It has become apparent that America’s airlines, much like America’s president, have absolutely no shame. They seem to care only about profit and treat the people they supposedly serve like chattel, cattle or criminals.
This week’s installment of airlines reaching new lows is brought to you by United – you know, the people who spend tens of millions of dollars on fancy adverts urging you to “Fly the Friendly Skies”, while seemingly going out of their way to make the skies as unfriendly as possible.
The story has been everywhere over the last 24 hours and you’ve probably seen the graphic video. United overbooked a flight and, having only realized this after the flight had boarded, tried to force a few randomly selected passengers off. One man refused to vacate the seat he paid for and, thus, had a reasonable expectation of sitting in. Security officers dragged the 69-year-old grandfather off the plane screaming. This was all caught on video and went viral.
You’d think that United might have balked at this PR disaster and issued a groveling apology. Particularly as the incident comes hot on the heels of last month’s controversy around United denying boarding to two teenage girls because they were wearing leggings. But no.
The furore was followed by perhaps the most half-assed sorry-not-sorry in the history of corporate apologies, with United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz expressing regret for “having to re-accommodate these customers”. Yes, that’s right, they translated “dragged a man out of a plane screaming” into “re-accommodate”.
Somewhere, in the depths of United HQ, there is a team of copywriters tasked with systematically wringing any actual meaning out of the English language and transforming it into hollow, hyphenated platitudes.
But, really, is anyone actually surprised at United’s lack of compunction? Thanks to deregulation and industry consolidation, the power relationship between airlines and customers is dramatically skewed in airlines’ favour. Carriers can basically do whatever they like and get away with it. After all, what are you going to do? Take a bus?
Short of boycotting flying altogether there’s basically no way for customers to hold airlines to account. So we just hand them our money and grin and bear it. We expect airlines to be awful. And low expectations are lucrative; while airlines like to cry poor to justify incessant cost-cutting, last year global airlines made profits of $35bn.
The industry-wide of practice of overbooking, which the United episode brought to light, is just one example of the airline industry’s hubris at work. In theory, overbooking should be good for everyone. It ensures that more seats are full and should help drive ticket prices down. However, there aren’t enough regulations in place to protect customers from overbooking, which means airlines can deny boarding to passengers without offering adequate compensation.
United offered passengers $800 to get off the plane before it brought in the security guards. Federal law in America means it could have gone up to $1,350 but no further. Surely there should be a minimum cap on compensation due to overbooking, not a maximum cap?
While airlines across the world appear to be engaged in a race to the bottom when it comes to customer experience, it is America’s airlines which stand out as exceptionally awful. The enormous amount of consolidation in the American airline industry means that there is very little competition. Brands that try to compete on customer experience rarely last long. Indeed, Alaska Airlines recently announced it was killing off the Virgin America brand earlier this year.
Over the last few years the Gulf Carriers – Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways and Emirates – have been making inroads into the American market. These airlines put more of an emphasis on customer service and the threat of competition has caused much uproar amongst the big American carriers.
Rather than attempting to better their own service and compete in that regard, however, American airlines have been looking to their government to try and stifle competition – claiming that they can’t possibly compete with Gulf carriers because they have more money.
In February the CEOs of American Airlines, United and Delta asked to meet with secretary of state Rex Tillerson to discuss “the massive subsidization of three state-owned Gulf carriers – Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways and Emirates – and the significant harm this subsidized competition is causing to US airlines and US jobs.”
Weirdly, shortly after this demand for a meeting, the US Department of Homeland Security announced a ban on electronics larger than a mobile phone which targeted 10 Middle Eastern airports and nine airlines – including the major Gulf carriers which American carriers are so outraged by.
There have been accusations that this is simply a roundabout way of stifling competition rather than furthering national security. And, indeed, the electronics ban does appear to achieve very little in terms of national security. If you’re committed enough to turn your Kindle into a bomb you’ll probably also be able to figure out that you can still take said Kindle on a flight to the US with another airline.
The latest United debacle is unlikely to be the last time airlines hit the news for appalling behavior. For far too long airlines have been allowed to treat their customers in a way no other business would be allowed to get away with. It’s time that passengers demand more regulation and show airlines that this behaviour really doesn’t fly.