I hear time and time again about how great Gordon Bethune is, how he would be able to turn UAL around and how great of a leader he is. Was he really though? This is the same man who arrogantly said United would never come out of bankruptcy, called them "HIV Positive", and fought hard to have them denied a loan from the government post 9/11 and also fought the UA/US merger in 2000. This guy has had it out for United for I don't know how long.

Most of us don't like The Jeff Smisek Show, brought to you by United Airlines before each of our flights on the IFE system. That practice started under Bethune. It was Bethune that hired Jeff and "trained" him. The two are still friends and Gordon flat out said that if anybody can merge the companies, it's Jeff.

I also believe he had an unfair advantage of turning CO around. CO had already been through two bankruptcies, was about to file for a third, and had its costs and unions pretty much slashed to the bone. He could do the tiniest of improvements and it would be a huge 180 from the crap it was before. Even then, CO was highly leveraged - almost all of their assest were encumbered. He rallied his employee base to do better, and they improved, but then much of the holier than thou attitude we see today from them stems from Gordon.

Jeff may be in the driver's seat, but it was Gordon who gave him his driver's training. I do not think the man deserves near the credit he gets, and I certainly do not believe he would be a good leader for United. And if I were a PMUA employ...."co-worker", I would revolt if he came near my airline after all of his public comments and blatant attempts to put them out of a job.