United Airlines’ “de-planing” incident on Monday, followed by its insipid response, has become the main topic of conversation in various social media and online forums.
It has now reached Chinese social media, and netizens have taken a collected stand against the airline, with many announcing they are boycotting the airline. Some have even posted photos of their cut up membership cards to show their outrage.
In the widely-covered fiasco which happened on Monday, a Vietnamese-American doctor identified as Dr. David Dao boarded an overbooked United Airlines flight from Chicago to Louisville. Eventually, he was forcefully removed from his seat after United attempted to make room for their employees. The infuriating footage of the incident where Dao was seen being dragged down the plane’s aisle with a bloodied mouth has earned massive backlash from many.
On Tuesday, the news became a hot trending topic on social media platform Weibo, under the hashtag #美联航强制乘客下机#, or “United forces passenger off plane.” According to Mashable, the topic has reached over 180 million Chinese users, amassing over 890,000 comments from mostly irate netizens.
Chinese Twitter users have also responded to the call accordingly:
@united just closed my united mileage plus credit card. goodbye !
— Kevin Wong (@kwong4) April 11, 2017
Outraged&Ashamed to be your 1k and million miler @united #BoycottUnitedAirlines @Delta @AmericanAir pls tell me about your program. pic.twitter.com/8bK0lwkoor
— Donald Xu (@donx_lynx) April 11, 2017
Just called @Chase to close my @United Mileage Plus Explorer credit card. #ua3411 pic.twitter.com/DY3jHQEoyO
— Zeqing Li (@ZeqingLi) April 10, 2017
@snobers @united 1. Canceled Chase UA Mileage Plus card; 2. Suggested Chase to stop business with UA; 3. Canceled UA membership. Bye bye!
— jiajunchen (@jiajunchen) April 11, 2017
Yup, I’m getting rid of my Mileage Plus card. @united https://t.co/reLO2WITxE
— Doris Lin Ⓥ (@DorisLin) April 11, 2017
It is believed that the quote from a witness has ignited the massive backlash from the Chinese community.
“He said, more or less, ‘I’m being selected because I’m Chinese’,” passenger Tyler Bridges was quoted by The Washington Post as saying.
The allegation was earlier denied by the airline, maintaining their initial claim that the four passengers selected to be removed were randomly chosen.
Needless to say, United’s PR nightmare has now gone global.
