DENVER — Both United Airlines and Southwest announced Wednesday afternoon that inbound and outbound flights are cancelled due to blizzard conditions, according to DIA spokesperson Emily Williams.
Southwest cancelled all flights after 2 p.m.
United has cancelled all flights after 4 p.m.
Keep up to date on storm conditions, road closures and flight statuses on our live blog.
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He admitted that, after the incident, his instinct was to hide and stay hidden.
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A video posted on Facebook late Sunday evening shows a passenger on a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Louisville being forcibly removed from the plane before takeoff at O’Hare International Airport.
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The Kentucky doctor who was forcibly dragged off a United flight in 2017 so his seat could be used by an airline employee said Tuesday that while the ordeal pained him and his family, he is glad it forced the airline to re-evaluate its policies.
David Dao, of Elizabethtown, spoke publicly about the ordeal, which garnered international attention, for the first time ever on Tuesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
“Everything happens with a reason,” Dao said, adding he was not angry with the Chicago Department of Aviation officers who pulled him from the plane.
“They have a job to do,” he said. “They had to do it.”
Dao, who suffered a broken nose and concussion and lost two two teeth in the incident, said he was finally speaking publicly to thank supporters outraged by what happened.
He said the first few months after the incident were “horrible” and he spent months learning to walk again.
A spokeswoman for the law firm that represented Dao in a civil case against the airline told the Courier Journal he was unavailable for further comment.
Dao’s ordeal began April 9, 2017, as he was trying to fly to Louisville from Chicago O’Hare International Airport with his wife. The airline asked the couple and two other passengers to leave the plane to make way for United employees who needed to fly.
Dao, 69 years old at the time, refused to give up his seat and was forcibly pulled off the plane.
Videos taken by other passengers showed Dao’s face bloodied and his glasses broken as he was dragged down the aisle, resulting in outrage and international scrutiny at how United handled the situation.
Check out: How often do airlines bump passengers?
Male high school teacher aboard flight: ‘This didn’t need to happen’
Dao said Tuesday that he found the videos hard to watch in the months after the incident. “I just cried,” he said.
United reached a settlement with Dao for an undisclosed amount. The airline also instituted new rules, including never removing boarded passengers unless for safety or security concerns.
Dao said he refused to leave the plane because he needed to get back to Kentucky to oversee the opening of a clinic he founded for U.S. veterans.
He started the clinic with his wife as a way to thank American servicemen and women, he said, mentioning he was plucked from the ocean by the U.S. Navy as he fled communism in Vietnam about 44 years ago.
United CEO Oscar Munoz initially characterized Dao as “disruptive and belligerent.” But following a public backlash, he apologized to the doctor and promised a similar incident would never happen again.
In a statement to ABC News, United said the changes it has made since the incident “better serve our customers and further empower our employees.”
“This year, we are focused more than ever on our commitment to our customers, looking at every aspect of our business to ensure that we keep their best interests at the center of everything that we do,” United said in the statement. “As our CEO Oscar Munoz has said, we at United never want anyone in the United family to forget the experience of Flight 3411. It makes us a better airline, a more caring company and a stronger team.”
Dao said on “Good Morning America” that he does not remember anything after bumping his head during the altercation but that he later woke up in the hospital with a trauma team surrounding him.
Dao, now retired, said he still has sleep issues and trouble with his concentration and balance. While he had run more than 20 marathons before the incident, Dao said he now can only run about 3 miles.
Dao said the United employees who asked him to leave the plane could have explained why he was being bumped from the flight “nicely” and “reasonably.”
“That makes a difference,” he said.
The Chicago Department of Aviation later fired two officers involved in the incident, with a third officer resigning.
One of the fired officers sued United, Chicago’s Department of Aviation and its commissioner in April 2018, alleging he was not properly trained on how to use force.
That same month, nearly 300 Chicago Aviation Police officers filed a lawsuit after the city of Chicago and state of Illinois ended their law enforcement authority at airports.
On Tuesday, Dao shared how he made a promise to God to devote his time to charity work if he recovered. Since his recovery, Dao said he helped residents in Texas displaced by Hurricane Harvey and traveled to Vietnam and Cambodia to help install solar power in villages with no electricity.
“Well, the most important thing is the accident turned out the positive way,” Dao said.
Reach Billy Kobin at bkobin@courierjournal.com or 502-582-7030.
A timeline: What happened on United Airlines Flight 3411 when David Dao was removed
In City of Tamarac Firefighters’ Pension Trust Fund v. Corvi, et. al, C.A. No. 2017-0341-KSJM, the Delaware Chancery Court issued a Memorandum Opinion granting a motion to dismiss under Chancery Rule 23.1 for failing to prove that pre-litigation demand of the Board was wrongfully refused. The City of Tamarac Firefighters’ Pension Trust Fund (“Plaintiff”), a stockholder of United Continental Holdings, Inc., the owner and operator of United Airlines (collectively, “United”), brought derivative claims against United and its board of directors (the “Board”) (collectively with United, “Defendants”) demanding either a claw-back of an allegedly excessive separation compensation award or the rescission of the separation agreement altogether. The Court found that Plaintiff failed to plead particularized facts raising a reasonable doubt that Defendants acted with due care and in good faith in rejecting Plaintiff’s demand.
In 2011, when David Samson (“Samson”) was chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, he and then-chief executive officer of United Jeffery Smisek (“Smisek”) entered into an arrangement where United would re-institute a retired route that traveled between Newark, NJ and Columbia, SC (the “Route”). The Route had historically operated at a loss, but Samson owned a vacation home there that he wished to travel to more easily. In exchange for the Route’s resurrection, Samson approved several development projects at United’s regional hub. The renewed Route generated losses for United of approximately $1 million.
Three years later, a federal investigation into an unrelated Port Authority scandal uncovered the Route arrangement, prompting further probes into the organization. In the midst of these investigations, Smisek and United entered into a separation agreement negotiated by a special committee (the “Committee”) made up of nine independent and disinterested directors. The separation agreement netted Smisek benefits in the amount of $37M, including almost $5M in cash. By its terms, the separation agreement permitted United to claw-back the benefits if Smisek failed to cooperate with the federal investigations, pleaded guilty to a felony, or was convicted of a felony. Eventually, United settled the case with the SEC, and paid a $2.4M penalty.
In 2016, Plaintiff sent the Board a litigation demand letter seeking to claw-back Smisek’s separation compensation or rescind the separation agreement. Thereafter, the Board delegated consideration of the demand to the Committee. The Committee rejected Plaintiff’s demand, citing the fact that the circumstances under which United was empowered to claw back the award had not occurred. The Committee also stated that it had considered potential disruption to or distraction from the business, the efficacy of the requested action, and the actions United had already taken responsive to the federal investigations.
In 2017, Plaintiff filed this action. Subsequent to Defendants’ original motion to dismiss, Plaintiff sent a supplemental demand adding a request that the Board institute legal action to rescind the separation agreement. The Board again delegated consideration of this demand to the Committee, who in turn formed a subcommittee (the “Subcommittee”) made up of the five members of the Committee that were added after the approval of the separation agreement with Smisek. The Subcommittee rejected Plaintiff’s second demand for essentially the same reasons as the first demand. Subsequently, Plaintiff filed an amended complaint and Defendants renewed their motion to dismiss.
In deciding Defendants’ motion to dismiss, the Court considered Rule 23.1 and how it applied to derivative suits where a plaintiff makes a demand. The Court considered the long-standing rule that making a pre-suit demand constitutes a “tacit” concession that the board is sufficiently disinterested and independent to consider the demand. Refusal, therefore, is subject to the business judgment rule. The Court cited Spiegel v. Buntrock, 571 A.2d 767 (Del. 1990) for the proposition that the two ways in which a plaintiff can show that the board acted outside of its business judgement are raising a reasonable doubt that (1) the board acted with due care, or (2) the board acted in good faith.
Plaintiff argued that the Committee and Subcommittee members were conflicted, and thus the Board acted with gross negligence in relying on them to consider the demands. Defendants relied on Spiegel for the proposition that the Court is precluded from analyzing conflicts at the committee level, as the plaintiff’s tacit concession of disinterestedness flows to the committees as well. The Court acknowledged Defendants’ reasonable interpretation of Spiegel, but turned to Grimes v. Donald, 673 A.2d 1207 (Del. 1996) and Scattered Corp. v. Chi. Stock Exch., Inc., 701 A.2d 70 (Del. 1997) [hereinafter Scattered III] for a discussion on the distinction between directors’ status as disinterested or independent and directors’ actions relating to disinterestedness or independence. Specifically, the Court cited Scattered III for the proposition that even where pre-suit demand is made, the Court should inquire into the good faith and reasonableness of the actions of any committee making up less than the full board.
The Court concluded that “Grimes and Scattered III demonstrate that a tacit concession does not establish for all purposes the disinterest and independence of every member of the board.” While acknowledging that the Court should consider arguments that individual members or committees might not have acted independently, it found that all of Plaintiff’s arguments of conflict within the Committee and Subcommittee fail. Plaintiff argued that members of the Committee had been involved in the negotiation of the separation agreement, which would leave them unable to fairly decide whether to claw-back the award. The Court dismissed this argument because Plaintiff failed to allege any actual involvement, other than that some were on the board when the claw-back provisions were decided. Plaintiff also argued that Jenner Block’s “dual-representation” of the Committee and United was a conflict. The Court acknowledged that while “dual-representation” can be a conflict, it would only be triggered here if it was alleged that Smisek was also represented by Jenner Block. Lastly, Plaintiff argued that the Committee approved the separation agreement before the federal investigations concluded, but the Court found that Plaintiff would have had to allege particularized facts that approving the separation agreement at that time constituted gross negligence.
Plaintiff’s arguments that the Board acted in bad faith were quickly dismissed by the Court. Plaintiff would have had to plead with particularity that the Board intentionally acted in disregard of the Company’s best interest. Instead, the Court noted that Plaintiff merely characterized the decisions as “egregious,” “irrational” and “inexplicable.” Ultimately, the Court found that Plaintiff failed to show that demand was wrongfully refused and granted Defendants’ motion to dismiss.
CHICAGO — Dr. David Dao, who was dragged off a United Airlines flight at O’Hare International Airport two years ago, is speaking out for the first time ever.
Dao was removed from the plane when he refused to give up his seat on the overbooked flight.
RAW VIDEO: UNITED PASSENGER DRAGGED OFF FLIGHT AT O’HARE
The image of Dao on his back with his face bloodied touched a nerve with a lot of passengers. The incident led to protests, legal action, and eventually rule changes at United.
RELATED: VIDEO: United passenger dragged off overcrowded flight at O’Hare; officer placed on leave
On Tuesday’s Good Morning America, Dao speaks for the first time about the encounter at O’Hare seen worldwide.
Dao was pulled from his seat by Chicago Department of Aviation officers, smacking his face on an arm rest.
His face bloodied and glasses broken, Dao was dragged down the aisle of the United Airlines jet.
RELATED: Outrage grows after United passenger dragged off plane; family ‘appreciative’ of support
Dao then returned, appearing disoriented.
“I have to go home! I have to go home!” he shouted on video taken by other passengers at the time.
His family said he suffered a concussion and broken nose.
RELATED: Who is the Kentucky doctor dragged from the United plane?
“Have you watched the video?” GMA’s Amy Robach asked him.
“Later on,” Dao replied.
“What’s that like to watch to see?” Robach asked.
“Few months later after I get my cell phone back, my iPhone back, the first reaction is I just cried,” Dao said.
Dao had refused to be bumped from the Louisville-bound flight for a United crew member.
RELATED: United Airlines, doctor dragged off flight settle lawsuit
United initially called Dao “belligerent,” but later apologized. The airline settled with the Kentucky doctor for an undisclosed amount.
The airline instituted new rules, including never removing boarded passengers unless for safety or security concerns.
RELATED: United announces new customer policies
Two aviation department officers were fired, and a third resigned. One of the officers filed a lawsuit against the city and United, saying he was never properly trained to deal with such an incident.
RELATED: 2 more officers placed on leave after passenger dragged off United flight
The full interview with Dr. Dao will air on Good Morning America Tuesday at 7 a.m.
United Airline’s is becoming the latest airline to make it harder for frequent flyers to plan how many miles they will need to book an award flight. For flights on and after November 15, 2019, the United Airlines award charts will no longer be available. United will begin charging variable award prices for United-operated flights instead. You can already see these changes for flights on and after November 15, 2019.
United also announced that they would be eliminating close in booking fees after November 15, 2019 as well. This is a positive change.
San Francisco, CA, USA – May 22, 2018: Commercial United airline airplane
Getty
This move follows in the footsteps of Delta and discount carriers Southwest Airlines and JetBlue that also use a variable pricing model. At this time, American Airlines and a few international carriers, including Aer Lingus, continue to offer fixed price awards.
Despite this negative news, variable pricing isn’t a completely new concept. United introduced the more expensive Everyday Award that has variable pricing. But, at least it was published with a maximum price for comparison. For instance, a one-way domestic economy class flight currently costs up to 32,500 miles. Being able to book a Saver Award costs 12,500 miles for that same flight.
For now, you can still calculate how many miles you will spend on United award flights by using their interactive award chart.
Redeeming United Miles
The disappearing award charts will be a setback for many award travelers. To avoid some of the future uncertainty, you may try to redeem your miles now.
As of now, United still won’t charge fuel surcharges to long-haul flights. This peace of mind at least lets you know that your fees and taxes for most routes will be around $5.60 each way.
Also, United is still a Chase Ultimate Rewards 1:1 transfer partner. If you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, or Chase Ink Business Preferred, now can be a good time to transfer your miles to get a potentially better redemption value.
Saver Awards
Your best redemption will be booking Saver Awards. These are the last fixed-cost award seats that may be impacted the most when the award chart changes take effect. There are a limited number of Saver Awards per route so you may have to adjust your travel dates or flight times to find a Saver Award.
Economy domestic one-way flights cost 10,000 miles on routes 700 miles or less. Longer routes cost 12,500 miles. If you upgrade to a premium cabin, plan on spending 25,000 miles each way. On Polaris transcontinental routes, add 10,000 miles to the award flight price.
Flying to Europe can also be affordable on United because you won’t pay a fuel surcharge. Economy seats cost 30,000 miles each way and 60,000 miles for business class. On partner airlines, premium seats can cost 70,000 miles each way plus fees and taxes.
Book United Flights With Partner Miles
Another option to consider is booking United flights through a partner airline like Singapore Airlines. Selection may be limited, but it’s another potential tool you can use to maximize award travel.
At this time, it’s unclear how these changes will affect partner flights.
Summary
Although the United MileagePlus program isn’t perfect, the published award charts add credibility to the company and is definitely more user friendly for consumers. Going forward, it may be harder to plan United Airlines award flights. Using your United miles now is one way to know you are getting the best redemption value. While you should still be able to find competitively priced award flights after November 15, it will take by more effort.
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(Last Updated On: April 8, 2019)
A United Airlines passenger faces 21 years for assault on a United flight attendant.
LOS ANGELES (DOJ release) – A United Airlines flight from Melbourne to Los Angeles International Airport was the scene as Adau Akui Atem Mornyang, an Australian woman, assaulted a flight attendant earlier this year. Now, Adau Akui Atem Mornyang has been found guilty of federal charges.
Adau Akui Atem Mornyang
, a 24 year old fashion model of Victoria, Australia, was convicted on Thursday in relation to a January 21 incident in which she appeared to be intoxicated and was verbally and physically abusive to personnel and other passengers during the flight. The jury found Mornyang guilty of a felony charge of interference with a flight crew and a misdemeanor assault count.
According to the evidence presented at trial, several hours into the flight, passengers approached a flight attendant to complain about Mornyang’s disruptive behavior, which included flailing her arms and yelling obscenities and racial slurs.
When the United Airlines flight attendant went to assess the situation, Mornyang began to shout at the flight attendant and then slapped him across his face. The flight attendant attempted to restrain Mornyang until federal air marshals could assist. The federal air marshals were forced to stay with Mornyang in the rear galley of the plane for the remainder of the flight.
Mornyang is scheduled to be sentenced in Los Angeles on June 24 2019 in the court of United States District Judge Cormac J. Carney. As a result of the guilty verdicts returned on March 14, Mornyang faces a statutory maximum sentence of 21 years in federal prison.
This case was investigated by the FBI, which received assistance from the Federal Air Marshals and the Los Angeles Airport Police Department.
The case against Mornyang is being prosecuted Assistant United States Attorneys MiRi Song and Kevin Reidy of the General Crimes Section.
I am that rare breed: a blogger, and I don’t mean micro. Follow me on Twitter: Roger Robarts
United is completely revamping its United MileagePlus frequent flyer scheme to axe fixed-rate mileage booking costs on many United reward flights in favour of dynamic pricing, where the number of miles needed to book a flight varies from one journey to the next, even on the same route.
This means travellers won’t know how many miles they’ll need to book their trip until they try to make that booking – a change to the current approach of acquiring a set number of miles for a given flight – with dynamic pricing taking effect immediately for travel from November 15 2019.
Here’s what United’s changes mean for you and your stack of United MileagePlus miles.
With the number of miles needed to book a United flight changing from day to day and flight to flight, United will no longer publish ‘award charts’ from November 15, which currently communicate today’s set pricing levels.
Instead, the number of miles needed to book any given flight will be presented only at the time of making a booking, with today’s fixed rates applying for travel until November 14, and the new dynamic rates applying for journeys departing from November 15, including those booked between now and that date.
United warns that for travel “after November 15, award prices may be higher, especially if you’re traveling at popular times,” and that “award pricing will fluctuate based on a variety of factors, including demand.”
On flights between Australia and the United States, there’s currently been no change to the number of United miles needed to book United flights, with a one-way Business Saver Award priced at 80,000 United miles plus taxes and fees on all non-stop flights from Sydney and Melbourne, both before and after November 15.
AusBT review: United Boeing 787-9 business class, Sydney-Houston
However, with no published award charts, this could change at any time and without notice – so although it’s possible that United may reduce the miles needed to book reward flights during off-peak periods, it’s equally possible that the cost of these flights may increase, and without warning.
As such, members sitting on a balance of United miles may wish to lock-in any upcoming travel plans while the rates remain the same, to avoid the cost of those journeys going up unexpectedly.
On other United routes, dynamic pricing is already well in effect, such as between Los Angeles and San Francisco, where today’s published award chart sets a fixed rate of 25,000 miles for a one-way ‘first class’ (business class) flight, or 10,000 miles in economy.
But for travel beyond November 15, departure dates searched by Australian Business Traveller revealed the same one-way economy hop priced at either 6,500 miles, 7,000 miles, 12,500 miles, 15,000 miles, 18,000 miles or 20,000 miles, depending on the day and the departure time of the flight.
In most cases, all flights departing on the same day adopted the same reward cost, although on some days, choosing one flight over another could require almost three times as many miles, such as on December 21 2019 – a popular travel day just before Christmas:
Here, travellers taking the earliest or latest flights on the same day would pay the least miles, while those flying in the middle of the day would part with significantly more miles to still fly economy: almost as many as to fly up front.
As United releases relatively few reward seats in premium cabins – between Los Angeles and San Francisco, on just one flight per week in some cases – the true impact of dynamic pricing on travellers using their points to fly in comfort cannot yet be established, with few flights available today to compare.
With United unpublishing its award charts from November 15, it’ll be a little more difficult for travellers to calculate how many miles they’ll need to book a flight with United’s Star Alliance partners like Air Canada and Thai Airways, as the mileage cost will only be displayed during the flight booking process when a reward flight is found.
However, the cost of booking Star Alliance partner flights isn’t being altered as part of these changes, so for now, there’ll be no increase to the number of miles needed to secure these reservations, with United’s new dynamic pricing structure only applying to United flights.
That said, given the opaqueness of the revised MileagePlus scheme and the absence of published award charts even for partner airline flights, that could easily change in the future: and without notice.
Using United miles to book Singapore Airlines flights also remains unavailable across all routes and booking classes – as has been the case for many months now – with no update as to when that issue will be resolved other than that “our airline partner is diligently working with us to address this situation.”
Reward flight bookings with Thai Airways and TAP Air Portugal, which went offline at the same time as Singapore Airlines reward reservations via United, have since been restored and are again available via the United website and app in all classes.
In a spot of good news for business travellers booking last-minute reward flights, particularly leisure day trips or overnighters when away on company business, United will axe its ‘close-in’ booking surcharge on United and Star Alliance reward flights booked within 21 days of departure.
This currently appends an extra US$75 atop the usual taxes and fees of such reward bookings made by members without status – US$50 for Premier Silver and US$25 for Premier Gold, waived for Premier Platinum and above – but from November 15, the fee will be axed for all travellers.
However, unlike the dynamic pricing changes which are already in effect for travel from November 15, this fee will only be removed for new bookings made from November 15: so, if you make a short-notice reward booking before that date, expect that fee to still apply.
United confirms that “we will not refund fees paid prior to November 15, even if travel occurs on or after November 15.”
These changes at United follow loyalty revamps by other Star Alliance members this year such as Singapore Airlines – which has increased the number of miles needed to book Singapore Airlines and Star Alliance reward flights – and Thai Airways, which is making significant increases to the number of miles needed to book flights across the board.
United, though, isn’t exactly innocent. It, too, is removing seatback screens, reducing legroom and decorating its planes with tiny toilets and very thin seats.
