Mr Atkinson-
I have been a loyal United Airlines customer and defender for more than 10 years, most of which I have earned at least Premier, sometimes Premier Executive status on your airline. It pains me to have to write that I will be looking for another airline with which to conduct my and my companies business. It seems that your company, as well as some, but not all of, your competitors, have decided that lowering standards and quality of service is the way to distinguish your product. The following are examples of just some of the complaints and problems I have recently (within the last 2-3 years) had with United:

1) Loss of most service from JFK/LGA, requiring travel to most any city connect via ORD or IAD.

2) Moving of your call center to India, and the complete and total lack of any training they have. It has gotten to the point where I, and many others that I know, will do anything to talk to one of your excellently staffed call centers in HNL, Elk Grove or DEN. The difference in service they provide is night and day.

3) The removal of the front line employees ability to take ownership of a problem, and find a solution. It used to be that gate agents and reservation agents were able to logically look at a problem, consider what would make a reasonable solution to the problem, and implement the solution as they saw fit. This seems to have disappeared from the company today. Everything must go 'by the book', and every decision requires a phone call, or being put on hold for 10-15 minutes.

4) The lack of untied.com to handle the most simple of transactions without worrying that plans and reservations will be majorly effected. For example, I have a reservation to which there has been a minor (5 minute) schedule change. There is absolutely no way for me to accept this change online. Also, I accepted a refund for a canceled Y ticket to Europe in the form of vouchers due to the fact that I frequently travel, and I thought it would be easy to use the credit for future flights. Now to book flights with these credits, I am required to drive 45 minutes to either LGA or JFK, pay for parking, wait on line behind what is usually many frustrated travelers rescheduling flights to talk to a ticketing agent who more often than not is unfamiliar with how to ticket reservations using vouchers. I have yet to have a reservation made using vouchers that has taken less than 45 minutes, either at LGA, JFK or ORD. Some have taken more than 3 hours. Even though my voucher was credit for travel on a code-share flight (LH), restrictions were put on the voucher to only allow travel on UA owned metal, elimitinating most of my availability to most cities without paying more than if I just booked direct with United due to connections that would be required to keep the flight on UA metal. For example, when I wished to travel to Pittsburgh, United code shared a flight with US Air that went LGA to PIT directly. If I wished to use my voucher, I needed to travel 5 more hours via either ORD or IAD. Needless to say, I have now taken to 'wasting' some of my vouchers value just to use it and be done with the problem.

5) Airlines such as Virgin America, JetBlue, Delta, Continental and even American have made investments in their domestic fleets, either by promising to install internet access for passengers, or by installing personal TV systems for the customers entertainment. The only move I have seen by United is making many of the laptop power jacks inoperative.

There are many other issues I have with United, but the announcements you made this week were the straw that broke the camels back for me. I am looking for a travel partner that is looking forward towards a healthy future, and not just looking to make cuts today to help the bottom line. Any company can be a cost leader. It takes a visionary company to be a true leader. I hope future decisions and announcements by United help change my mind, but for now I am beginning my search for a new airline for my business.

Joelfreak
Director
Some Company Name Here