A non-travel hacking friend of mine texted me to tell me that United was having a hell of a morning so I dug a little on Twitter and found what looks to be one of the most disturbing videos I have ever seen in terms of horrible customer service.
Apparently, a United flight from Chicago to Louisville was oversold late Sunday and nobody was willing to volunteer to go on a later flight. According to one of the passengers, United forced 4 passengers off the plane so that the seats could be given to United employees so they could get to Louisville to work on an outgoing flight. This has yet to be verified but if it is, it only serves to compound a horrible PR nightmare for United.
One of the passengers chosen to be bumped (apparently randomly) was an elderly man and his wife. When he refused to be removed from the flight (rightfully so, in my opinion), he was forcibly removed against his will. It also looks like when they removed him they knocked him out and bloodied his mouth.
I’ll warn you that the video you are about to see is pretty disturbing due to the violent nature of the exchange. No doubt United is facing a very stiff civil lawsuit after this.