Originally Posted by
dilanesp
Businesses are always about dollars and cents.
And see my comment above about "customer retention". When half of your business and almost all of your high value customers have disappeared, that's not the situation where you say "gee, what should we do to retain our customers?". The thinking is closer to "what should we do to survive this so we can worry about getting customers when the pandemic is over?".
But taking your comment at face value, United knows a lot about customer retention. On my last flight, I fell asleep in the SFO UC after a flight back from FRA on Lufthansa. I missed my connection. Not only did UA rebook me at no charge, but they upgraded me to first on the rebooked flight. In a situation that was totally my fault.
Earlier this year, my baggage misconnected on a flight to Hawaii. They delivered it the next morning to my hotel room, and gave me an amenity kit in the meantime.
Plus, of course, there's all the upgrades and free flights and status I get from Mileage Plus- I made Platinum this year because United lowered the thresholds due to the coronavirus.
ALL of these things I just mentioned are about customer retention. Really, the exaggerations are the worst thing here. Of course they care about their customers. Not warming your bread up is not the same as not caring about customers. It's a preposterous thing to accuse United Airlines of.
So in a sense, you appear to be basing your analysis on your own personal experience, particularly an incident in the San Francisco UC that would have applied to any customer even without status (flat tire rule) and cost UA virtually nothing because it is unlikely your connecting flight was full.
That's the same analysis we use for the bread. If it costs virtually nothing to pop it in the oven, why not do so proactively? It makes for happy customers (and edible bread). Same with a PDB. Same with using reusable glasses UA already owns. Same with addressing passengers by name. It's not vital if we are comparing it to safety, but that's the wrong metric and neither is rebooking a passenger who carelessly missed their connection vital. But I agree with you it is certainly a nice perk when flying UA, as are the clubs.
If rebooking you for missing a connection is your basis for asserting that service across the board on UA is stellar, then you can appreciate others who fly more than you do value other services to a greater degree, many of which also only carry
de minimis expense, but greatly impact the overall flying experience.
Chastising UA for not doing the little things right that meaningfully improve the customer experience is not preposterous, but a valid criticism, especially when compared to what other carriers have managed to accomplish who face similar pandemic-related economic pressures.