What United Airlines' Dr. Dao incident teaches about brand reputation and crisis response.
On April 9, 2017, David Dao was forcibly dragged from his seat on a United Airlines flight at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. Testimonies from other passengers confirmed that because of the flight being overbooked, they were offered vouchers to rebook and when no one accepted, the airline started asking people to leave. Dao reported that he was heading home to Kentucky but when he refused to give up his seat, he was dragged off the plane resulting in a broken nose, a concussion, and two missing teeth. Two years after the incident, Dao finally spoke out publicly on the tv show “Good Morning America”.
This incident came soon after the airline had been the center of another controversy for refusing to let two girls board for wearing leggings. It is fair to say that United Airlines faced a lot of backlash for these events. Customer complaints increased and the already declining reputation of United Airlines started impacting sales and stock prices. The company put out many statements and reached a private settlement in order to try and repair the damage done by the incident. While the airlines are entitled to “bumping” passengers due to overbooking, the airline has reexamined their policies and made changes to reduce the amount of passengers bumped from flights. Even in the case that it is required, the compensation offered to those affected has increased as well. United has since become more focused on better serving customers and empowering employees to ensure that incidents like Dao’s never happens again. The situation is not unusual for airlines but in order to avoid the altercation and negative national attention, the brand should have had better training for employees to handle irate customers in sensitive situations like bumping travelers. The management and security should have done everything in their respective powers to resolve the issue without resulting to any sort of violence. In the end, the brand reshaped their mission, improved the customer experience, and prevented similar situations from happening ever since.
Resources: Aratani, L. (2021, November 30). A year after the infamous United Dragging Incident, has anything changed for airline travelers? The Washington Post. Bever, L. (2019, April 9). Doctor who was dragged, screaming, from United Airlines flight speaks out.