United Airlines: Analyzed in Five Steps

United Airlines has whipped up some controversy early this week. For those of you who have not heard, here is what happened in a nut shell.

On Sunday, April 9, 2017, United Express Flight 3411 in Chicago was overbooked and United made the decision to empty four seats to make room for employees who needed to be in Louisville the next day.

They informed the passengers about the situation and offered up to $800 and a hotel stay for any potential volunteers to board the next flight. No one took the deal and so United selected four people to be removed. One of the selected passengers refused to leave.

The passenger, David Dao, was then forced out of his seat by police, dragged across the floor and suffered from a broken nose, teeth, and a concussion.

This led to tainting the company’s image after a video went viral and caused an uproar on social media.

To further our understanding, let’s briefly analyze this mishap using Benoits Image Repair Theory; a five-step process that are commonly used for dealing with a crisis or scandal.

Step One: Denial

The company said that the customers boarding were informed about the situation. They shift the blame towards Dao who refused to give up his seat after being asked politely several times. They claimed that the passenger was “belligerent and disruptive” even though there was no evidence to back this up.

Step Two: Evade Responsibility

Instead of coming clean and apologizing, they tried to justify their actions and insisting that within their rights and it was a necessary procedure to resolve the problem.

Step Three: Reduce Offensiveness

The three officers that forced Dao off the flight were put on administrative leave and offered a refund to every passenger on flight 3411.

Step Four: Corrective Action

The company said that they will review their policies and employee training to make sure that this mishap will never happen again. They also vowed to no longer have the police remove passengers from planes that are overbooked.

Step Five: Mortification

CEO Oscar Munoz tweeted out an apology to the public but, have not yet reached out the passenger. This step took a while to complete.

There were many other factors that made this into a disastrous PR situation. In other words, be transparent and come clean. Put your common sense into good use to prevent a situation from spiraling out of control.