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United Airlines Slammed On Twitter: Best Reactions Range From Dictionary Sass To Cleveland Browns Tackle

By Joanne Eglash
Published on: 03:24 PST, Apr 11, 2017

Twitter is trolling United Airlines in the wake of the viral videos showing what happened to a passenger who refused to “volunteer” to get off the plane. From a sassy dictionary’s literary slam to a Cleveland Browns offensive tackle’s trolling, the company isn’t getting away with its attempt at an apology.

Cleveland Browns offensive tackle Joe Thomas joined in the Twitter backlash, following up when the company’s CEO Oscar Munoz issued an apology about “having to re-accommodate these customers,” noted Bleacher Report.

Thomas, 32, tackled Munoz’s choice of the word “re-accommodate.”

“…having to re-accommodate?” That’s what we’re calling it?” he tweeted.

And he didn’t stop there, showing that a photo and a clever comment are sometimes worth a thousand tweets.

And Thomas wasn’t alone. In response to the original tweeted apology, others slammed the company for what took place.

“Re-accommodate??? Volunteer??? You dragged him off! Someone teach their staff the definition of said words. @united,” tweeted one upset Twitter user.

Some voiced their views on what should happen next.

“I hear you. I really hope they’re not able to get to him and try to ‘resolve’ it. They need to be sued out of existence. And the cops too,” chimed in another person.

When United Airlines failed to find "volunteers" to give up their seats on an overbooked flight, the situation became dramatic.
When United Airlines failed to find “volunteers” to give up their seats on an overbooked flight, the situation became dramatic. [Image by Seth Wenig/AP Images]

And then there were those who informed United Airlines that they were opting out of flying again with the company. That turned into a win for Southwest Air.

“I’m a frequent flier of yours. This morning I chose to “reaccomodate” thousands of $ in biz to @SouthwestAir #bummer,” tweeted one frequent flier.

https://twitter.com/pigguface/status/851693103933120513

Others who viewed the videos of the man dragged off the overbooked flight took to Twitter to urge a formal boycott, reported Buzzfeed.

In addition to the videos, the story from passengers described a flight that had been overbooked by four individuals. With a lack of volunteers to surrender their seats, security guards reportedly moved into place to physically drag a man from the plane.

The new incident comes in the wake of a leggings public relations fiasco involving United Airlines. Three young girls were stopped from boarding a flight because they allegedly failed to comply with the dress code stipulated for “company benefit travel.” The combination of events has caused repeated tweets for boycotts.

“Boycott @United if you can. They overcharge you, abuse you & will lose your luggage. With no remorse,” tweeted one angry user.

Also, the company’s tweet last Wednesday urging travelers to share their “wanderlust… travel pics” has turned into an opportunity for Twitter trolls.

While one person noticed an upside, pointing out that the airline probably “won’t have to worry about over booking again” and adding the hashtag “#BoycottUnited,” others mocked the attempt at a promo with specific complaints.

“Replying to @united. #UnitedJourney been in Houston for 7 hours,” noted one passenger.

The company’s attempt at a fun tweet providing a free flight for the person challenged by Wendy’s to get 18 million retweets for nuggets also fell victim to the backlash.

Even the dictionary got in the act. Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary has delighted Twitter fans by using the trending topics charts to fuel its sometimes sassy tweets. And when the airline chose the term “volunteer” to describe the process of finding passengers to give up their seats, Merriam-Webster took notice, reported the Wrap.

Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary team provided some guidelines for using the term in the wake of the company’s forcible removal from the overbooked flight. The airline said that the man they removed had declined to “volunteer” to surrender his seat.

Some Twitter users are slamming United Airlines and urging for a boycott.
Some Twitter users are slamming United Airlines and urging for a boycott. [Image by Julio Cortez/AP Images]

“Lookups for ‘volunteer’ are up 1900%,” tweeted the dictionary’s team, linking to a definition for the term.

“Volunteer means ‘someone who does something without being forced to do it,’ especially a person who joins the military or who does work for no pay,” according to Merriam-Webster.

However, the company used the term in a somewhat different way in its response to what occurred.

“After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate.”

That explanation provoked another flood of slams from Twitter users.

“I just want someone from United to explain the phrase ‘refused to volunteer’ to me,” requested one Twitter commentator.

[Featured Image by Seth Wenig/AP Images]

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