies on its customers. As one of these customers, I’m not choosing to do business w/Chicago Aviation Police or with Dr. Dao– I am choosing an airline to get me safely from point A to point B, thousands of miles up in the air. Safety being a key concern, and basically airlines are in the business of trust. That trust was broken when watching the videos– for an average person, it conjured fear of something like this happening to myself or people I care about, fear of United Airline’s staff and especially their judgment, fear of United Airlines calling security/police on a nonviolent person verbally refusing to leave their seat, fear of a bloody nose/mouth, being knocked unconscious, being dragged down the aisle without any dignity whatsoever.
CEO Munoz had a tremendous opportunity to right this situation immediately– and as we all know, he didn’t. And of course that was the wrong decision, because he has now had to do a 180.
Hate to say this, but this misstep on CEO Munoz’s part will either cost him his job or it will cause United’s business to suffer. I don’t know if United really wants to wait to see if this is correct. But I don’t believe he can keep his job and keep the customers.
For the plain reason that he has breached the trust w/customers because of his initial response. The world was waiting for United’s response after this incident. And of course, as we all know, this CEO’s response was almost just as shocking and dumbfounding as the incident. I didn’t know this CEO before, but upon hearing the initial response, I wanted CEO Munoz removed too. And still do.
Sorry, CEO Munoz’s breach in trust with customers is irrevocable, it cannot be undone at this point. Because the world saw his initial response, and we assume that is how he really feels. The subsequent responses sound like coverups, and we don’t TRUST his responses. We feel he is probably lying do us.
Let’s take it further. Now when I fly United, if for some reason I got bloodied & unconscious by security that United Airlines called, for nonviolently refusing to do something its staff wanted, I am certain CEO Munoz is going to think it was ok and ‘procedure.’ He will not support me as a customer, he will support his employees. This is how he really feels, and are his true colors. Whatever he is saying now, just does not ring true, and I will always be skeptical of him.
At this point, I can pick almost any other airline and feel safer with them than United Airlines. Overnight, United Airlines lost my business and my trust. It will not be regained quickly with CEO Munoz at the helm because I fear him, I fear his bad judgment, and most of all I don’t TRUST him.
United Airlines will be better off replacing him with almost anyone else– another CEO whom I’ll probably have never heard of. I would be more willing to give a new person a chance, than Munoz because of his ‘baggage.’
Previously, I commented about all the things United needed to do to quickly get back customers’ trust: fully apologize and take responsibility for what happened to Dr. Dao; be appalled and shocked and insist this was not procedure; reassure people this will NEVER again happen on one of their flights. And with time, now these things have happened.
The other 2 parts I mentioned before is: (1) firing of the CEO Munoz (or he can resign, doesn’t matter how he goes) because of his initial callous, unapologetic, blaming, woefully inadequate initial response. It will represent a new start for United Airlines, which is what it needs. It gives customers a chance to trust the new CEO. Some customers like myself will never be able to trust Munoz. And it would show that United Airlines has taken the problem seriously– by removing the person whose leadership this incident happened under. Again, I would not say this at all, if CEO Munoz gave a proper response from the beginning. He didn’t HAVE to lose his job under the circumstances. But now I believe he does.
(2) Firing a bunch of people at United Airlines. Who it is exactly, I wouldn’t know and don’t really care. Just a bunch of people. United can figure out exactly who. If they are really nice to their employees and protect them, I don’t always believe in punishing the lowest on the totem pole who are just following procedures. So– who was responsible for a bunch of the policies that went wrong and contributed to this incident? Higher ups– great, I think a few of those people should go, esp whoever is in charge of PR. On the ground and at the gate, someone should really think about whether each of those employees deserve to be let go or deserve to stay. Who contacted Chicago Aviation officers? Who authorized it? What did they say exactly– did they misportray or lie about the passenger, which then caused the officers to respond urgently and violently? Who was the United Airlines supervisor in charge of that?
The pilot? What usually happens when security comes on board? Were any of the crew or pilots watching what happened? If not, why not? Why didn’t they intervene when the passenger was unconscious and ask the officers to stop? Maybe the pilot’s got to go too– if he is the authoritative figurehead and the person overall in charge.
Anyway, firing of several employees is necessary to show that such poor behavior and poor judgment won’t be tolerated by the airline. And to show that they understand who/where things went wrong. And to encourage their employees to step in and make better common sense decisions.
I don’t really care who it is– but when they explain it, it should all make sense. Why certain people were fired, and how this makes things safer for me, if I agree to fly with them again.
So anyway, YES, I think firing CEO Munoz would go a long way in helping the perception problem with United Airlines now. And help with the trust issue. I will go so far to say that personally, so long as he is at the helm, I will be choosing to fly with other airlines rather than United.
Also Matthew, I am only one person and one customer who spends $$ on airlines several times a year. I don’t know any of the commenters here. Take a look and count up how many people responding here, on other blogs, comment sections of the news, social media, etc, who all think the CEO should be gone. Now think of each of those people as $$ for United, and see how much $$ United stands to lose from this. I think it is a lot.
Oh and finally, I always forget to mention timeliness– the swifter the action the better. The less it will linger in people’s head. The sooner a new CEO comes in, the sooner a new direction for United Airlines, in the mind of the public. He should really have been gone… yesterday.
There is only one path for this fellow; and that is OUT. If he gets out on his own, so much the better; else he just needs to be kicked out. As a consolation, United could pay him for a course in “good”customer service.
Not only should he be fired, he should be incarcerated for gross negligence for systemized battery. And all other appropriate charges.
I can’t believe the ignorant statements here wanting to have Oscar Munoz fired and totally maligning Matthew for having written this and other related articles. They should be applauding Oscar for being a stand-up guy, a class act as he has stated he has taken ownership of this debacle and plans to prevent it from happening again. Cut the guy some slack even if he did make a poor showing on the initial statement – he later got more facts and stepped up again after that.
Why isn’t anyone objecting or getting in touch with and demanding the firing of the CEO of REPUBLIC AIRLINES – BRYAN BEDFORD ?? This guy never stepped up once !!
Why isn’t anyone finding out the names and demanding the firing of the jackbooted nazi goon squad that broke Dr. Dao’s nose and teeth as they brutalized and dragged him face first out of a row of two seats ? You’re all hung up on bloodthirsty revenge.
Do us all (those that are defending United and will still fly United) a favor and cut up your UA Explorer credit cards, cut up your Mileage Plus cards and make sure you call Visa and call UA Mileage Plus and CLOSE YOUR ACCOUNTS. This way we (who will continue to fly United) can have access to more available seats, more mileage while we watch you pile onto DL and AA flights !
Glad you’re happy to forgive three failed announcements from a $53 million-plus-a-year executive, which made a very bad situation instantly worse. Once the stock dropped, someone above him must have woken him up. “Stand-up guy, a class act”? Really? How much were you paid to write that?
I do hope Republic is doing a lot of soul searching over this, and making big changes. Yes, their name is all over it, too. The thugs who did the actual damage are, presumably, being taken care of. At least they’ve been suspended.
I’m content to quit flying UA and leave you lots of empty seats, since you seem sure United can afford to fly you around in a half-empty plane. BTW- we contact Chase, not VISA, to cancel our United credit cards – guess you don’t actually have one. Cancelling those cards hits UA where it hurts, even if it makes you cheerful for some reason. And my choices of other airlines for upcoming trips include Lufthansa, BA, AA, Alaska, Virgin Atlantic, Delta, Singapore, Asiana, Thai, etc. United does a lot more than just fly between midwestern cities, which is why the Chinese response could be especially damaging. Ignorant statements? Yup.
That’s all you’ve got? , you think I was paid to write down my opinion, otherwise known as freedom of speech? LOL. All your ranting does is establish the collective lunacy of people. Why are you even bothered or outraged when you obviously (and smugly I might add) are mentioning flying so many airlines, BA, AA, AK, VS, DL, SQ, OZ, TG at no small fares no doubt– and you probably never got bumped from a flight in your life, you’ve never felt the pain but, oh boy, let’s execute Oscar for having the audacity to be the CEO of an airline – your carwash analogy is lame by the way. United can and will afford to fly their planes ” 1/2 empty planes” per you, only you might want to add into the equation the thousands of people who are booking UA online right this minute and the next 24/7 window and on and on, and will fly United without you on board. And yeah, I do hold a Chase Visa UA mplus Explorer credit card and I know I would have to call Chase about it….but, I have no plans to cancel my account. Please do hurry and cancel your Chase Mplus cc and please do call UA and cancel your Mplus membership so those of us who can handle any bad airline events on United will still fly them. Hope you don’t own a gun or serve on any juries, you sound trigger happy, you know …shoot first and (don’t) ask questions later.
I’d like to just add for those of you who choose to adopt the mob mentality, have you even taken the time to see/ listen what Oscar has said (past only his early, first remarks) ?. Even his words to employees on their internal website has garnered total support of employees, none are asking for his head. Employees collectively are upset and disturbed by the video but in defense of employees, they were doing standard operating procedure when it comes to handling of deadheading (must ride) crews and IDB of passengers. The fact that a goon squad of mall “cops” roughed up Dr. Dao certainly was not endorsed or expected of that UAL ground staff, they should not be blamed. Should Oscar know telepathically every innuendo and scenario that can happen or go wrong when involuntary denied boarding is necessary ? Does any CEO really know the minutiae of job duties at lower rank and file level? Right, they don’t, they have all kinds of middlemen, managers and supervisors that are supposed to be on top of that and make sure the wheels spin correctly. Oscar (and Matthew !) have been unfairly maligned.