Originally Posted by
UrbaneGent
Joel, think about this - yes, it's not written in "big boy" words. But we don't want people on the outside reading this to look and think that it's elitist or "legal" sounding. Because the petition isn't in the professional tone of uastarflyer's, (which by the way I put every one of his points) I wanted anyone who reads this to know that we are ordinary people just like them who feel have been wronged.
Actually we're not ordinary people. At the risk of sounding elitist myself, I would venture to guess that people who fly a million miles or more are much more likely to be lawyers, business executives, and other well-educated professionals who will respond better to an appeal that doesn't seem to be talking down to them.
Similarly the United Board of Directors is probably not composed of "kettles", and we'll do better if they view us as people like themselves, able to see past their company's simplistic and misleading marketing messages to the underlying reality.
The third important constituency will be the journalists who will hopefully report the story. A concise outline of the issues will help them easily understand the story and they'll likely use posted comments and interviews of other flyers to add the emotional component for their audience.