CrankyFlier: Blaming United's problems on Continental (and v.v.) is the problem
Jul 10, 2014, 11:36 am
#16
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 57,613
It's very simple.
What's UAL's name?
United Continental Holdings
AAL?
American Airlines Group
DAL?
Delta Air Lines.
Notice anything? Yes - Jeff is still living in CO land while Parker and Anderson are at least smart enough to abandon the NW and US names.
This is emblematic of the problem.
What's UAL's name?
United Continental Holdings
AAL?
American Airlines Group
DAL?
Delta Air Lines.
Notice anything? Yes - Jeff is still living in CO land while Parker and Anderson are at least smart enough to abandon the NW and US names.
This is emblematic of the problem.
But the pmUA / pmCO distinctions and cross-culture blame-placing are killing the airline, and Smisek is spraying kerosene on the bonfire when he stands up and blames "undertrained" pmUA employees for today's crisis.
The writer is absolutely correct about the culture problem. I don't think management knows any other game but blame-placing and moat-digging, however.
Jul 10, 2014, 11:53 am
#18
Join Date: Feb 2008
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I would revise that to say that the cultural issues are, in part, because of the cutbacks and bewildering business decisions. Employees are pretty much always to play ball when they know they're part of a winning team. Winning teams don't constantly play the blame game and scatter-shot course changes across the backs of their employees and customers... Cultural issues like this may not have their ultimate roots in operational problems, but the endemic existence of such problems definitely makes the cultural problems almost impossible to resolve.
(1) no joint contracts, efforts to force the sCO contracts on them, out-sourcing combined with efforts to shift the flying to sCO, then to outsource where ever he can.
(2) cuts in product quality that passengers took out on them (coffee is a good e.g)
(3) cuts to their discretion and ability to fix problems (SHARES and new more restrictive "just say no" policies
(4) bad operational results and bad financial results to match them.
Any good will rapidly went away. The sCO side rapidly followed in hating Jeff, no one wants to follow a guy like him.
I'll say it again: Continental was abandoning its own elites pre-merger after Mr. Smisek took over. My upgrade rate plummeted as TODs/FC buyups of some sort became more and more prevalent. The article points out that UA was improving as the merger neared; CO was getting worse. It pains me to hear blanket condemnations of CO, because throughout most of the 2000s it was a damn good airline.
lousy employee morale is not just a matter of different cultures - it starts with lousy management that gives staff lousy systems to work with, little leeway to handle problems, short-staffed situations and apparent disincentives that prioritize penny-pinching over customer satisfaction (certainly but not only during IRROPS).
Jul 10, 2014, 11:53 am
#19
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: SFO South Bay
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While not perfect, this is the very best article I have seen written on what ails United. Better than any industry writer, better than any Wall Street analyst report, better than any single post I have seen here on FT. Balanced, avoids hyperbole, and gets to the main issues. Well done.
Jul 10, 2014, 12:14 pm
#20
Join Date: Jan 2011
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Posts: 5,991
A well-informed article on the state of United today
http://crankyflier.com/2014/07/10/bl...y-the-problem/
http://crankyflier.com/2014/07/10/bl...y-the-problem/
Jul 10, 2014, 1:00 pm
#21
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Austin,TX (AUS)
Programs: AA, UA
Posts: 767
It's very simple.
What's UAL's name?
United Continental Holdings
AAL?
American Airlines Group
DAL?
Delta Air Lines.
Notice anything? Yes - Jeff is still living in CO land while Parker and Anderson are at least smart enough to abandon the NW and US names.
This is emblematic of the problem.
What's UAL's name?
United Continental Holdings
AAL?
American Airlines Group
DAL?
Delta Air Lines.
Notice anything? Yes - Jeff is still living in CO land while Parker and Anderson are at least smart enough to abandon the NW and US names.
This is emblematic of the problem.
United: use the CO globe and livery but paint UNITED on the planes
Delta: use the Delta logo and livery
American: use the (new, just unveiled) American logo and livery
Just looking at a United plane today gives a clear symbol of the divide between sUA and sCO
Jul 10, 2014, 1:04 pm
#22
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Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 260
Not just the name but also the logo and livery.
United: use the CO globe and livery but paint UNITED on the planes
Delta: use the Delta logo and livery
American: use the (new, just unveiled) American logo and livery
Just looking at a United plane today gives a clear symbol of the divide between sUA and sCO
United: use the CO globe and livery but paint UNITED on the planes
Delta: use the Delta logo and livery
American: use the (new, just unveiled) American logo and livery
Just looking at a United plane today gives a clear symbol of the divide between sUA and sCO
DL and AA did it right.
Jul 10, 2014, 1:13 pm
#23
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Portland, Oregon
Programs: United Mileage Plus (Silver 2014), AAdvantage, Aeroplan, Flying Blue
Posts: 53
Definitely! I did a lot of PDX and other west coast runs with ORD in the 2000's on the old United and they were dying. But with their ownership going out to buy another airline (CO) to fix theirs, they wound up with a management that was handed a business that was built by (relative) giants and legends. Once you graft the two together, UACO is a different game: the sick part is overtaking the healthy part, and the C-suite is not up to it.
Jul 10, 2014, 1:17 pm
#24
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: EWR, BDL
Posts: 4,471
It's become even more apparent that they should've done every effort to erase "Continental" quick and fast. All the CO planes should be in tulip livery and the name of the company should still be UAL Corporation. The ex-CO folks need to get it ingrained that they are United employees.
DL and AA did it right.
DL and AA did it right.
Jul 10, 2014, 1:24 pm
#25
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Along with that tulip paint job we can have peeling paint jobs, engines with mismatched paint, different colored nose cones, tail numbers that are so small you need a telescope to see it from inside the terminal. Worn interiors, lavs with flower wallpapers, worn out seats etc. Yeah id say that would be the perfect livery for the new united.
instead we got a 20-year-old paint job, a confusing brand identiy (CO colors, UA name), seats that had their flammability records falsified (but later replaced with some of the least comfortable seats in the industry), dark planes, and new space saving lavs which are difficult to do business in. Yeah, we're much better off.
Jul 10, 2014, 1:25 pm
#26
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Location: Houston
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Really well-written. Even more impressed that the words "weasel" and "slimy" weren't used (unless I missed em!) 
Jul 10, 2014, 1:30 pm
#28
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: EWR, BDL
Posts: 4,471
instead we got a 20-year-old paint job, a confusing brand identiy (CO colors, UA name), seats that had their flammability records falsified (but later replaced with some of the least comfortable seats in the industry), dark planes, and new space saving lavs which are difficult to do business in. Yeah, we're much better off.
Jul 10, 2014, 1:31 pm
#29
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instead we got a 20-year-old paint job, a confusing brand identiy (CO colors, UA name), seats that had their flammability records falsified (but later replaced with some of the least comfortable seats in the industry), dark planes, and new space saving lavs which are difficult to do business in. Yeah, we're much better off.
Jul 10, 2014, 1:33 pm
#30
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As long as employees at any level think it's OK to talk the way you just did in that post above, we will continue to have the problem. That's the whole point of the article.
Last edited by FlyinHawaiian; Jul 12, 2014 at 2:53 am