Monday, April 17, 2017
I Must Be the Only Person on the Internet
Usually the internet is a place where a diverse marketplace of ideas comes together creating a robust, thoughtful, intellectual discourse.
Just kidding, of course, but I was surprised at how overwhelming the reaction was in favor of United Airlines passenger David Dao.
Yes, I agree that United's policies are foolish and unfair. Yes, I agree the airline, if it really needed the seats for its own employees, should have offered a far more generous "bump" incentive than $800.
And yes I sympathize with anyone who buys a ticket, boards a plane and is then kicked off the flight against his or he will.
I think we're all in agreement up until now.
But once the airline makes it clear the Dr. Dao has to leave the plane, that the flight will not take off with on it, that he will be "re-accomodated," Dr. Dao has to behave like a human being and walk off the flight.
All the terrible things that happened to him after that, the smashing of the nose on the armrest, the two embarrassing videos (one with shirt pulled up, one with incoherent ramblings and a bloody nose), the crush of media attention, the disclosure of his previous arrest and the embarrassing personal details all come back to his decision to force security to drag him off the plane.
Because he could have avoided these unfortunate circumstances just by behaving like an adult, I think a lot of the blame falls on him.
I entirely agree Paul. Obviously, it's very bad optics for United to have a bloody passenger being dragged off of an airplane; and everyone hates airlines to begin with. That said, I think he acted like an absolute jerk and although he certainly did not deserve to have teeth knocked out or whatever his attorney has alleged happened - if true - he should've exited the plane, took the $800, and generally acted like an adult.
ReplyDeleteHoward Stern agrees and that's what counts....
ReplyDeleteUnited should have just kept upping the price like an auction until there were takers. Simple as that. Now instead of what, a thousand or so bucks?...they will be likely paying out the nose.