sm71

With the way United's financials are he should be flying Spirit Airlines to get there.

channa

I think North Korea would be a better analogy.

FlyerTom111

Maybe he already has? Maybe that's his idea of building a great and profitable airline.

meFIRST

To be fair to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, President of the Russian Federation, he hosted an annual Q&A phone in session with citizens of the Russian Federation on live tv. This is a tradition that started in the Yelsin years.
I will say, that in my opinion the questions are very much filtered and some of it staged, but to his credit, the Q&A lasts for hours.

The last one specifically went for almost 4 hours.
English version here

People from all over Russia send him questions, he answers. He tries to get to most of them, presumably.


Jeff Smisek = 1 question, 15 minutes.

So to answer your questions, Jeff Smisek is worse than Vladimir Putin, when it comes to answering questions.

spin88

...that we should all shut up, buy a share of stock, and let our voices be heard that way?

e.g. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/22460443-post116.html

I guess they can rip that page out of the excuses book.

steveman518

He probably loves flying UA because everyone treats him well or else they get fired Maybe they cater real food for him too!

nerdbirdsjc

Jeff Jong Un-ited?

tuolumne

Smisek has made himself look like a fool in front of:

1) his employees
2) his peers
3) his shareholders
4) his customers

He's finished, a matter of when, not if.

boss315

The tone of the article was almost pitiful.....kudos to that man for championing the little people, for which he got little respect!

FWAAA

I agree. My prediction (posted a while back) is that he's out by Labor Day.

globetrotter415

nice! travelers everywhere rejoice AND my united stocks will rise and i can sell at a profit!

channa

It's part of why he's behaving this way.

If he knows he's out, why bother with difficult Q&A from shareholders?

spin88

I've been thinking more like 4Q/1Q 2015, but the news has been unusually bad of late... If UAL performs (or more accurately underperforms) as badly as it appears they will in 2Q 2014, you may be correct. His refusal to say that the guidance of +1-3% PRASM was "conservative" was a clear sign of where things are going....

ibuyyoufly

And the BOD is quickly becoming known to be identical to the "old" Hewlett Packard or Yahoo BOD's. I don't think those old Board members have found work yet. Their reputation precedes them.

We did find out one piece of valuable information from this 15 minute BOD meeting. It came up last week on this site about whether "when Smi/J said they were going to 2X-4X times earnings" if that was going to be starting in Q2 2014 or some future time-frame. Per this article he said 2X by 2017.

This guy is selling snake oil and the BOD is letting him do it. I see legal action being taken against all of them in the not so distant future. I'm no Lawyer, and maybe some here who are can speak up, but ignorance can't be a good excuse to allow the torching of a public company. Yes/No?

dank0014

Maybe I should start investing in UA if that is the case. Share prices will increase 15-20% the day it's announced he's gone. Not a bad return if I may.