kranabargar

CO_Nonrev_elite's comments are spot on.

I was a long time UA loyalist - through BK and the merger, but the changes over the past 12-24 months (anyone remember the systems integration debacle???) got so bad that I have moved the majority of my travel (not just me, but my employee's as well) to other carriers. AA isn't perfect, but so far this year they have been MUCH better in terms of upgrades (only missed out on 1), on-time performance, only been on 1 RJ, and their flight crews are much better at customer service - they actually seem like they care.

trvlr70

After my most recent trip which included not 1, but 2 cancelled UAX flights for "weather" (that is, when the exact same routes on AA kept schedule and weren't effected by the alleged "weather"), I actually received an email asking me to rate my experience. But there's nothing left to rate! No food, no snacks, no pillows, no movies, no audio, no nothing. Service? I didn't notice any. And my luggage was lost....which happens so frequently that I keep a standard letter on my PC.

The one thing that kept me with UA was the route network. But now even that has been diminished. I live in NC and have a vacation home in Colorado. I used to fly CLT-DEN, then connect to another city in CO or WY. But UA eliminated the mainline. Next the UAX was gone. Now the US codeshare is history. Currently, I'd be forced to connect in IAH or ORD or IAD and then again in DEN. Nobody is going to do that and spend the whole day traveling when better, more convenient service is available. How can UA not have a single flight between a mid-continent hub and our 10th most populous state that has 3 large metro areas? There isn't even a UAX flight between GSO (metro area of 1.65 million) and UA's biggest hub!

I guess UA simply doesn't give a damn.

AAExPlat

That is basically my experience. As of yesterday, I am 14/35 which is 40%. On AA, I am 100%. And I am flying far more expensive tix on average on UA than I do on AA (lots of V/Q/W domestic). Something doesn't add up. If AA yields are higher, how come UA has me this low in the pecking order and AA has me so high? I am guessing because of the upsells to F which provide short term cash. But they undermine the long term business from frequent fliers.

In my case, I just don't have a choice of airline anymore...the UA schedule is far and away better for me than AA, DL, or any other domestic carrier.

For fairness' sake, I will mention that MY experience with the UA operation this year is FAR better than with AA, and I believe AA has dropped the ball massively relative to how good they used to be. YMMV.

milepig

Every time I commute to ORD for a flight out I pass a huge billboard where UA self-proclaims themselves to be "flyer friendly". Can anyone name a single thing they've done beyond writing the catch phrase??

seanthepilot

UA's people and it's policies are its two main disadvantages.

You see, flying is really just a commodity. We can fly anyone, A to B. To undo that mindset and have people fleeing takes a lot of hard work.

There's a good article called the "Experience Economy." UA has done the opposite of what it takes to make it in this new world.

And they don't seem to care about it either.



.

TonyBurr

What is wrong with UA?

It is spelled: S M I S E K

FlyingHoustonian

buckeyefanflyer

So do you think the merger has caused this issue. As airlines get larger with all the consolidation, it becomes harder to manage all the key attributes of the airline, customer service just naming one.

redtailshark

@BearX220 is on target.

Incentive to fly UA diminishes. Many proximate factors are implicated but the influence of management philosophy on delivery is notable.

UA still has some of the same people who in the past have delivered useful product or at least tried to listen to customers e.g. Scott. Jeff should remember these things...he did a nice skit with Larry at the 07 CO DO, no doubt written by Scott and initiated by Larry.

But he comes from a different place and seems incapable of relating to his organization at lower levels or to customer desires in spite of the proliferation of surveys. They're sounding now like DL's surveys and are equally ineffective.

Jeff: being allergic to walkarounds and talking with the grunt GAs/rampers/FAs/Service Center agents shows up. Isolation in management towers and disconnection from customer values creates the belief system to override all consideration of actual service.

From your fortress, perhaps the customer is the enemy and you condone the offensive handling of customer calls to your Premier lines @:-)

We see the downward spiral all around.... The negative influence of the objectionable calls to UA 1K line, as described here just today:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...a-insider.html

Or the new DL-imported :-: mejor en su clase :-: management of MP awards resulting in sudden and profound devaluation of what used to be valuable MP program:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...available.html

These degradations are not independent of customer perception and motivation.

Neither pmCO - IME - nor pmUA from what I'm told - were as bad, so we have a merged entity incapable of pulling the better parts of previous components. Not even capable of identifying what those strengths were.

These behaviors call for significantly increased competition in the US airline industry. Time for mass cabotage, foreign ownership, and no barriers to entry. When new entrants appear there's going to be some cost to these actions. It may take time, but eventually, MOL is coming...among others.

Hawk Circle

SMI/J

transportprof

There could well be a glimpse of the future here.

Alitalia is poised to become a partly-owned subsidiary of Ethiad.

http://http://www.reuters.com/articl...A3A0K920140411

And one possible endgame for United's future decline would be for a Gulf states carrier to buy a significant chunk of equity in return for a financial bailout. Then UA's global network will start to look like a mirror image of QF's, with lots of feed into one of the Persian Gulf mega airports, and most connections to Asia and Africa from there.

hobo13

Which is sad, because those used to be the two main ADVANTAGES...

Namely that UA people had the ability to override just about any policy to take care of a customer.....

hobo13

I'm surprised that UA legal hasn't opened a FT account for Jeffy Jeff. Then the FT ToS would prevent us from discussing his failings as a CEO!

1353513636

That's an idea. We should keep a form letter. Every bad experience, send a form letter (RJs are so uncomfortable, FA was rude, got stranded and UA won't help etc) to UA. Maybe they'll get that they should stop sending them out or else we'll just end up with a lot of TCVs.

annezbillb

Is it even possible to make money flying 320's or 737's, 8's or 9's for regional routes? I agree the planes and products are inferior but I don't see UA or anybody else increasing capacity on regional routes unless they utilize CRJ's or EMB's.