2310--United Breaks Guitars

United Airlines will think twice about who they hire to handle people’s goods, after losing around $180 million in stocks, following a YouTube video that was posted by guitarist Dave Carroll.

Carroll was on tour with his band, Sons of Maxwell, when a fellow passenger witnessed his guitar getting tossed carelessly from the plane upon arriving in Nebraska. With no time to be had and droopy eyes, Carroll didn’t check his guitar until the next morning, when he came to find his $3500 710 Taylor guitar broken.

For nine months, he contacted United Airlines, was sent to Air Canada, back and forth again before finally ending up talking to Ms. Irlweg. She told Carroll he was out of luck; United would not refund his money or his time wasted on trying to resolve the matter.

Realizing he had been fighting a losing battle the whole time, Carroll thought of a new idea. He was going to write three songs about his experience flying with United Airlines, make videos for each one and then post it on YouTube for the world to see it.

Within 24-hours, Carroll’s first “United” video had gone viral, with over 24,000 views. United was not slow to contact Carroll after that. They told him they would reimburse him for his $3500, but Carroll said no. He wanted them to give the money they would have given him, to the charity of their choice. Nice guy for someone who made United lose millions in stock, right?

Without the social media of the world, Carroll would probably still be mourning over the loss of his beloved 710 Taylor guitar. There is no way without it, that over 24,000 people could view a video in such a short amount of time. But because of it, Carroll not only got sweet, sweet revenge and many laughs, but “brought people together from around the world.”

Hopefully United Airlines learned their lesson when it comes to threats concerning the media world. And maybe, just maybe, Carroll and Ms. Irlweg can sit together years down the road, and joke about what happened on that flight from Chicago to Nebraska. For now, he’ll just continue writing songs about her, and she’ll probably stay hidden under the radar for as long as possible.