United Airlines to bring major changes for bumped passengers

United Airlines is still recovering from the worldwide rage that followed the violent removal of a bumped passenger. The company announced major changes to how it handles overbooked flights, according to CBS.

The airline launched a thorough post-mortem on what went wrong on United Express Flight 3411 – the controversial flight in which police officers forcefully dragged Dr. David Dao from the flight. Dao suffered a broken nose, a sever concussion and lost two teeth during the altercation.

United Airlines decided to raise the limit to $10,000 on payments to customers who give up seats on oversold flights. The company will also try to reduce, but not eradicate, overbooking or the selling of more tickets than there are seats on the plane.

“We can never say we are sorry enough for the shameful way one of our customers was treated aboard United’s flight 3411,” CEO Oscar Munoz said in the Thursday report.

United didn’t mention whether ticket sales have dropped since the incident featuring David Dao, but the CEO admitted it could be damaging:

“I breached public trust with this event and how we responded,” Oscar Munoz told The Associated Press. “People are upset, and I suspect that there are a lot of people potentially thinking of not flying us.”

The airline firm also announced that it will no longer call police to remove passengers from overbooked flights. Instead, airline crews will have to travel for work to check in sooner. Several over policies were included, such as: raising the limit on compensation to $10,000 for customers who give up their seats, sending displaced passengers or crew members to nearby airports on other airline companies or arranging for car transportation to their destination, giving gate agents annual refresher training regarding how to deal with oversold flights.

In the reports, United offered new information regarding the incident with Dr. Dao. The airline company said the flight was oversold by one ticket, but a volunteer gave up his seat. Four crew members showed up late after the passengers boarded, due to their Louisville-bound plane being delayed by a mechanical problem.

The company acknowledged that letting the four crew members board late and removing four paying passengers was a mistake. United also expressed guilt over calling officers when there was no safety or security problem and not offering enough money to tempt volunteers to give up their seats.

Washington politicians demanded a ban on overselling flights. Critics suggested that airlines could leave a few seats empty in case crew members will need them.

“This overbooking needs to be softened,” Dao’s attorney, Thomas Demetrio, told the AP. “People really do believe when they buy their ticket they are good to go.”