BearX220

Fully agree. Apathy starts at the top.

vitira

Based on this thread the obvious problem is that a) UA has severely problematic communications channels, b) UA has no policy for staff procedures for on-the-ground delays at airports without UA staff and c) UA has no company policy for mitigating this as quickly as possible.

It's obvious the flight crew is at no fault here getting the plane on the ground, and there's also no fault putting people up in the barracks because there are not enough hotel rooms in town to accommodate everyone. They did the best they could given the circumstances. No issues there.

But UA's communications were shoddy. If you're a company the size of UA, you need at least a mid-level staff on hand 24/7 to deal with problems like this, and have that person have a direct line up the food chain to higher-level staff when something goes severely wrong. How often will pax be stranded at a Goose Bay-esque location for 24 hours, once a year? That should certainly be in someone's job description to be on call for that. UA has 84,000 employees: they can certainly find enough people to be on call for those occasions.

Should that happen, there should be a team that springs in to gear, not just to cover their asses (and make UA look good) but to provide useful communications to passengers. Something like "please Tweet at @United #958 and we will respond with up-to-date information" and then have a couple of people tasked with keeping up with that, and with any emails, and at the same, time, give them a direct line to operations and maintenance so they can explain what's going on. People generally understand that the plane had a maintenance issue and had to land, they're less understanding when the company disappears for hours on end (see USAir).

So that's company communications. There should then be a kit on each TATL plane which is basically "break in case of emergency landing in a small town with minimal amenities." Aviate, Navigate, Communicate … then once you get the plane on the ground and make the passengers happy. Heck, UA should have the home phone number of grocery stores in Gander/Goose Bay/etc on hand so that if this happens they can call them up and say "open your store, we have 300 customers." In a town of 7500 people, this is probably a good business opportunity, even if it only happens once a year. If I own that store, I'll drag myself out of bed.

Anyway, this kit should include a set of credit cards for cabin crew and the instructions to "buy whatever it takes to keep the customers happy." For instance, there's a pizza place in Goose Bay that delivers until 1 AM on Friday and Saturday nights. "Hi, I just landed a plane of 300 people and they're staying at the army barracks. Can you send 100 pizzas? No, this is not a prank, and we'll tip 50%." If I'm a passenger my plane lands in the middle of nowhere and they bring me to an army barracks and say "this is the best we can do since this is a tiny town, now get lost" I'm pissed off. If they follow that up instead with "we called the only pizza place in town and they're sending 100 hot pizzas and soda" then at least they're doing something.

Part of this kit should also be who is in charge of communications. The purser is probably the person who should take charge, have a cell phone with full roaming capabilities, etc to call people, and if anyone needs to call home, let them do this. Pass out cards (again, in this kit) saying "UA will reimburse any roaming charges if you need to call home." None of this costs that much, and makes everyone happier in what is a trying situation. Having these procedures in place means that passengers have a feeling like someone knows what is going on.

Then there's the company policy. 11:30 Newfoundland Time is 10 eastern, so there should be a lot of planes coming in to EWR to overnight. The fact that UA didn't have a crew or planes to go to Goose Bay and continue to LHR (or another London airport) certainly seems like a problem, but this is something that, if you send an extra plane to LHR, might have cascading schedule effects the next day. But someone at UA needs to make the decision: would you rather have 300 people stuck in Goose Bay in an army barracks, or in a hotel at EWR or BOS or somewhere. There should be plenty of overnighting planes in EWR which can pick people up in YYR and get them back to EWR in time to either make a morning flight to LHR or stay in a hotel room and be booked on any number of flights the next day out of EWR (or maybe even JFK). Rather than army barracks. You have at least three planes in BOS from SFO overnighting; not sure what reserve crews look like, but it's only 900 miles from BOS to YYR, so you could probably get those planes back to BOS for the morning flights to the West Coast, put people in hotels, and buy them seats on other carriers to LHR the next day.

There's an obvious problem of luggage in compartments, which can't be easily moved between planes (I'm not sure what the cargo capabilities are at YYR). But you might want your top priority be to get your passengers in to heated accommodations in a city that can take an influx of 300 people without straining resources. Which speaks to the people in Goose Bay who seem to have been more than willing and ready to deal with 300 pax for a day, even though with a more competent airline they shouldn't have had to.

Finally, just refund everyone's entire reservation. Don't nickel and dime each part of it. You paid more for the flight back than the flight out, sorry, here's $230 and a $500 cert. Give everyone the money back in cash. Is this going to cost a lot? Yeah, probably hundreds of thousands of dollars. But how much is it worth to have no negative press and perhaps some feel-good stories about how UA cares about safety first, and then takes care of it's passengers? A couple of high spenders taking their business one way or another will make up for this.

As for me, this is more reason to always have a toothbrush, toothpaste, change of clothes … and sleeping bag in my carry-on.

Sant

As this occurred outside the US, how many passengers had a cell service which allowed either calls or data roaming from Canada? The prepaid plans from Cricket, Metro PCS, etc. may not allow customers to make a call.

enviroian

Good point. Another good point is how happy AT&T, Verizon, etc are with the amount of roaming voice and data charges they were ringing up from the displaced passengers.

Indelaware

Correct on all counts.

NewportGuy

Remember when pilots had "the right stuff"? Now they need their full 8 hours of beauty sleep or disaster could happen.

Seriously, it was a barracks, not a cave. They could have gotten the sleep they needed, and if they are really such delicate wallflowers, only ONE pilot could have stayed. Or just the FAs. But their running away to the hotel had nothing to do with safety, and everyone knows it.

Imstevek

Can we call a moratorium on hammering the flight crew. The same point has been made over and over again and I think most of are aligned that the right thing happened with the crew. The media has used this fact to sell the news to the unsuspecting or unknowing, and the real issue was and remains UA's complete lack of communication and leadership.

United_727

MX issues can happen to any airline. But to have no word from the airline ,no nothing for 20 hours ? That's unbelievable . To add insult to injury,the crew was off to a hotel . A big F U to the passengers. I hope Jeffy slept warm in his bed that night.

minnyfly

This isn't even a story if the replacement plane hadn't been delayed for whatever reason. For that UA should have been better. But overall you can definitely see that they tried to make the best of the difficult situation. To say they didn't care or try is just silly. I've spent worse nights in the terminal. Communication isn't all UA's fault. For one, I doubt many had a cell phone that worked. I know mine wouldn't have without huge charges. And second, as a passenger you need to proactive in communication. The company can't do more than give group updates, as they appeared to do. If you expect personalized messages, you're off your rocker.

There are rules for crews and hotels. They are detailed and specific. There's a reason they were properly put up in a hotel.

neuron

are you really blaming the passengers for not being able to contact United and suggesting that it is their fault they did not call United for updates? From a post I made earlier, the military base provided phones for the passengers to call their loved ones. I am sure they would not have stopped them from calling United if need be. That wasn't the problem. The problem was United had no plan on how to get them out that day.

There was one passenger who got a response on twitter. You think that United could have also said DM us and we will contact you. @:-)

United didn't try to make the best of a difficult situation, they wiped their hands of the passengers and left them to the good graces of the Canadian military and people of Goose Bay who put them up and fed them. United did little to communicate and resolve the matter in a sensible manner.

BearX220

You must be joking. This, too, is the passengers' fault?

Unless you count inaccurate / misleading information furtively tacked on the wall at irregular intervals by some intermediary, they apparently did not.

halls120

I missed that one, sorry.

That said, UA ought to have more slack in its flight operations so that there is one international 757, one 763, on 764, and one 777 on the east coast, and one 777 and one 747 on the west coast as standby aircraft. How could having six spare aircraft bankrupt them?

NewportGuy

The crew IS United Airlines. They are the face of the airline, and their disgusting actions that night simply were a precursor to the corporate actions in the hours that followed. The fact that this crew behaved in that manner is a clear indication that this is a cultural problem that runs throughout the company.

Aventine

The company would pay you back later if you used that phone to improve the situation...

And well I'd like to know the reason why they have to be in a hotel. Not like they have a redeye right after. It must be company policy to rest but doesn't mean they should abandon their passengers like that.

LETTERBOY

And the crew staying would have served what purpose, exactly?