When a video, taken by a fellow passenger, showed a bloodied and unconscious man being pulled off a United Airlines flight at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, it caused a sensation on social media and other news outlets.14 The incident began when United overbooked the flight and decided that it needed to bump four passengers off (common practice, when a flight is overbooked). They offered a financial encouragement for passengers to take a later flight, first offering

$400, overnight hotel accommodation and a flight the following day. No one accepted and the offer was increased to $800. Still no one accepted the offer, so a manager announced that passengers would be selected to leave the flight, with frequent fliers and business-class passengers being given priority. The first two people selected agreed to leave the plane. The third person selected also agreed. However, when the fourth man was approached, he refused, saying that he was a doctor and had to see patients in the morning. Eyewitnesses said the man was ‘very upset’ and tried to call his lawyer. So, instead of selecting another passenger, or increasing its offer (it could have offered a maximum of $1,350), security staff were called. The encounter with the security staff concluded with the man being wrenched from his seat onto the floor, after which he was hauled down the aisle, blood covering his face.

(a) How should the airline have handled the situation?

(b) After the incident attracted so much negative publicity, United announced a new upper limit of $10,000 in compensation for passengers who agree to give up a seat on a flight where United needs to free space, and that it would create a ‘customer solutions team to provide agents with creative solutions’ for getting inconvenienced customers to their destination. Do you think that these were sensible moves?