it really bothers me that WN is typically in the top 10 most "LUV"ed companies in these same studies. I refuse to give WN my money though because their product does not offer ANY of the things I care about except ones that EVERY US carrier has (such as getting me where I want to go).
I'm also tired of people on both sides of the CO vs UA argument acting as if everything they say applies to everyone else. The fact is all of this whining is purely opinion and I wish people would start taking ownership of that.
Sure there are lots of things that came from CO that i don't like - such as the crappy blankets. I hate the fact that 1p and 2p now board on the blue carpet. I also worry that the CO culture of completely ignoring status for anything that the computer doesn't automatically grant will eventually prevail.
but some of the things that I think will improve United's score on these surveys are very much from CO management and ARE changes that I ACTUALLY like:
$500,000,000 investment in onboard hard product. The former UA management was terrible about this - only overhead monitors in coach on the refurbished IPTE 747s used on the longest routes was a ridiculous decision! There is no power in Y and peoples batteries don't last long enough to watch movies on their ipads on SFO-SYD for example. A seasoned UA traveller friend of mine just had her first flight on CO. She came back saying "the aircraft must be one of the continental planes that has been refurbished because of the merger. everything looked brand new and was super clean and there was power in every single row on that aircraft." My reply was "you've been flying UA too long. That aircraft wasn't refurbished, it IS brand new. CO regularly takes delivery of several aircraft every year."
Improved catering - I had dinners on SFO-DEN that I actually liked finally. And they weren't the same 4 entrees I've been eating on UA for years.
PDB of choice as the rule not the exception. I find that UA (including ps) is still doing a terrible job of adopting this policy though. CO has always been good about it.
Announcement of significant investment in fixing the falling apart RCCs.
Finally a mobile app that is actually useful on UA and lets me see upgrade and standby lists.
after several years as both a UA 1K and a CO Plat, I found that UA NEVER lets me standby for a flight if I have a checked bag. CO never has a problem allowing it and my bag always makes it on the earlier flight even if I make the change during a layover.
Just today I booked a seat in LH Longhaul F available right on COs website. UAs website showed no availability at all on that flight, and the UA phone agent also claimed there were no F seats available.
@Channa you never mention ANY positive changes such as these.
I realize some of you don't care about any of that, but I would argue that a large majority of people do. My friend just recently made me understand that to him quality of the product does not matter at all. All that matters to him is that he wants things to be the way they were on UA not the way they were on CO. I finally understand and respect that.
I really think we will see UA improve their score on these customer satisfaction surveys and it will be due to many of the changes that Jeff says we will "like".
Originally Posted by
channa
I would like to see them not pander to lists like this. They're an airline whose business model involves charging fees that people don't like and charging a significant premium in markets or situations with little to no competition. Nobody's going to like those things, and I don't think they plan on changing their model.
Any efforts to boost up these sorts of mainstream ratings are window dressing that divert resources from their core functions (e.g., running an on-time airline) and from frequent customers who understand the business model.
Unfortunately, CO management has a history of using said window dressing to pander to these sorts of mainstream rankings. As a frequent flyer, I would much rather see them use resources to focus on reliability or address fundamental problems like poor systems rather than on marketing to try to sway public votes for these sorts of mainstream surveys that don't really mean much from a customer perspective.