Fascinating: Good Morning America Interviews United’s CEO

Who knows when anyone is being honest? I won't even try to guess. I think the real issue, regardless, is Munoz has a tough job ahead in trying to change the culture of a US airline, particularly UA. After flying a dozen foreign carriers (not all good by the way) you can really feel the difference with US carriers, save maybe SWA. You are a commodity to them, not a person. Cattle to be moved around. There's no experience, nothing original, just transportation from one place to another. US carriers, for the most part, don't understand the value of customer experience, not even slightly. They think of you as a package more or less. Getting delivered safely from one place to another. That's where the originality of the product ends. And it's sad. I fly UA almost all of the time since I'm near a hub and the flights are convenient and they have a good rewards program. But, I have to say there's often almost a feeling of disdain for the pax that's palpable from some of the crew. It's almost like you are a burden to them. Now, I understand their jobs aren't easy; passengers can be a pain in the a** and flying around all day in a metal tube just isn't really fun. And, I have come across a few FAs that are really good, and make you feel wanted, special even. But, there's something rotten in the industry when the average employee treats you like a problem to be mitigated. Good luck Mr. Munoz.

@RCB is exactly right. That pause after being asked if the passenger was wrong was deafening. It says he had to hide his true beliefs that the passenger is some way to blame, but he had to bury that feeling. That was the most telling part of the interview to me.

I'd still like to know how these four passengers were selected; I don't think we have a true answer to that.

Until the IDB compensation is increased and procedures are improved (I, for example, thought you HAD to be given cash for an IDB but it seems the airline can still offer a voucher), similar negative experiences are going to happen.

The abject shame and contrition is obvious. You know the lawyers aren't controlling him when he said that the passenger didn't do anything wrong. His aim is to prove that they are totally ashamed and committed to making things better, period. And he also had no excuses for the BS non apology on the first day, owning up to it. Munoz has a life story of not being a Smisek. This interview gave a glimpse of him, and shows that he's put his pants on and is owning this debacle.

For a PR issue of this magnitude that makes the public feel uneasy, I feel he could have gone further: How about saying that we'll now never ask a passenger to involuntarily give up their seat (whether they have already boarded the plane or not) because someone else needs it (whether that person is another passenger or a crew member).

And to really make a splash, how about saying that we are completely ending the practice of overbooking flights. Wouldn't that be seen as a really positive and cool change? It would put pressure on their competitors, presumably streamline and simplify the process of boarding planes for everyone involved, remove some of the stress of airline travel, and give customers a positive feeling that, as a result, flights won't feel so crowded and cramped (in economy at least).

The missing part of this sorry sage to me is the person in charge of scheduling crews and who sent those four positioning crew members at the last minute to the gate? It would seem that the agent(s) working the gate would know that they required four seats prior to boarding if proper procedures had been followed (or at least common sense so dictates), and thus adopted the "normal" process of seeking passengers willing to be bumped prior to boarding. From having flown many United Express flights, I know that they generally have a single gate agent who is always overworked and thus stressed by the end of the day (which it appears this flight was scheduled for departure late in the day, last flight to Louisville). And while this person, from reports, did not clearly set out what was needed and why to passengers, they're the current target of outrage (in addition to the airport "police").

So I'd like to know where this fiasco really started with UA's regional contractor.

I propose a few changes to the rules

1) Make the minimum payable for IDB to be twice the last minute walk up fare on the route and a refund/free flight. This will encourage airlines to pay more to get VDBs.
2) For delays after a 1 hour grace for every 1 hour the passenger is delayed at his final destination pay 100 dollar. 20 hour delay means $1900, 2 hour delay means $100. This will avoid the situation where the airline tries to put you on a later flight even when there is another flight leaving earlier on another airline
3) Anytime a flight attendant asks for a passenger to be deboarded because they perceive a safety risk the flight attendant also has to deboard to provide testimony. This will mean deboarding people for fake security/ real operational reasons will cause an operational hit so airlines wont do it. It also dovetails well with the constitutionally provided right to confront your accuser. People should not just be able to inconvenience other people with fake accusations without being inconvenienced themselves.