Originally Posted by
aluminumdriver
Did you pay extra for your religious meal? I also don't recall United being required to have baby food onboard, but I don't deal with meals and stuff so just wondering if that is normal. Unless you paid extra for these amenities, I think you are relegated to just writing customer service and in a nice way state how it inconvenienced you. Maybe you can get something in return. But it is a good reminder to all passengers that if you need something special for medical or dietary reasons, you should take care of it yourself versus leaving it to a corporation that is moving a quarter of a million passengers a day worldwide to handle for you.
Jeez, am I tired of this freaking attitude. Listen, buddy, your company advertises certain product features. Nobody forced them to offer hindu meals, gate to gate audio, or a website, but they made a commercial proposition to the consumer: "buy your ticket on us instead of brand Q and we'll offer these things" and we took them up on it. There's an obligation by us to pay, and for them to deliver what was advertised. If those obligations are onerous or unprofitable, they're free to dump them as part of their offer at any time. But, as long as they say they're part of what's being sold, they better be in the box.
To put it another way, if I buy a Ford and the stereo is missing, even though Ford is in serious financial trouble, they fix the car to conform to what they sold me. I don't have to listen to ten bitter assembly-line workers tell me how Ford has bigger problems than my radio.
United gets this. We the consumer gets this. The friendly local regulatory bodies get this (especially in the EU). Why employees don't seem to get that delivering on what was sold is an essential part of the transaction is beyond me. Perhaps it's the same workers who decide that doing the bare minimum required by their job description and satisfying that minimal obligation is acceptable. Ultimately, any other employee of any company with a high likelihood to kill people should employees be negligent needs to realize that consumer perception of the entire company's attitude towards their business is shaped by how they meet their obligations. If they're taking a lax attitude towards financial obligations (refunds, for example) or customer service obligations (call center quality), it's easy to assume they're taking a lax attitude towards everything.
Even those things that can result in the horrible, flaming death of hundreds.
But I'm sure that's nothing that aluminumdriver ever would want, so it's sufficient to say that I've experienced issues with special meals, it annoys me every time, and ultimately confirms my fear that UA is burning the furniture to heat the house. Which is exactly where all my worst fears come from.
Here's hoping that the worst thing that happens as a result of this attitude are a few hungry customers.