Weeks prior, [Varla] said, his wife had accidentally entered their daughter’s middle name in the last name field when booking through United for a flight operated by Air Canada. Varela said they spent roughly 15 hours on the phone in the two weeks leading up to the trip trying to fix the error, and were bounced repeatedly between the two airlines’ customer service lines.
At the airport, the family spent nearly three hours walking back and forth between the United and Air Canada counters, he said. According to Varela, Air Canada agents were trying to help, but needed United to release the ticket in their system. Four minutes before the family was supposed to board, he said, an Air Canada supervisor walked over to the United counter to plead the family’s case.
Varela said the United employee he spoke with was dismissive, allegedly telling the Air Canada supervisor that she didn’t care if the family missed their flight.
Ive had united accuse me of trying to fraud my ticket/flight AFTER i checked in and showed up at the airport. Missed flight. She called the cops on me too because for whatever reason i still don’t know she was convinced i never bought a flight. This was my return flight, of a round trip!!! Turned into a total nightmare for no reason. United customer service sucks ass.
Making your employer and your union look bad all at once. Lady, you’re not a rich white man or a cop. What are you thinking?
They’re just cattle. That’s pretty much what a airport is, just a stockyard.
Now you can threaten people with death and not get charged for it. Apparently.
This isn’t new. People have very short memories. United has a history of violence against passengers, and not giving a shit even after it goes viral.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_United_Express_passenger_removal
United CEO Oscar Munoz issued a statement the following day that appeared to downplay the treatment of Dao, referring to the incident as “re-accommodating the customers”. Munoz also sent an email to United staff commending the crew’s actions for following established procedures and referring to Dao as “disruptive” and “belligerent”. This was contradicted by passengers’ accounts and video of the incident; for example, fellow passenger Jason Powell asserted that Dao was not belligerent, saying instead, “He was very polite, matter-of-fact.”
United Airlines customer service folks.
“You can’t normalize racism. You can’t treat racists with empathy,”
Yeah, we tried empathy. That’s what landed us here.
