w*p
发帖数: 16484 | 1 It’s hard to find examples of worse decision-making and customer treatment
than United Airlines having a passenger dragged from an overbooked plane.
But United’s shabby treatment of Geoff Fearns, including a threat to place
him in handcuffs, comes close.
Fearns, 59, is president of TriPacific Capital Advisors, an Irvine
investment firm that handles more than half a billion dollars in real estate
holdings on behalf of public pension funds. He had to fly to Hawaii last
week for a business conference.
From Our Partners: Video Shows Man Forcibly Removed From Overbooked United
Flight
Fearns needed to return early so he paid about $1,000 for a full-fare, first
-class ticket to Los Angeles. He boarded the aircraft at Lihue Airport on
the island of Kauai, took his seat and enjoyed a complimentary glass of
orange juice while awaiting takeoff.
Then, as Fearns tells it, a United employee rushed onto the aircraft and
informed him that he had to get off the plane.
“I asked why,” he told me. “They said the flight was overfull.”
Fearns, like the doctor at the center of that viral video from Sunday night,
held his ground. He was already on the plane, already seated. He shouldn’t
have to disembark.
“That’s when they told me they needed the seat for somebody more important
who came at the last minute,” Fearns said. “They said they have a
priority list and this other person was higher on the list than me.”
They said they’d put me in cuffs if they had to.
Apparently United had some mechanical troubles with the aircraft scheduled
to make the flight. So the carrier swapped out that plane with a slightly
smaller one with fewer first-class seats.
Suddenly it had more first-class passengers than it knew what to do with. So
it turned to its “How to Screw Over Customers” handbook and determined
that the one in higher standing — more miles flown, presumably — gets the
seat and the other first-class passenger, even though he’s also a member of
the frequent-flier program, gets the boot.
“I understand you might bump people because a flight is full,” Fearns said
. “But they didn’t say anything at the gate. I was already in the seat.
And now they were telling me I had no choice. They said they’d put me in
cuffs if they had to.”
You couldn’t make this up if you tried.
It shouldn’t make any difference where a passenger is seated or how much he
or she paid for their ticket. But you have to admire the sheer chutzpah of
United putting the arm on a full-fare, first-class traveler. If there’s
anybody whose business you want to safeguard and cultivate, it’s that
person.
So how could United possibly make things worse? Not to worry. This is the
airline that knows how to add insult to injury.
A United employee, responding to Fearns’ complaint that he shouldn’t have
to miss the flight, compromised by downgrading him to economy class and
placing him in the middle seat between a married couple who were in the
midst of a nasty fight and refused to be seated next to each other.
“They argued the whole way back,” Fearns recalled. “Nearly six hours. It
was a lot of fun.”
David Dao, United passenger who was dragged from plane, says he's still in
the hospital
David Dao, United passenger who was dragged from plane, says he's still in
the hospital
Back in Southern California, he consulted his lawyer and then wrote to
United’s chief executive, Oscar Munoz, who commended airline workers after
the passenger-dragging incident “for continuing to go above and beyond to
ensure we fly right.”
Fearns requested a full refund for his flight from Kauai and asked for
United to make a $25,000 donation to the charity of his choice. This is how
rich guys do it.
He received an email back from a United “corporate customer care specialist
” apologizing that Fearns apparently had an unpleasant experience. But, no,
forget about a refund.
As for that charitable donation, what are you kidding? A hard no on that.
Instead, the service rep offered to refund Fearns the difference between his
first-class ticket and an economy ticket — about a week later, as if that
wasn’t the first thing they should do in a situation like this — and to
give him a $500 credit for a future trip on the airline.
“Despite the negative experience, we hope to have your continued support,”
the rep concluded. “Your business is especially important to us and we'll
do our utmost to make your future contacts with United satisfactory in every
respect.”
I reached out to United and asked if anyone cared to comment on Fearns’
adventure in corporate catastrophe. No one got back to me.
Julia Underwood, a business professor at Azusa Pacific University, said
United’s actions in both the dragged-off-the-plane episode and with Fearns
reflect a coldhearted mindset utterly devoid of compassion for customers.
“They’re so locked into their policies, there’s no room for empathy,”
she said.
As a result, Underwood said, situations that should be manageable spiral out
of control and result in unnecessarily messy PR disasters.
“What United and all companies need to do is to train and empower workers
to deal with specific issues as they arise,” she said. “Don’t just follow
whatever is written in your policies.”
I couldn’t agree more. United is neck-deep in trouble this week because its
workers are clearly out of their depth in handling out-of-the-ordinary
events. You have to think someone on the flight crew would have been able to
step up, if given the trust and authority to do so by the carrier.
Fearns said three different members of the crew on his middle-seat, economy-
class return to L.A. apologized for how he was treated in Hawaii. But they
said they were unable to do anything.
He’s now considering a lawsuit against United — and he certainly has the
resources to press his case.
I asked if he’ll ever fly United again.
Fearns could only laugh. “Are you kidding?” | l*******1
发帖数: 16217 | | s****a
发帖数: 6521 | | m******r
发帖数: 6963 | 4 u bet
【在 s****a 的大作中提到】
: 这是UA逃避种族歧视指控的苦肉计？
| r*******5
发帖数: 3413 | 5 我的第一反应也是这个
【在 s****a 的大作中提到】
: 这是UA逃避种族歧视指控的苦肉计？
| t**x
发帖数: 20965 | 6 看报导时间是苦肉计
Apr 11, 2017, 2:59pm PDT
不过看不出来发生时间。 | H*********S
发帖数: 22772 | |
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