Cloudship

I am joining the conversation late and can't keep up with the new posts let alone read the old ones. Maybe someone with some free time can make a consolidated post or even wiki with the major facts.

Anyways, does anyone have any insight on Munoz? What is his leadership style? What was he like at CSX? Are we likely to see positive changes or more people as cargo attitudes?

zombietooth

Wise words, my friend. ^

Gleeful gloating has given way to wild speculation.

chitownflyer

I'd gladly excuse the absence of the salad for employees being happy that Jeff got $mi$eked!

nerdbirdsjc

Oh, today's resignations were very much meant to influence the investigation and its outcome -- federal regulators often consider the departure of senior executives in any way connected to potential wrongdoing as a mitigating factor in levying punishments against a corporate defendant.

halls120

If Smisek and his two cohorts were blameless, why would they be forced out of their positions?

Even if they aren't indicted, perhaps the BOD reached the conclusion that their apparent involvement with the Port Authority investigation wasn't in the best interests of United, and it was time for them to go.

GSBEWR

The subject actually got a couple of minutes tonight on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow show. Start at about the 11 minute mark. She started with the Bridgegate scandal (she been annoyingly harping on this for the better part of two years) and then led into David Samson and the resignation of Jeff. She mentioned The New York Time and a story that speculated that Jeff was ousted to save the airline itself from being criminally indicted.

N1120A

How very cute. I will say that CIBO Express, while owned by OTG, has been around a while. That is actually a decent product they put out there, with some rather healthy options. Way different than the OTG Food "Experience."

FlyWorld

You know what's most poetic about this situation? I've spent hours and hours and hours listening to $mi$ek's lectures where he rants against the US Government and he rants against foreign carriers competing with him (and winning, of course). He says it's unfair. Unfair that the government regulates him. Unfair that the government taxes him to provide the infrastructure that let him make $14,000,000 a year. Unfair that foreign airlines get to compete with him.

And, then, he gets fired for alleged activities that have been described by major media outlets as corruption. That is, improperly influencing government officials to get benefits. Funny how it's fine for him to get special benefits but it's wrong for any other airline to get any benefits from their governments, and while he's allegedly bribing government officials for these benefits, he complains to us and the world about the fact that his company is taxed to pay for those benefits.

The hypocrisy is outstanding, even for him. This truly takes the cake.

In my view, Rainey was worst amongst them, and he's gone.

I wish there was a way to know if Rainey's departure was in any way related to the causes of $mi$ek being fired or was unrelated.

Can anyone confirm this? This is the only post I've seen stating that Munoz is temporary.

I'd feel a lot better if that's true because I don't have high hopes for Munoz based on his background. The only positive I can say about him is that he's not $mi$ek and I doubt he hates customers the way $mi$ek does.

Question: Who would be deciding on the long term replacement for $mi$ek? Will it be decided by the same forces as those who put $mi$ek into power and protected him for 4+ awful years? Is there any reason to hope that the people selecting the new CEO will look for a different kind of candidate?

This is very much how I feel.

I stopped flying his airline for two reasons:

1. Out of principle, I refuse to give my hard earned money to a cheater, liar, narcissist, and incompetent fool. As long as he was at the helm, my money was going to other airlines.

2. The operational incompetence of the mess of an airline that he created.

If (2) is fixed, I'd gladly return to United Airlines. Thankful that (1) has been fixed.

Since everyone is so fond of telling Munoz what he should do, here are my requests:

1. As long as $mi$ek gets lifetime GS benefits, let him be served by the GS agents that he forced to take a pay cut and work from home or better yet, let him be assigned to one of the agents who he fired.

2. Define $mi$ek's "lifetime" benefits the same way that he defined "lifetime" for his customers.

Do you think this guy will even have the guts to fly on a UA aircraft, even if its free? I read once that so many people hated him so much that even before being fired, he needed a security entourage to keep him safe while he travelled on his own airline.

glennaa11

Wow. 4 hours later and this thread is already 25 pages long.

He keeps his free flight privileges and free parking as part of his resignation deal. Of course if he's in jail it won't do him any good.

In the end I wonder if anyone can make it palatable for me to fly UA ever again.

zombietooth

There is a huge range of possibilities between "blameless" and "guilty" of a crime. We have no idea on the spectrum where Smisek and his cohorts will fall.

Corporations will always do maximum preventative damage control to avoid hurting their brand.

halls120

I agree. They may not be "guilty" of a crime, but they aren't blameless. They either did something they shouldn't have, or allowed others to do something they shouldn't have. And for that, they clearly became a liability to the company.

spin88

Unless there is some evidence that links Jeff to all of this, the hit from firing the CEO for corruption, when its not so, is just hard to see. I can't believe the Board is so out of it to not know what a disaster Jeff has been. I think it more likely that this gave them the chance to get rid of Jeff, and not have the failure UAL has become be the reason for his departure. If United was firing on all 8 cylinders like DAL, and not on one and half, no way they would can Jeff absent an indictment coming down the pike. CEOs can get away with a lot, provide they are performing. Jeff has not been.

Perhaps he is interim, but the announcement does not say this. And he was COO of a major company, gave up that job. I don't see him doing this to be CEO of UAL for 6-9 months while they look for a new CEO. Absent some idea that he might get the gig permanently, I don't see him quitting his old job...

IMHO Guy was arrogant beyond belief, clearly a narcissist (just look at his videos) and made himself the face of "changes you will like." After three years of the guy lying to customers, nothing wrong about dancing on his grave. He made himself the face of UAfkaCO, and its fine to hate him.

I'm suprised by this. I can't see this just sneaking up on them, unless the board was really, really asleep at the wheel.

I'll give them a look (being SFO based and 70K miles from 2MM) but only once I see some real changes from the CO play book.

I did not like Jeff nor his merry band of CO wreckers. However, I don't see that Oscar is CO, he was just on the board. He has a day job,and i'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. I hope he does the right things, and if so, I'll fly UA again.

+1. Great symbolism. Done in by the "queen of the CO fleet"

denuaflier

I sincerely doubt Munoz is temporary. Why would he quit a well paying job being President at CSX for a temporary job? It makes no sense. He even said he wanted to come to a bigger company and has customer service experience.

coinboy66

Smisek is out, and R availability is unchanged. That's all I need to know.

TrojanHorse

As someone who abandoned CO a long time ago in part due to Jeff Smisek, all I can say is congrats UA pax, this has to be a good thing for you guys