The automated VDB system is interesting. If United does this right, that is a genuine enhancement.
I don't get the need for a "customer solutions team".
Every United employee who interacts with customers should already be thinking about client service and able to implement creative solutions to get people to their final destination.
A separate team suggests I'm going to still run into a layer that has no empathy, refuses to
think and
solve, and just kicks me up the chain to more-creative people. If there's a large WX event, are there going to be enough of those people to serve the demand without queues? (No.)
The $10,000 VDB cap was a sweet PR move by Delta (McNews outlets like CNN, USA Today, and the ilk gobbled it up as expected), but nobody anywhere is ever seeing $10,000 in real cash for a single-flight VDB. Not with the paltry low payouts on IDB that are currently in place.
The "no questions asked" lost luggage thing could have some unintended consequences. Hopefully the airline will ask enough questions to confirm that it did indeed lose the bag.
