inpd

So I flew a lot with United before and just flew 100K with Aa/Ow and also flew about 25K with Delta (I was shopping for my loyalty home). I took a UA flight yesterday and was thunderstruck by how confident and boastful United comes across as. Comparing say the Dleta/AA onboard greeting (thank you for your business, here's how you put a seatbelt on) to UA (were making all,these changes, your going to like them, we were already great ...).

It's something you don't get until you hear it with fresh ears! I guess it's just a management branding thing, but gosh it comes across as a bit conceited and I like UA!

halls120

I'm not sure if they believe their own hype, or know that it's BS, but yes, it does get annoying. After all, this is the airline whose CFO said its elites were over-entitled, and line employees responded to complaints about the recent raising of PQM spend levels by saying that the airline was being "inundated" with elites.

lhrsfo

It would be irritating with a good airline but it's embarrassingly irritating with a bad airline. It's one of the many reasons I tell my friends, who hold no status, to avoid UA like the plague.

embarcadero1

Their new motto should be: "United, the airline for when you have no other choice."

Their "friendly" campaign is a painful exercise in irony.

NJFlyer42

It is really a bit silly for customers.

But the message may be for FA's and is an attempt to remind them that they should be improving the passenger experience. Some have gotten the message. Some have not.

1kBill

OK, now I get it. Rather than set up a process to manage the cabin experience, UA is now resorting to slogans.

I's sure that will be successful.

bmwe92fan

It tested slightly better than "United - We suck the least!" - so we are stuck....

BearX220

Life in the bubble. I'm sure they do believe it's the greatest airline ever. Walter Mondale thought he was beating Ronald Reagan in 1984, too.

manneca

I'm sorry, I just can't help myself. And Romney thought he was beating Obama in 2012 (as did Rush)

NJFlyer42

One can imagine the sloganeering as one part of the process. Some will say that you will have to imagine it as the process does not exist in reality ;-). I'm not sure if a real process exists or not. But I like to hope.

channa

Ah, yes, Rah! Rah! We're the Best! That's what it was (affectionately) referred to over on the CO FT board by some of us. And believe it or not, it has been tempered significantly since the merger.

Obviously culture takes time to change, and CO has 20 years of a very strong self-promotion culture. That's not going to die overnight, but it's light years better than it was just 5 years ago.

As an example, CO would sell "state-of-the-art, ear-conforming headsets" on the plane, which was really a 99-cent Chinese mass-produced headset with garbage sound quality that lasted maybe a flight or two, if you're lucky. Similarly, they would boast about their "award-winning service" while making first class customers pay for some drinks.

While UA has its share of issues, and yes, they still over-hype, it's nowhere near as bad as it used to be under CO.

luckypierre

I sometimes wonder about the degree of self delusion among the United executives. The image I have of folks on a high floor in the Willis Tower are conversations about today's stock price, whether the options are sunk or not, the status of this quarter's income statement, a rare word about labor negotiations and so on. And occasionally a need to slip on the public face (perhaps more frequently than usual in United's case).

What makes Smisek's public face so absurd is the gulf between his optimistic words-changes you will like!- and the state of the airline he presides over. It hard for me to accept that Harvard trained attorney would completely accept the bizarro alternative reality of his rhetoric.

Keeping with the Reagan second term theme. SNL did a well rendered skit where in one room Reagan is shown as a doddering, kindly old man entertaining a group of scouts in the Oval Office and reminiscing about his days as Scout. The visitors leave and he steps into another room; transformed into a ruthless, cunning strategist, anxious to hear the latest reports from Nicaragua and the Contras.

FCfree

One of the best SNL skits ever from back when SNL was funny!
Watch it again at this URL:
https://screen.yahoo.com/president-r...000000075.html

hans

Nicely captured. I was seated next to a GS passenger last week and he was livid over the disconnect between the hype and the reality.

bmwe92fan

OMG thanks for the laughs - and the memories of SNL when it meant something!