This case discusses Chicago based United Airlines, Inc., (United) and the change in policies announced by the company that was aimed at improving customer experience. The changes came in wake of the infamous passenger dragging issue on one of its flights that landed the company in PR fiasco.In April 2017, Dr. David Dao (Dao), a 69-year-old passenger, was forcibly removed from United flight 3411 by aviation police officials at Chicago’s O’Hare international airport. The flight, reportedly, was overbooked and the staff needed four passengers to volunteer to give up seats in exchange for compensation so that its crew members could be accommodated. Apparently, Dao’s name was one of those who were asked to give up their seat. Things turned bitter when Dao refused to give up his seat. The airport security officials yanked Dao out of his seat which causing grievous injuries to him.

The entire episode which was recorded on the mobile phones of co-passengers went viral on social media attracting criticism from the public, lawmakers, and politicians. The callous responses and a boilerplate apology from the company and its CEO Oscar Munoz made the situation even worse. The case provides the details of the incident and the chaos that followed. The authorities jumped into action when a lawsuit was initiated by Dao against the company. Thereafter the company was forced to revisit its policies and make amendments to ensure such incidents do not occur in future. .

Human Resource and Organization Behavior Case Studies | Case Study in Management, Operations, Strategies, Business Environment, Case Studies

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Issues

The case is structured to achieve the following teaching objectives:

	Examine how a company should handle a public relations fiasco
	Understand the issues and challenges a company faces while communicating with its customers and investors during a crisis.
	Understand the need for organizations to have a crisis communication plan in place to handle crisis situations effectively.
	Examine the role of a person with a high degree of accountability (such as the CEO) in managing public relations and crisis management

Contents

INTRODUCTION

ABOUT UNITED AIRLINES

THE CATASTROPHES

FLIGHT 3411 INCIDENT

CALLOUS RESPONSES TO THE CHAOS

AFTERMATH

MUNOZ’S LATE APOLOGIES

ACTION

MAKING AMENDS: CHANGING POLICIES

DEBATE ON OVERBOOKING

THE ROAD TO CHANGE

EXHIBITS

Keywords

United Airlines, Inc,Flight 3411 Incident,The Chaos,Aftermath,Action,Policy Changes,Overbooking,The Road to Change,Culture,Crisis Communication,Crisis leadership,Aviation,Ethics"

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