United Airlines Case Study

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1 United Airlines Case Study Christina M. Jones Columbia Southern University MKT 5302: Strategic Digital Marketing Tonina Johnson October 24, 2023

2 INTRODUCTION In 2017, United Airlines found themselves at the near center of a worldwide public relations nightmare. On April 9 th of that year, several seats were needed on fully booked flight 3411 to accommodate team members wishing to travel back to Louisville from Chicago (Hanlon, 2018). Without much thought, this was an action allowed by United Airlines when their staff wished to travel, despite if a flight was fully booked or not. United Airlines staff could pick and choose the flights they wished to embark on, while paying consumers had to specifically pick flights with vacancies. This became an issue on April 9, 2017 when staff members had a paying consumer forcefully removed to accommodate their own seat. Dr. David Dao felt the direct repercussions of the staff actions when he was physically injured for refusing to take a later flight (Hanlon, 2018). Dr Dao had patient’s waiting to see him in Louisville and needed to arrive there promptly. Now this situation would be no more or less severe if he was not a doctor, of if he was a laywer, line cook, stay at home parent, or unemployed. Regardless of the actions that took place, it was more so United Airlines’ reaction to these events that stunned the world. United Airlines allowing team members to remove consumers from seats to accommodate team members tells the world that they put the company first. When a consumer logs into a booking site and picks a date and time they need for their flight, it comes with the risk of potentially losing their seat to an employee who simply wishes to have it. Also keeping in mind that some of these flights come at greater cost than others. So if United Airlines claimed to have a ‘people first’ outlook, what they really mean is ‘ our people first.’ What truly solidified the impression of ‘ our people first’ was the way in which United Airlines responded, without any accountability or willingness to adjust their policies. PASSENGER VS COMPANY PERSPECTIVE

3 United Airlines allows their team members to fly on commercial flights between cities. This could be for personal or business-related travel. Ideally, team members would be able to occupy vacant seats for this travel. On occasion, when a flight is fully booked, United Airlines offers sizeable vouchers to consumers who have a willingness to take a later flight in order to accommodate the team member wishing to fly. This policy is a way to encourage the morale of team members and encourage a work life balance. By offering vouchers to consumers in exchange for their seat, it is their way of adding an extra incentive to both the consumer and the employee. The employee is able to balance their work and their life, while the consumer now has a voucher and will have an incentive to fly with United Airlines again. In response to this situation, United Airlines issued a statement intended for employees only (Hanlon, 2018). This statement was not intended to be displayed publicly and ensured that the situation surrounding the altercation was being investigated. Internally, at least one employee (or several) decided that they did not agree with the actions taken by United Airlines and publicly posted the statement (Lamoureux, 2021). After seeing the repercussions across several social media platforms, United Airlines needed to change their tune and understand how they could take accountability for the situation that happened and prevent any reoccurrence (Hanlon, 2018). From the consumer point of view, they trust that when they take the time to book travel with United Airlines, that their seat is reserved, and the only travel delays would be due to mechanical issues or weather. Consumers do not expect to be delayed, removed, or even injured, simply because an employee of the company needed the seat. Many people who fly commercial have personal lives that revolve around that travel; jobs to get to, children to arrange care for, parking they pay for, prearranged transportation and more. After this situation unfolded with

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4 United Airlines, several frequent travelers grew concerned that they too could be subject to forceful removal in order to accommodate a team member. CEO APPROACH AND POTENTIAL SOLUTION The United Airlines CEO quickly sent a statement to United Airlines employees regarding the situation that unfolded with Dr. Dao (Hanlon, 2018). This statement was only intended to be viewed internally by United Airlines employees. However, employees within United Airlines had different ethical views from this approach and decided to display the statement across social media. People across the world were already made aware of the severity of this situation when several other passengers posted recordings of the incident on flight 3411 (Lamoureux, 2021). The impact of these videos on social media had already created a widespread negative view of United Airlines for the forceful removal of a passenger simply to accommodate an employee. With the lack of accountability and victim blaming enclosed in the CEO statement, this only further accelerated the negative views of United Airlines (Hanlon, 2018). The CEO eventually began to change tune and take accountability for the events that unfolded and led to the injury of Dr. Dao (Hanlon, 2018). However, this took place a moment too late after the damage had been done from poor PR decisions. The initial statement from the CEO that was intended to stay internal was already lacking accountability. This lack in accountability reinforced to employees that there was no wrongdoing, and that they were justified in the removal of Dr. Dao for their own personal benefit. While a quick response is usually desired, a well-rounded response is more effective. It would have been more beneficial for the CEO to wait even a day longer and consider which response raises awareness to the situation, brings engagement from both employees and consumers, helps monitor the current situation and

5 attempt to avert reoccurrence, and strategizes responses from both employees and consumers (Hanlon, 2018). It would have been useful to consult with a crisis response team and review the policies that allowed this event to take place. After the team strategized how to resolve and prevent, they could make this the forefront of their websites and social media (Lamoureux, 2021). Not only showing accountability, but owning that accountability, as well as making it their mission to reassure consumers best interest, is a more effective strategy than avoidance and nearsightedness. ALTERNATIVE STRATEGY AND POSITIVE PERCEPTIONS I would have utilized several forms of digital marketing tools in response to this situation. Prior to any action, I would first determine what the end goal is. In order to determine the end goal of what I wanted to achiever from my marketing strategies, I would need to first determine what went wrong and what we need to do internally. In this situation, an employee wanted a seat that no one was willing to give. So, in response to that, a paying consumer was chosen at random to give up their seat without option. When that consumer did not agree, they were forcibly removed and subsequently injured. This would lead me to evaluate what policy led to this situation and rectify that. Once all avenues have been explored and resolved, I would then determine how I should communicate those changes to our consumers. I would first generate a well-crafted email to all past flyers and any flyers with upcoming travel. This email would first begin by apologizing and acknowledging a flawed policy that allowed something such as this to happen. I would validate the feelings of consumers and ensure them that we have taken action (already taken action, not a promise to take action) to change this policy so that our consumers are always given first choice, and should they not be willing to trade their seat for a voucher, their seat is protected. In addition to the acknowledgement and

6 accountability, this statement in the form of an email would reiterate our dedication to our consumers and express that they are the reason we do what we do. Another strategy that I would take is a public statement. This statement would be live and hopefully broadcasted on news stations. A recording of this video would also be posted to our website and social media pages. It would not be a verbatim reading of the widespread email but would follow the same ideas. This statement would express our accountability of our wrongdoings and our acknowledgement of the changes we have made for prevention. An email can feel less personal, some consumers may not even read the email due to the recent string of events. A live video, or even a recorded one, is a much more personal way to express our response to the situation that unfolded. Additionally, I would implement an increase in consumer surveys and incentivize their completion. I would also understand that at first, the data may be skewed in response to the recent events. However, I would like to gather a long line of trending data to see how our new implementations are effecting our consumers.

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7 References Hanlon, A. (2018). Digital Marketing . SAGE Publications, Ltd. (UK). https://online.vitalsource.com/books/9781526454881 Lamoureux, L. N. (2021). United Airlines Flight 3411: Lessons in crisis communication (Unpublished thesis). Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.

United Airlines Case Study

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