I refuse to "voluntarily" give up a seat I have paid for, and am, in fact, occupying, and some

[calimary]

83. Welcome to DU, hoovjim781

I keep going back to - "hey, United, just exactly how much DID you save by keeping the compensation so low - for passengers to give up the seats that they PAID FOR? Just how much DID you save? How are your stock prices doing since then? How's the PR - and how much is the effort to clean this up going to cost - if indeed it even somehow helps? How much - how many millions of dollars - is this going to cost you because you didn't want to spend a few extra thousand up front, early-on, when you could have nipped this in the bud?"

What's the answer? Maybe with their mentality, the next step is denying everyone their cell phones inflight - so that when future incidents occur, nobody can record them? That video of them brutalizing that paying passenger, REGARDLESS of any other details, is gonna live forever. And hurt the company forever.

On the other hand, what if they'd offered a coupla thousand bucks to induce passengers to give up their seats? Free cash money plus a hotel room for those forced to stay over an extra day? What kind of PR would THAT give them? Probably a lot of positive feedback and a momentary story that disappears in WAY less than a complete news cycle. Instead, they've got a nightmare on their hands that's gonna stay in the news for a long time. And ANY time United has another problem that makes the news, you better believe that video will be played yet again.

Pennywise/pound-foolish. That's almost always the attitude of Corporate America. And look what it can (and WILL) cost them.

Hell, if I was running a competing airline, I'd have a series of new commercials up and running ASAP, to emphasize how much nicer MY company treats its passengers, even when there's a problem.