What Ethically Happened on that United Flight?

No one needs me to tell them that flying, in general, has become a miserable experience. Perhaps you are old enough to remember when flying was “classy” or “chic.” In that case, you are, sorry to say, pretty old (don’t fret, I’m right behind you!). However, for general passenger’s warm meals or even chocolate chip cookies are a thing of the past.  Just ask folks who fly United and other major carriers.  But that isn’t the issue ethically speaking at hand.

I frequently fly, which means I get benefits. To get those benefits I was a long-suffering general passenger. Were I to fly on a particular airline just a little less, my frequent flyer benefits would be removed. No one at the airline would much care something like that would happen to me.

At some point (accelerated post 9/11), the only thing that seemed to matter to the vast majority of air travelers was price. The cheaper the price, the better. We stopped mourning about the loss of peanuts and drink service, the common courtesies and even the customer service. We just wanted cheap, then very cheap, and we wanted the aircraft to take off and land somewhere on schedule. The airlines then shifted from making flights a reasonably happy experience to a bus ride with wings.

Some of my fellow passengers responded in kind. In fact, some of my fellow passengers took on the personal hygiene and the manners of farm animals. Airline travel now often devolves into a contentious relationship and I don’t care which airline you select – United, American, Delta, Southwest – they all are functionally the same.

Passenger dragged off overbooked United flight

So, not long ago a man was dragged – literally, off of a United flight because he refused to give up his paid-for seat. This was done so that the airline could make room for crew members.

After they removed him from the plane, he ran back and that’s when the security people went to work. We are in a hyper-sensitive, social media age to be certain. The media also likes to paint picture based on hypotheticals and hysteria as well. It doesn’t help.

The airline announced that they needed four seats and that they would compensate and re-book. Three passengers left but the fourth seat was the one that caused all those problems. When no one else volunteered, they went into an “involuntary de-boarding situation.”

Interestingly, the request seemed to have come after everyone had boarded. The airline, going through its protocols identified one passenger to be removed. Two of the security officers tried to calmly talk the man into leaving, but a third who must have thought he was auditioning for a Hollywood cop movie, started to grab and manhandle the man.

The man yelled that he was a physician and had to get to his patients. Then he yelled that he was Chinese and was being racially profiled. Point one, the man used to be a doctor and had his license removed. There were no patients to see. Point two, he is indeed Chinese, but given that United is aggressively trying to expand its presence in the Far East, I am satisfied his Asian appearance was not a factor.

Passenger Rights?

Let us be honest. Any airline can overbook a flight to its heart’s content. If they are overbooked and airline personnel need seats in order to make another flight, that’s just the way it goes, and good luck with it. The airline looks at things such as how cheap the ticket might have been or even check-in time. Whether the man was Irish or Chinese, a doctor or dock worker, a fast food fry cook or a French diplomat, if he or she is in line to get removed, that’s tough.

United said that the passenger was belligerent, they said they offered him up to $1,000 in compensation. The airline said they followed all of the proper procedures, and that may well be true, but the security officer is being punished and the airline is reaching out to the guy to try to resolve the issue.

Could United Airlines or any airline for that matter, handled this situation more ethically? The obvious answer is a resounding “yes!” and the airlines could have established expectations well ahead of time. For example, since the airline identified passengers to remove by ticket price and/or late check-in, could there not be a code printed on the ticket or even a different color boarding pass indicating the passenger was “at risk?” When the man checked in, suppose the boarding pass was printed in red, and/or the gate agent informed him before he entered the plane that he was at risk for involuntary removal. Would that not be more ethical an approach?

In the contentious relationship that has been created, it is good ethics that can help ease the tensions.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?

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