After suffering through several weeks of bad publicity, particularly after a video showed a police officer violently dragging a passenger off a plane, United Airlines has been working on initiatives to win back customers, the New York Times reported.
United will boost its financial incentives for passengers who are asked to leave planes when flights are overbooked, the Times reported. Perks could total up to $10,000 in travel certificates for passengers who volunteer to change flights.
The airline said it also is changing its booking and boarding processes to make sure that people who have boarded flights will not have to give up their seats.
Meanwhile, United is also cutting fares, according to Scott Keyes, who runs the website Scott's Cheap Flights. He told Travel + Leisure that there has been a "noticeable drop" in fares on United since the incident involving Kentucky physician David Dao.
“I’m not privy to United’s internal numbers,” Keyes told the site, “but whatever drop in bookings they were seeing must have scared theme enough to slash prices.”
United's profits dropped 69 percent during the first quarter of 2017, according to CNNMoney, but that was due to high fuel and labor costs.
Cosmopolitan reported that United has deals to Trinidad and Tobago for as low as $274, down from $550. For tourists who want to see Europe, flights from Boston to Sweden are $364, and flights to Paris are going for $433. Keyes is calling these "apology fares," Cosmopolitan reported.
About the Author
