Unless you\u2019ve been hiding from North Korean nukes incommunicado for the last few days, you\u2019ve seen the viral video of Dr. David Dao being dragged stunned and bleeding off a United Airlines flight out of Chicago.\u00a0 It seems that the plane was full and United needed to ferry four crew members to another upcoming flight out of Dr. Dao\u2019s destination airport.\u00a0 When the airline didn\u2019t offer enough incentive for four volunteers to disembark and fly later, they arbitrarily picked four people to kick off the aircraft so they could take their seats. Three departed obediently. The physician did not, and physical violence ensues that will be an example of bad customer relations for all time.<\/p>\n
In Chinese philosophy, \u201ctao\u201d has been defined as \u201ca way, or code of behavior, that is in harmony with the natural order.\u201d\u00a0 Bloodying and physically removing a customer from a seat he has paid for is certainly not the natural order of things, even with us frequent fliers who have tales of airport frustration to tell.<\/p>\n
Much dialogue (and many amusing memes) have ensued.\u00a0 However, the most cogent commentary comes from one of the sharpest minds I\u2019ve ever encountered in a lifetime spent in the criminal justice system, that of appellate lawyer Karl Erich Martell.\u00a0 He recently wrote:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/em>My very first thought when I heard this story was about the economics of it, but also the psychology. I immediately remembered the book\u00a0Freakonomics\u00a0and thought, “If only the gate agents had presented their offer in terms of the number of people who would be inconvenienced should the flight crew not be able to be relocated.” Seriously, I think an appeal along these lines would have worked:<\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cLadies and gentlemen: I need your help. I know that it’s very important that all of you get to your destinations on time, but I’d like for you to listen to our quandary and see if you’d consider helping. We have a flight crew that needs to get to Louisville right away or else their plane cannot go out. None of the people on their plane will get to their destination. I know your trip is important, but I’d like to ask you to please consider the possibility that there might be someone on the Louisville plane that has a trip that may be even more important. Maybe someone is traveling to see her dying mother and this is her last chance to see her alive. I can’t say. But I can tell you that we would be so, so grateful if you’d consider giving up your seat for one of these crew members so they will be able to fly that entire plane of passengers to their destination. And I wouldn’t ask you to do it for nothing: we will fly you to your destination tomorrow. We will pay for your hotel overnight and meals. And because we’d be so grateful, we\u2019d like to give you $800 cash to thank you for your kindness in helping us, and helping that whole planeload of passengers.\u201d<\/strong>
\nI’m telling you, a little applied psychology, and they would have had\u00a0ten\u00a0volunteers. Alas, I wasn’t the gate agent.<\/p>\n