Per contract, flight attendants at United Airlines are guaranteed “horizontal” rest on longhaul flights. But when the crew rest area became inoperable ahead of a longhaul flight, United used heavy-handed threats in an attempt to convince a trio of passengers to give up their business class seats so flight attendants could rest in them.
United Airlines Tries To Use Stick Instead Of Carrot To Get Passengers To Give Up Business Class Seats For Flight Attendants…But The Carrot Is Always The Better Approach
The incident occurred on UA923 from Los Angeles (LAX) to London (LHR), operated by a Boeing 787-9 jet. For reasons that are not clear, the crew bunks (located in a little area above the passenger cabin and accessible by a hidden door that looks like a lavatory door) were not functional. Maintenance boarded the aircraft and made multiple attempts to fix the problem, but failed.
That prompted a gate agent to come onboard and address the business class cabin: three people would need to give up their seats and if no one volunteered, the entire aircraft would be deplaned.
In the post-David Dao world, you are certainly going to deplane other folks before dragging off a problematic passenger who refuses to leave. Using threats to solicit volunteers seems less productive. The offers started with $1500 future flight credit + 75k miles to downgrade to economy class with extra legroom, then rose to $2500 + $75K miles. Three volunteers agreed when the offer was raised.
But as PYOK pointed out, there was a third way…you involuntarily downgrade three passengers on safety grounds (flight cannot operate without crew rest for flight attendants) and they are due a refund of the fare difference between the higher and lower class of travel…and nothing else.
Compared to an involuntary downgrade, I like how United approached this…every carrier should start with volunteers and make every attempt to find a market-based solution to a problem of its own making (a mechanical issue).
As for the tone of the gate agents, I was not there but it does sound unprofessional and probably not productive. Then again, it was probably true…had no one volunteered, everyone would have deplaned and three folks would have lost their business class seats, probably the no-status passenger who used miles for their ticket.
The best approach: give people a compelling offer and politely warn them, if necessary, that the flight cannot depart until there are three takers.
CONCLUSION
A heavy-handed threat was used to solicit volunteers to downgrade from business class to economy class on a 10-hour United flight. Threatening to deplane pits passengers against each other, but it need not be this way. The $2500 voucher for future travel and 75K miles was more than enough to convince three people to voluntarily take the downgrade. Yes, on some flights that offer would have to be increased even higher. But it’s a better way to deal with these type of situations than a threat…it’s what “Good Leads The Way” looks like in practice.
