tryathlete

Winning back 1K will be herculean, but I already suggested waiving the W fare class restriction and to provide 8 SWU's to match AA who has been pulling 1K's over to EXP with a high magnitude of success. Do this an you will be off to a fantastic start.

DCEsquire

The only benefit I've seen so far are the laughs I've gotten from Fake Oscar. Lovin' it.

https://twitter.com/fakeunitedoscar

Richard Chen

It's a great continuation of @FakeUnitedJeff which is such the kind of UA bashing which isn't allowed here. Hope whoever runs it continues to be inspired unlike the same tired old leadership high in Sears Tower (I refuse to call it by that law firm's name).

JBord

Interesting that all the mainstream media are coming out with their criticism of Smisek and UA now for the first time. Perhaps if they would have run stories like this for the last couple years, it would have hastened Mr. Smisek's departure.

I get that they some kind of story to tie to Munoz. I hope that if he doesn't change anything at UA, they don't wait so long to write about how far the company has fallen under his leadership.

Still hoping two years from now the story is how Munoz turned UA around by winning customers back!

DCEsquire

AA has 8 SWU's? What????? I've clearly not thought about my options - 8 would be 2 great trips for me and my SU. 6 bites if that's your profile.

transportbiz

Keen observation, I'd noticed that as well. Also, analysts, who just month-after-month kept with the "it will get better" forecast for the brand. Nothing negative at all, it seemed as though there were totally unaware of the customer experience in the slightest, until Smisek steps down, and then all of the sudden they actually look into what's being said out there. But, up to this point they all just been lazy, and accepted the feeding of propaganda from the company.

transportbiz

+1 I simply will not play the W fare roulette game with United. pmCO in a way did it better with the co-pay model basically allowing you to buy up to the upgradeable fare once you had cleared for the upgrade. AA does it even better, but 99% of the time you will not be upgraded till check in time. So, you get what ever seat is left, usually by the toilettes.

sonofzeus

In March 2009, London-based insurance broker Willis Group Holdings agreed to lease a portion of the building, and obtained the building's naming rights.

luckypierre

The sudden flurry of negative articles has been an entertaining aspect of the Smisek departure.

If this departure was in the works for at least the last quarter rather than an extremely hurried response to a criminal investigation, I wish UA had selected an outsider with airline experience rather than an existing board member.

My choice-the last AA pres, pre BK
Horton.

LarkSFO

Have any analysts changed their opinion on UA (Buy / Sell / Hold) since Smisek's departure?

transportbiz

Not substantially, and in doing so they would have to admit they had been wrong, not very likely. What I was referring to were the many less than positive quotes from these analysts in the same articles that were being discussed here.

LASUA1K

I have to say, the move will probably mean very little, with the person in charge, just another one sided thinking person from sCO. It's time to bring an outsider to fix this once and for all. They had the chance, and still do I guess, they need to make this move now. We don't need someone from sCO or sUA, to tell us this is how it was. A new brand is needed, a new logo, nor tulip or globe. New colors, new everything.

UA is making money for the pure fact that oil has gone drastically down. Smisek and his people, were losing money in the end of the sCO days, and sUA was making money, but everything UA did was wrong. Smisek put the FA's unions against each other, and didn't help in trying to assist with a merged contract.

Bonehead

I hated the changes he made first to CO and then to the combined airline, but I'm still not convinced that instituting the Chairman's Flight wasn't potentially a good business move, since that's the way things get done in Joisey.

Heck, remember the tips Rodney gave the business class in "Back to School"? He knew how to get things done as a real-estate developer...the professor certainly was living in a fantasy world.

Oh, and Rodney got the girl, too.

JBord

Yes and no, at least as I understand it. You got the CO part of it right. But I think, just like with the oil today, UA was making money because it had more of a short term focus. IIRC, they were putting off some expenses like maintenance on 747's, which the new company had to absorb after the merger. That's not uncommon with a pending merger, because you do everything to make the numbers attractive to shareholders.

But the general direction of CO was down, while UA was up, when you consider operational performance, customer service, and other factors. People often disagree with this, because it had been the opposite for quite a while...UA had some dark days. But the year or two prior to the merger, things changed at both companies.

transportbiz

I did explain why it was wrong a few pages back, at least from my perspective. It's about the funding, bribe a public official to get access to public funds--illegal.

Offer a deal to a city or state or county to get incentives for what you provide going through the process of public hearings, etc.--legal.

Work a deal with a business for a quid pro quo--usually legal.

Could be worse, could be Volkswagen about now. ;-)

Oh, and Rodney...probably ended up in jail.