What’s happening at United Airways?

E. Ablorh-Odjidja

April 13, 2022

In case you will be traveling with United Airlines to and from Accra these days, be aware of a creeping bad practice of this airline, an old one some of us were familiar with during the defunct Ghana Airways days.

Ghana Airways would tell us then, that as travelers, we were entitled under normal circumstances to two pieces of carry-ons, provided they met the travel limitations, only to find out often at the gate that we weren’t because the bins in the cabin were already full.

What happened on April 08, 2022, on the day of my travel to Accra on board UA 0996 was the same. It recalled a passage on the defunct Ghana Airways. 

United Airlines, on that day, asked all travelers for volunteers to surrender carry-ons instead of taking them on board.  The affected luggage would then be shipped to the destination on the same flight in the cargo compartment.

To my recognition and not my appreciation, many passengers did.  Until it got to my turn to board when my bag, meeting size, and weight limitations, were pounced upon and labeled to be sent to the cargo compartment.

Now, my carry-ons were packed for necessities like prescriptions, a laptop, and a few personal items that I wouldn’t want to be parted from for five minutes, just to provide a background to what transpired.

Also, the most important irritant was that the trade conduct I was about to experience was an old trick from the Ghana Airways – of crew members using available cabin space onboard to transport merchandise for private profit. 

This practice and others would eventually lead Ghana Airways to a total collapse and the consequent national embarrassment.

Has the corrupt practice of shipping private freight in the onboard bins allowed for passengers, thereby pushing the passenger’s carry-ons into the cargo compartment found its way into the United Airways Accra to Washington route?

For remembrance, the crew On Ghana Airways got to ship goods meant for personal trade for free.  And they did it with arrogance and style until the end when Ghana Airways went belly up.

United Airlines collapsing, I am certain, would not happen.  But I’m worried about the creeping discomfort of travel between Washington Dulles and Accra and the influence that corrupting Ghanaian business ethics may create on this route.

The Boing 787 craft, the type of plane that I flew on in April 2022, I could be certain was built with the tolerance of passengers' carry-ons, even on full flight days, provided the carry-ons met dimension and weight limitations.

The simple solution would then be to strip the offending passengers of their right - to take away those offending bags to send to the cargo compartment.  So, what happened?

But the above wasn’t my case.  I met the requirement, and the proof was after insisting for 10 minutes that I had the right to take on board my bags, I was allowed. 

However, you may be surprised to learn that during this conversation at the gate, I was rudely threatened by a Ghanaian crew leader that he could have me ejected from the flight if I didn’t comply with the arbitrary move to confiscate my bag for transport in cargo.

Again, to my recognition, about a total of 20 passengers had volunteered before I got to the gate and this total wasn’t enough to ease the problem.  So, what was it that started the arbitrary seizure of carry-on bags?

This practice has left me baffled.  United Airlines would have to explain what caused it to deprive many of its passengers of the security and comfort of taking their carry-on with them on that day.

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, April 13, 2022

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