United Airlines is being sued by one of its most loyal frequent flyers in a half-million-dollar lawsuit that accuses the Chicago-based carrier of deceptive and unfair business practices by selling flights that it couldn’t operate because it didn’t hire enough staff.
The lawsuit is being brought by Jonathan Davidoff, a frequent flyer who has racked up more than two million miles with United alone and has attained the coveted Premier 1K elite status with the airline.
Davidoff is suing United over a series of operational meltdowns that hit the airline in the summer of 2023 when United canceled hundreds of flights at short notice. United put much of the blame on weather issues and FAA air traffic control delays, although staffing issues may have also contributed to some of United’s woes.
In particular, in late June 2023, United admitted that thousands of passengers had a “rough experience” after the airline struggled to recover from severe summer weather in the Northeast.
At the time, United offered frequent flyers caught up in the mess 30,000 MileagePlus miles as an apology, but Davidoff is demanding $500,000 from United to make up for its shortcomings.
Davidoff had wanted to fly from Newark to San Francisco on June 28, 2023, after the bad weather had passed, but with United still in the midst of a messy operational meltdown, the airline canceled his flight at the last minute, only after Davidoff and his friend had already arrived at the airport.
United blamed bad weather for the cancellation despite the fact that the weather at both the origin and destination airports was fine.
In fact, the reason Davidoff’s flight was canceled was reportedly because United reassigned the plane that had been meant to operate his flight and then told him that there were no other planes available to get him to San Francisco for another 60 hours.
“It is Plaintiff’s position that Defendant [United] cancelled the Flight because Defendant is not adequately staffed based on cost-cutting efforts implemented by Defendant in an effort to increase its profits and stock price for Defendant’s shareholders,” the complaint against United reads.
“Because of Defendant’s unfair and deceptive practices, which include understaffing and selecting less profitable flights to cancel for more profitable flights, Plaintiff was unable to take his trip and sustained damages.”
As United’s woes continued through the summer of 2023, the union that represents flight attendants at the airline called an emergency meeting to discuss the operational meltdowns.
At the time, the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) accused United of not hiring enough crew schedulers to keep track of flight attendants and assign them to flights.
United repeatedly had to offer hefty bonus payments to get flight attendants to cover a slew of flights that didn’t have minimum crew coverage, putting them at jeopardy of cancellation.
At times, international flights out of Newark were being crewed to FAA-certified minimum because of the staffing issues.
Summer 2023 has become so infamous amongst United’s flight attendant workforce that some are citing it as a reason to vote down a controversial tentative labor agreement.
The ballot for the contract is expected to open next week, and the union has been desperately trying to convince flight attendants to vote in favor of the tentative agreement.
United has yet to respond to Davidoff’s lawsuit.
Matt’s take
The summer of 2023 was a real nightmare for passengers and airline workers around the world. Travel demand was booming as the pandemic started to disappear in the rear-view mirror, but staffing levels were not nearly at the levels they were at before COVID-19 decimated the aviation industry.
Delays and cancellations were all too common, and while bad weather and air traffic control issues were partly to blame, you’d be hard pressed to successfully argue that staff shortages weren’t also a factor.
This was an extremely stressful time for airline workers, and passengers really were put through some unacceptable situations. It’s perhaps unsurprising that most airlines are operating far more efficient and reliable schedules now that staffing numbers have been bulked up.
United retained more staff than any other airline in the world during covid.
I’d like to see the 500k justification for missing one flight. With that much on the line, charter a jet.
While no longer enforced, the government could reinstitute the obsolete Rule 240. It would be interesting to read each airline’s contract of carriage to see what they legally say about delayed or cancelled flights. Rule 240 did not apply to weather, ATC woes and items that the airline has no control over. Maintenance, short staffing, unavailability of replacement aircraft, etc….things that the airline CAN control would be subject to the passenger requesting Rule 240. If I were in that position, I would bring the old Rule 240 to the gate/ticket agent’s attention and ask them to review the contract of carriage and not just take a “sorry ’bout that” crap. Most agents today have no clue about Rule 240 nor the contract of carriage.
I remember that day. I was also in Newark Airport. My flight was scheduled to leave at 9pm. Then delayed to depart at 11. Then moved to 1200am. Then to 2 AM. Then canceled. We saw crew members board the plane and left. My wife and I finally left being on standby back to Charleston SC at 8am. Yes we got compensation with the 30,000 mileage points. Have not use it yet.