After the horrific event that happened, United went through a series of apologies. They were all over the place and some of the top PR gurus have called this a disaster. Let’s see what went down. The first apology that came out was ultimately blaming Dr. Dao. Oscar Munoz, who is the CEO of United, stood behind its employees by supporting their behavior commending them because they ensured how United likes to “fly right”. On the same day, Munoz released another statement as to how he is disturbed just like all of us after watching this crisis unwind and how he will be accommodating those passengers who had to witness this. At this point, he still somehow hasn’t mentioned Dr. Dao. On Tuesday, Munoz got his facts together and finally claimed full responsibility for the events that went down. "It's never too late to do the right thing,” said Munoz on Tuesday. I want to believe in that statement but I also believe that if he couldn’t apologize the first time, how sincere is he in that statement. Again, still no mention of Dr. Dao...interesting. On that wednesday, Munoz went on to Good Morning America and expressed that this type of behavior will never happen. He said that he felt ashamed when he watched Dr. Dao’s video and ensured everyone that it will never happen. He also brought up how he will give full refunds to everyone on that flight. On Thursday, Munoz stated how this was a harsh learning experience and how he wants to make this right for Dr. Dao and his family since his daughter had spoken at a conference in Chicago. This is where Munoz mentioned how he had been reaching out to Dr. Dao however Dao’s daughter confirmed that this did not happen. The following is a screenshot of Munoz’s 1st…..2nd…...3rd….. Oh right 4th apology.

After this crisis, a lot of PR strategists have spoken about what should have been done and how could this have all been saved. Chris Ann Goddard who is the president of CGPR public relations had the following input.

"Goddard says United needed to immediately shift into crisis mode. A crisis plan, she said, should include a heartfelt apology, release of a specific plan for addressing the mistakes, clear communication with front-line employees and a statement sent to frequent fliers and loyal customers.

"Three apologies in two days? Really?" Goddard says. "Put the heartfelt apology out there, issue a thoughtful statement, admit a company's wrongdoing, be consistent on social media. ... And, oh by the way, don't blame anyone else, especially the victim."

Many people have stated that this crisis could have easily been averted. The first step should have been to not let people board until people volunteer. United was already offering monetary accommodations to whoever would have volunteered, however they should have kept increasing the amount because at some point someone would have taken $1000 or $1500. Paul English who is a travel industry veteran and the co-founder of kayak.com had the following statement towards United:

"Never force a customer to change behavior, always offer incentives," English says. "United Airlines could, and should, have offered bounties for volunteers and kept increasing the bounty. There was no reason they could not have pursued a more consumer-friendly approach."

My questions: was this handled properly? Absolutely not. United made a lot of mistakes during this time. Their first one was not apologizing to Dr. Dao and not claiming full responsibility the first time. This made the company look awful and not to mention their stocks had dropped severely. All I can say is that United better have a really strong marketing and PR team to ensure that they keep a good image up since other events have taken place within United flights after Dao’s incident.

Sources:
1. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/14/business/united-airlines-passenger-doctor.html?_r=0
2. http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/13/news/companies/united-airlines-statement-david-dao-flight/
3. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/04/12/how-united-must-make-their-skies-friendly-again/100365668/