Originally Posted by
Flytolive
You might want to take your own advice.
All big four airlines all made statements about the issue. DAL has taken the lead on other issues. Maybe they take turns.
American Airlines, United Airlines and Frontier Airlines all issued statements in the hours before President Donald Trump backed down and signed an executive order to end the controversial policy. Delta Air Lines (DAL) commended Trump for reversing course.
Delta's statement: “Delta’s mission is to connect people and we are against anything that runs contrary to that mission. Recent reports of families being separated are disheartening and do not align with Delta’s core values. We applaud the administration’s executive order resolving the issue of separating children from their families at the US border.”
American Airlines “We have therefore requested the federal government to immediately refrain from using American for the purpose of transporting children who have been separated from their families due to the current immigration policy. We have no desire to be associated with separating families, or worse, to profit from it. We have every expectation the government will comply with our request and we thank them for doing so.”
United Airlines “United asks U.S. government not to fly separated immigrant children on our aircraft.”
Southwest Airlines “We do not wish to have involvement in the process of separating children from their parents. Therefore, we appeal to anyone making those types of travel decisions not to utilize Southwest Airlines.”
Frontier Airlines Frontier prides itself on being a family airline and we will not knowingly allow our flights to be used to transport migrant children away from their families. At this time, we are not aware if Frontier has been used for this purpose.
Alaskan Airlines “To our knowledge, we haven’t transported any immigrant children who have been separated from their families, and today informed the government we do not want to do so.”
Spirit Airlines “We will not knowingly participate in transporting immigrant children away from their parents and families.”[/I]
First of all, You left out JetBlue(?) Secondly, thanks for making my point: Statements, without action....bland, politically correct, statements. Gee go figure. When other agencies commit to social agenda driven actions such as American and United, it forces the media spotlight into the face of all others, demanding a response. What else were they going to say?
Again, the REAL question, would you, as an airline refuse to transport children of parents (or others claiming to be), to family members residing in the United States? Would you deny them that American dream? Would you send them back with the adult that turns out to be a human trafficker? Rapist? Social media PR disaster in the waiting. Bucket of worms, do you agree? This is the premise of this thread. The question that PR department's and directors need to contend with is the potential fallout ($$) of taking a stance.
Bland, non-committal, feel-good statements aside, in real, practical terms, how would you as an airline, go about ensuring you are not transporting children separated from their parents? Real answer? You don't. You never have, and you never well. Say the right thing and everybody goes home happy.
Just take a look at the companies that have led this charge and do a little research as to how their PR depts have handled their disasters (every airline has them) and compare them to Delta. And no, I don't work for Delta
I'm not going to continue trying to convince you of the dilemmas faced by airline PR departments and CEOs as you (and AA) appear predisposed to an emotional perspective on what should be a purely financial decision.