United Airlines' Image Takes Online Beating From Memes, Comments

Move over "alternative facts" and "fake news." There's a new buzzword for 2017: re-accommodate. That's the term United Airlines CEO used in his apology to describe what happened to a passenger who was bloodied when he was violently dragged by an airport security officer from a Chicago-to-Louisville flight Sunday night at O'Hare International Airport.

The passenger, who said he was a doctor, was among four people randomly selected on the overbooked United flight 3411 to give up their seats for airline employees who needed to be in Louisville by Monday, according to witnesses.

"I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers," United CEO Oscar Munoz said in a statement concerning the incident, which he described as an "upsetting event." (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news for Chicago — or your neighborhood. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

RELATED: Officer Who Dragged Bloodied Passenger From United Flight Suspended

That "upsetting event" was captured on video and had been playing on a seemingly endless loop on social media Monday. Online, people have expressed outrage at the way the passenger was treated, calling for a boycott of Chicago-based United. Other individuals have taken it upon themselves to give the airline's reputation a metaphoric beating online. And "re-accommodate" became one of the first targets:

Some online commenters took shots at the overreaction by the airline and airport security officer, characterizing their actions in less-than-flattering ways:

And to prove that the internet doesn't have as short a memory as some people might think, a few commenters brought up United's previous public misstep when the airline wouldn't allow two teenage girls to board a flight out of Denver last month because they were wearing leggings.

RELATED: 2 Girls Denied Boarding By United For Wearing Leggings

In fact, that fiasco and Sunday night's incident had some people lumping United with Pepsi, which had come under fire for its recent tone-deaf commercial starring Kendall Jenner that was criticized for trivializing recent protests and social activism movements, such as Black Lives Matter:

Now United is walking through a waking public relations nightmare, and if past performance is any indication, the airline seems currently ill-equipped to repair its very damaged image. One thing is for certain, United employees who had nothing to do with the latest debacle are going to have to weather the digs and side-eye looks from travelers every time they ask for volunteers to be bumped. Or as one commenter on Twitter put it:

Photo credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images News/ Getty Images

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