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United passenger failed to follow his obligation

FILE - In this Thursday, June 2, 2016, file photo, United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz delivers remarks in New York, during a presentation of the carrier's new Polaris service, a new business class product that will become available on trans-Atlantic flights. Munoz said in a note to employees Tuesday, April 11, 2017, that he continues to be disturbed by the incident Sunday night in Chicago, where a passenger was forcibly removed from a United Express flight. Munoz said he was committed to fix what’s broken so this never happens again.
FILE - In this Thursday, June 2, 2016, file photo, United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz delivers remarks in New York, during a presentation of the carrier's new Polaris service, a new business class product that will become available on trans-Atlantic flights. Munoz said in a note to employees Tuesday, April 11, 2017, that he continues to be disturbed by the incident Sunday night in Chicago, where a passenger was forcibly removed from a United Express flight. Munoz said he was committed to fix what’s broken so this never happens again. Richard Drew AP

My sympathy for Dr. Dao for his injuries when forcibly removed from his seat on United Airlines is mitigated by his refusal to obey a legitimate request by the airline.

When purchasing his ticket, Dr. Dao implicitly agreed to vacate his seat for various reason deemed necessary by the airline. Had he done so, he would have avoided injury to himself, unfair discredit to UAL, and many millions in lost value for the airline's shareholders.

UAL's low cash incentive to find volunteers is bad policy, but not illegal. The chairman's comments about the incident were unfortunate, but that’s just bad public relations management. Neither the low cash incentive, nor the CEO's comments absolve Dr. Dao of the obligation he refused to follow.

Les Muranyi

Bradenton

This story was originally published April 18, 2017 at 2:31 PM with the headline "United passenger failed to follow his obligation."

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