jasp25

On a recent interview, Smisek indicated that United Continental was being primarily aimed at business travellers.

“We need to be attractive to leisure passengers too but we are not a budget airline looking for them. We are a business airline that also flies them,” he said.

http://m.travolution.co.uk/Article.a...t=news&id=5825

...interesting cuz looks like UA has been losing their loyal frequent customers
since CO took over them.

comments?

pigx5

But....COdbaUA's customer service is worse than budget airline...
In addition, COdbaUA doesn't take care people paid for C/F either.

UA-NYC

his "leadership" actions to date != his words

jackonferry

Based on my experience post 3/3, UA is clearly not aiming to serve the business flyer. I think Smi/J's statement can be re-punctuated like Lionel Hutz's card about his retainer fee ("No money down!" to "No. Money down!") and it all fits.

Here's the original statement:

"We need to be attractive to leisure passengers too but we are not a budget airline looking for them. We are a business airline that also flies them."

Slight modification to:

"We need to be attractive to leisure passengers too but we are not a budget airline looking for them. We are a business (airline) that also flies them."

It means they are not a budget airline (true) that searches for leisure travelers (true). However, they are a business (true) that flies leisure passengers (true). It's all in how you read it!

harryhv

[MISQUOTE]
“We need to be attractive to leisure passengers too but we are not.

A budget airline looking for them, we are.

A business, airline that also flies them.

[/MISQUOTE]

5khours

It's simple to maximize revenue and survive, they have to price discriminate. To do that they have to cater to all groups....kettles to GF full fare flyers.

zabes64

And here is where Jeff and CO have several problems with that business plan:

1- TOD upgrades are something that appeals to the budget traveller, not the business traveller that is hoping for his "elite" upgrade and not the TOD upgrade that his company will not reimburse

2- There Customer Service is equivalent to a low cost carrier, not one looking for high revenue business travel, it's terrible.

3- Their onboard product, hard and soft, domestically is crap

4- Their international soft product is one of the worst, the service is terrible

5- Business travellers want their perks, this new airline has done nothing but continue to take those away

6- Business travellers need RELIABLE transportation, UA's cancellations are up there domestically as one of the worst. There June on-time (+15) was under 70%, that is not reliable for the Business traveller

7- Business traveller also wants to easily get through security, unfortunately, anyone and their mother has access to it and those lines are in many cases worse than the regular lines.

I can go on, and probably should, seems to me the corporate suite has a different idea of what the business traveller is.

Let's be honest, United is a budget airline that occasionally attracts Business passengers.

EnvoyBoy

Well, it's a budget airline if you mean how much they spend on their product; not a budget airline based on their prices.

But surely not a business traveller's airline. It used to be. It is no more.

Akulashark

I have flown other airlines that have Wifi and in seat power, these airlines are looking for business travelers. Frankly, I fly so much on RJs that I don't know what COdbaUA really looks like. My home airport is more RJ than mainline service (and the amount of mechanicals tells me United doesn't care about business travel there). I have flown 94k this year, I still get treated poorly at most airports by ticket and gate agents. I was recently given the "due to the short duration of the flight there will be no cabin service" on a 1 hour mainline flight.

jasondc

TODs are not happening as much anymore, if at all. Recently at check in I've been given offers of upgrades for $299 for ORD to DCA and $599 from iAD to SFO. Hardly TOD.

Also, in the last month, I've flown four transatlantic segments in J on sUA metal. Two were ORD-LHR, with one return to IAD and one return to ORD. Mixture of ORD and LHR crews. While not extravagant, the service was friendly, professional, and courteous. All flight attendants were mailing, and passed through multiple times for drinks, etc. food was good. I was pleasantly surprised and felt it was everything I could have wanted for a biz class fare.

While UA isn't perfect, it certainly isn't all doom and gloom.

gene2632

And business travelers, especially those in F really do like some IFE on a 5 hour trip.. just found out that I am back on a ghetto bird EWR to LAS on Wednesday, again. Thanks $misek, et al

Labflyer

If this is the case, this is shocking. By not providing a service that i (and other likeminded business travelers) find valuable, they chased us all away. I assumed they were going after a market segment that did not include me. No hard feelings...I switched to an alternate airline that does value my business and meets the need of a domestic 200 + annual leg flyer. To find out that I am their "targeted demographic"...wow, they've got some room to improve. What I still cannot get a grasp of is that I have read them say something like, " we'll work hard to earn your business" where they didn't have to earn it. They had my business, all they had to do was keep it. They failed miserably.

kokonutz

All I can say to Smisek's quote is BWAHAHAHA.

I mean, really. His team thinks frequent business travellers are over-entitled whiners.

Yep, that's how you win us over, buddy!

This sums it up very nicely. Not only didn't Smisek earn my business, he seemed to go out of his way to LOSE it.

My sig line sums it up.

JFKSFOLAX_friend

Good list.

UA also dragged its feet with TSA pre-Check and in-flight internet.

cyclogenesis

I flew LH for the first time in a long time..
*IFE
*Free food and drinks even on a 1hr economy flight
*Service with a smile across classes..

United (and other US carriers) can only survive because of protectionist policies. (either that or LH is being significantly subsidized some how)