The United Airlines debacle isn't about customer service. It's about the morality of capitalism.

[Fish and Bread]

Link:

The United Airlines debacle isn't about customer service. It's about the morality of capitalism.

The author is Father James Martin, recently appointed to the Vatican department for communications.

 

[section9+1]

The right or wrong of United Airlines is up to someone else and I won't argue that. But there was no assault on his dignity. Doesn't he have two legs? I would have walked off the plane myself because whatever complaint I might have I am not a two year old that must be dragged around kicking and squawking.

 

[Fish and Bread]

The right or wrong of United Airlines is up to someone else and I won't argue that. But there was no assault on his dignity. Doesn't he have two legs? I would have walked off the plane myself because whatever complaint I might have I am not a two year old that must be dragged around kicking and squawking.

Peaceful civil disobedience is an important tool of democracy. Ghandi used it in India. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and go to the back of the bus in the American civil right movement, and African-Americans often sat lunch counters that only served whites and refused to move. Plenty of protesters lock arms on the ground and refuse to move. Now, I am not saying this guy is in the same category as any of those folks, but I am saying that one response to injustice is to not comply with orders that violate your rights and to make people move you if they're going to force you to move unjustly. That's not acting like a two year old, it's a very adult thing to do.

I wouldn't have moved either. And by now I'd be suing the airline for their response to my not moving if any lawyer would take the case.

Corporations should only exist where they serve the public interest, and should be tightly regulated to make sure that they treat their workers, customers, and the environment with certain minimum standards of decency.

 

[JackRT]

Link:

The United Airlines debacle isn't about customer service. It's about the morality of capitalism.

The author is Father James Martin, recently appointed to the Vatican department for communications.

Fr. Martin makes excellent points. Capitalism is essentially amoral and needs to be regulated to mitigate the worst of the evils that arise.

 

[section9+1]

Not defending UA; not defending capitalism. I'm sure he was seeing dollar signs as he was being evicted. That's what it's about. Even so, I'd walk to my own execution so I think I could walk off an airplane. He still sounds like a punk to me.

 

[Fantine]

If I had been approached in a similar situation, I would have said, "Let's negotiate. So far you've offered $800 for people's inconvenience. It's not worth $800 to me--and obviously it's not for the remaining passengers on the plane. Offer a little more and I might think about it."

I think I've been bumped twice--once with two other people I was traveling with--and I was thrilled. Three free tickets are hard to come by.

The hardest airline to get bumped by is Southwest. They are only looking for passengers going to the hubs. Baltimore...Denver....Who flies to Baltimore? I did go to a conference in Denver once, but it was business and I couldn't accept a bump.

We had a bad experience on United once--leaving NY after my father's funeral. There were five of us. They put us on the plane and then discovered a mechanical problem (compensatable). An hour later they put us on the plane and announced they couldn't take off because of weather (non-compensatable.) In the meantime, all around LGA other United flights were taking off to the same city.

United didn't want to give us a dime (and NY is an expensive place to get stuck with five people). Finally we said: My daughter has been giving a blow-by-blow on her FB page. She has 500 friends. They'll all read about your lies---and the rest of us will share her blow-by-blow on OUR Facebook pages. Your airline's name will be mud.

They brought over a supervisor. We got two hotel rooms and 5 dinners, and left at 6 a.m. the next morning.

If I ever have a problem on a flight, I'm going to do blow-by-blows on FB and twitter, just for insurance.

 

[Mountain_Girl406]

I've often wondered about the ethics of overbooking, and this incident has brought that to my thoughts again.
The idea of selling more than you have to sell just doesn't seem right. Especially with flying, when the person you kick off, whow paid for thier ticket in good faith, may be attending a critical interview or presentation, traveling home to visit a sick parebt, or any number of reasons that can be critically disrupted by missing a flight.
I've read that Jet Blue has a policy to not overbook, and they seem to be able to survive as a business.

 

[FireDragon76]

Bumping people off flights means you are not purchasing a real ticket, just a potential one. You are left at the whims of the airlines, indeed.

 

[Tallguy88]

I've often wondered about the ethics of overbooking, and this incident has brought that to my thoughts again.
The idea of selling more than you have to sell just doesn't seem right. Especially with flying, when the person you kick off, whow paid for thier ticket in good faith, may be attending a critical interview or presentation, traveling home to visit a sick parebt, or any number of reasons that can be critically disrupted by missing a flight.
I've read that Jet Blue has a policy to not overbook, and they seem to be able to survive as a business.

I agree

 

[Tallguy88]

Although I don't believe this was a case of overbooking. He wasn't removed because they sold too many tickets, but because they were giving a different flight crew a free ride. So not overbooking. He was just being bumped off the flight. That's what one of the lawyers I work with said.

That's not to say it's any better. Just that it isn't a case of overbooking in this instance.