United Airlines’ decision to forcibly remove a man from a Louisville-bound flight on Sunday night has turned into a public relations disaster for the company.
Basically, the flight from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked, so the airline needed four volunteers to take a later flight. When no one volunteered, United decided they were going to randomly choose four passengers to be removed from the filght.
One of the passengers who was asked to leave the flight was a doctor who had patients to meet with on Monday, so he wasn’t thrilled that the airline was making him leave. At that point, the airline called in several police officers to drag the man off the plane, and then things got ugly,
A passenger who witnessed the incident told CBS News that “the doctor’s face was slammed against an arm rest, causing serious bleeding from his mouth.”
After the incident, United CEO Oscar Munoz apologized for what happened.
“This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers,” Munoz said in a statement.
After video of the incident showed up on Twitter, everyone decided to make jokes at United’s expense, and that everyone includes Browns offensive lineman Joe Thomas, who pointed out that he “re-accomodates” people the same way United was.
Dear #united, I had to "re-accommodate" someone once pic.twitter.com/MP3ZJDv85m
— Joe Thomas (@joethomas73) April 10, 2017
Thomas also retweeted the tweet below.
United Airlines is pleased to announce new seating on all domestic flights- in addition to United First and Economy Plus we introduce.... pic.twitter.com/KQjPClU2d2
— McNeil (@Reflog_18) April 10, 2017
The Browns lineman clearly isn’t a huge fan of United.
Thomas wasn’t the only player who tweeted about the incident. Free agent wide receiver Andrew Hawkins pointed out that he was “re-accomodated” by Josh Norman one time.
Lol @joethomas73 . I remember @J_No24 "re-accommodated" me once. @united pic.twitter.com/nQfg7OCqUr
— Andrew Hawkins (@Hawk) April 10, 2017
Free agent running back Justin Forsett felt obligated to point out that this was United’s second PR debacle in the past month. The airline also kicked some young girls off a plane in March for wearing leggings.
First no leggings on the plane now this smh. It's been a rough month for for a few companies
— Justin Forsett (@JForsett) April 10, 2017
There was also a tweet from Bengals safety George Iloka, who’s trying to figure out how this whole “overbooking” things works.
If I cancel my flight day of travel I wont get my money. But they can cancel my original flight, do I have an option to get a full refund? https://t.co/4CWCGzEXyz
— George Iloka (@George_iloka) April 10, 2017
As for Thomas, he’s now taking a poll on Twitter, and he’d like to know if you’d rather be “re-accommodated” by United or body-slammed by The Rock. It’s clearly a trick question.
Would you rather be...
— Joe Thomas (@joethomas73) April 10, 2017
Finally, let’s end with one more tweet from Thomas, who clearly expects the removed passenger to get a substantial settlement from United.
Dear United Shareholders,
— Joe Thomas (@joethomas73) April 10, 2017
We'd like to introduce you to your new majority shareholder. Signed, your legal council. pic.twitter.com/cGLpsoAEGH