Top 10 Worst Things Airlines Have Ever Done
There have been a lot of terrible airline incidents in recent memory. Whether it was a group of girls being denied entry to a United airlines flight because they were wearing leggings, United Airlines breaking musician Dave Carroll's guitar, or Simon the Giant Rabbit dying on a United flight, these are some of the worst things we've heard about airlines lately. WatchMojo counts down ten stories that will make you HATE all airlines.
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Top 10 Worst Things Airlines Have Ever Done
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They take us to to the highest heights, but sometimes they’re the lowest of the low. Welcome to WatchMojo.com and today we’re counting down our picks for the top 10 worst things airlines have ever done. For this list, we’ve ranked the most appalling examples of poor service by passenger airlines.
#10: Bathroom Break = Security Scare
When an April 2017 Delta Air Lines flight was delayed, one passenger’s call of nature prompted major security protocol. Kima Hamilton was waiting to fly to Milwaukee from Atlanta when he asked to use the restroom, but was told to stay seated. With the plane still stuck on the tarmac 30 minutes later, he could wait no more, and headed to the men’s room… Only for the pilot to swiftly turn the plane around and return to the gate, where Mr. Hamilton was removed and everyone else was forced to disembark and reboard – which took over two hours. In the end, Kima was questioned by police before having to buy another ticket with only a partial refund on his original seat!
#9: United Breaks Guitars
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A mid-flight misdemeanor so bad it inspired a trilogy of protest songs, United Airlines’ poor treatment of Dave Carroll’s musical instrument is internet gold. Carroll was travelling with his band, Sons of Maxwell, on the eve of a week-long tour of Nebraska in 2008, when from the window of his plane during a layover in Chicago he spotted his equipment being thrown around by baggage handlers. Shortly after landing, Carroll found his $3,500 Taylor guitar had been smashed, but no matter how hard he complained he found little sympathy and zero compensation. So, Carroll did what any enterprising musician would do – he turned frustration into song and became an overnight YouTube star.
#8: Heated Protest
Air travel can be quite uncomfortable, but passengers on a 2017 Jet Airways flight from Mumbai had to stage a mass protest before their widespread complaints were finally listened to. Upon boarding, several people raised concerns about the cabin temperature with some even suggesting that they were close to suffocating, but the crew sent them back to their seats and continued regardless. It wasn’t until around 130 fliers made a literal stand, filling the aisles shortly before takeoff, that action was taken and the plane taxied back to the bay. The ‘technical issue’ was eventually rectified, but not before a lengthy delay.
#7: Simon the Giant Rabbit
It’s one thing to mishandle luggage, but transporting animals and pets is another level of responsibility, and another cue for massive failure by United Airlines. In 2017, news broke that Simon, a giant rabbit expected to eclipse his father to become the world’s biggest bunny, died while being transported by United from London to Chicago. Much more than simply a sad turn of events, Simon perished when staff in Chicago mistakenly stored him in a chiller – and it gets even worse. When Simon’s owner asked for his body to be sent back to the UK for a post-mortem, she found that United had already arranged a cremation without her consent.
#6: Ban on Breastfeeding
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Officially, United Airlines says that nursing mothers are welcome on its aircraft, but the staff on a 2016 flight from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles clearly missed the memo. Juliet Thomson was breastfeeding her baby when, at the insistence of an angry passenger, United cabin crew told her to cover up beneath a blanket. United staff did apologize on arrival at LAX, but Ms. Thomson later said she felt ‘ganged-up on’ throughout the ordeal. And her experience isn’t an isolated incident. In 2015, another mother asked a United attendant to direct her to the nursing station during a layover in Washington, D.C., only to be taken to the pet relief center!
#5: Do You Want to Take This Outside?
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The least airplane passengers expect is a pilot who appears calm and in control, but travel with Air India and that’s not always what you get apparently. On multiple occasions, an Air India pilot has shocked passengers by engaging in a mid-flight punch-up. In 2009, as part of the widely-publicized ‘mid-air molestation case’, an allegation of sexual assault provoked a brawl between pilot, co-pilot and air hostess, which spilled out into the cabin. In 2015, fighting pilots kept their ruckus inside the cockpit, but both were grounded when it emerged that the first officer beat the pilot up before takeoff, but neither reported the incident until post-flight.
#4: Just Say No to… Leggings?
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Lots of us like to dress down when we fly, but two girls apparently overstepped the mark when they turned up for a United flight in leggings. The pair was refused entry onto the plane as the airline felt they were ‘not properly clothed’. The incident caused a social media storm, and it emerged that a third passenger had also fallen short of United’s bizarre dress code, but sidestepped the rule by donning a dress overtop. United responded to criticism by explaining that the passengers in question had been travelling with a United employee pass, for which different rules applied, but the whole episode proved to be a PR disaster.
#3: Pet Travel Troubles
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When Kathleen Considine arrived at Portland airport in February 2017, she expected to be excitably greeted by her beloved Golden Retriever, Jacob. Instead, her pet was unresponsive, and was soon pronounced dead. The dog died shortly after a United flight from Detroit, which saw him unexpectedly kept in Chicago for 20 hours overnight, without food. Not only did the airline not allow food to be sent with the Retriever, but it was also suggested that someone had given Jacob some form of meds during his journey. All told, 7-year old Jacob couldn’t survive the trip, and his owner took to Facebook to call for a United boycott by animal lovers.
#2: Massive Computer Outages
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While Delta isn’t the only airline to experience large-scale computer issues, it did suffer two of the largest outages within a few months of one another in the early 21st century. In August 2016, loss of power at an Atlanta operations center triggered international delays and over 1,000 cancellations, costing $150 million. Fast-forward to January 2017, and a similar IT issue grounded all Delta flights for a number of hours, resulting in almost 300 cancelled journeys. Disgruntled passengers vented on Twitter, and airport chaos ensued. Thanks to airline mergers across the board, lots of carriers were affected, leaving customers stranded and scrambling for hotels all over the world. Before we unveil our #1 pick, here’s an honorable, or in this case, dishonorable mention: - Delta Threatens California Parents with Arrest & Children with Foster Care for Refusing to Give Up 2-Year-Old’s Seat
#1: Overbooked & Over Aggressive
They’ve featured more than any other airline today, and United takes our top spot. In April 2017, the carrier made worldwide headlines over footage of a United passenger being forcibly removed from an overbooked flight. Doctor David Dao lost two teeth and broke his nose in the incident, which brought to light on-going issues with the common practice of overbooking flights to reduce empty seats. Although United quickly agreed to a settlement and announced customer service improvements in the wake of the viral clip, the airline saw its popularity plummet. Of all the unexplainable and inexcusable airline misdeeds, the dragging of Dr. Dao from his bought and paid for seat is the worst of the worst.
