Letters to Oscar

Old Sep 8, 2015, 4:32 pm
  #1  
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Letters to Oscar

Let's help the new guy by sharing our POV about the things he needs to take action on ASAP (note, it would be good if the suggestions really ARE possible.)
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Dear Oscar,

Congratulations on the new gig. More than a million loyal United customers are rooting for you to repair the damage the last guy did. Here are a couple things this long-time United customer (Global for almost 10 years, voted with my feet in 2014) would like to see at the top of your turnaround agenda:

- Negotiate labor agreements in good faith to end this silly segregation of PMCO and PMUA crews. It's impossible to build a real team until the best players can play together, and the incompetents get cut.

- Get rid of the CRAP coffee. Now. Tonight. Just say "Sorry, but we don't have coffee on board tonight, it simply isn't good enough to serve anyone but former United CEO's. We'll have something better on board next week."

There you go, Oscar - two really good initiatives that will prove you'll actually make "changes we're going to like". Good luck, and keep in touch. BTW, there's this web site, Flyertalk.com, that would be a great way for you to chat with your best customers if you're serious about opening a dialogue.


Best,
SportsTech
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Old Sep 8, 2015, 4:46 pm
  #2  
 
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More suggestions -

Quit this race to the bottom on frequent flyer program qualification levels. Just go back to MILES ridden. Sorry, I won't say FLOWN, I'm not a pilot on your airline, so I don't fly, I ride.

Board bags for flights. I had a trip last month were I was in Europe for over 2 weeks and didn't see my bag the whole trip because it NEVER LEFT SEATTLE in the first place. And now LH is on the hook for clothes I bought in Europe because they flew the last leg, even though the problem started with your people not putting the bag on my flight from SEA to SFO in the first place.

The food quality is going downhill in all classes. Fix that!
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Old Sep 8, 2015, 4:51 pm
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Originally Posted by Ghery
More suggestions -

Quit this race to the bottom on frequent flyer program qualification levels. Just go back to MILES ridden. Sorry, I won't say FLOWN, I'm not a pilot on your airline, so I don't fly, I ride.

Board bags for flights. I had a trip last month were I was in Europe for over 2 weeks and didn't see my bag the whole trip because it NEVER LEFT SEATTLE in the first place. And now LH is on the hook for clothes I bought in Europe because they flew the last leg, even though the problem started with your people not putting the bag on my flight from SEA to SFO in the first place.

The food quality is going downhill in all classes. Fix that!
But elite qualification is still based on miles flown/ridden. They just added a revenue component to it and you have to meet both.
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Old Sep 8, 2015, 4:59 pm
  #4  
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Also, focus in being the industry leader in customer service, performance, innovation and treat your employees as if they really mattered. The management cannot run and operate this airline by themselves. They need quality people working as ONE team with ONE common goal to succeed. The airline cannot survive without having a loyal customer base. Now is the time to decide which consumer direction UAL wishes to pursue. 1) Business airline creating an outstanding customer loyalty program or 2) Regional leisure airline luring the casual flyer and upselling anything and everything.

I would venture to bet that a consumer loyal airline would be more prosperous in the long term than one who caters to leisure based travel.

Also, end the practice is allowing ex-CON employees being able to wear ex-CON pins or display bag tags and the like while reprimanding pmUA employees for displaying the UA Tulip. This is United Airlines for crying out loud. Continental Airlines is no longer in existence so stop this silliness. It doesn't help moral for the airline. As for being a customer I am appalled by this behavior. Those ex-CONs who cannot get over this should leave UAL and take their protest somewhere else, maybe Eastern Airlines.
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Old Sep 8, 2015, 5:07 pm
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Dear Oscar,

Note your main domestic competitors are rapidly adding seats and mainline aircraft while the former UA management was growing at a snails pace. For a short term solution, I would recommend adding back some stored 757s from the desert to compete.

Secondly, the ratings for your in-flight entertainment streaming product have not been favorable. Note your competition believes that AVOD is still valued on the domestic front. I would recommend adding these systems to your 737-900, domestic 777, A319, and A320. The slimline seats allow for these systems to be installed. Streaming can still exist but I would recommend against promoting it until the bugs are fully worked out.

Beyond that, the overall O/T rating really needs to get up to DL's standard. This is something that needs to change ASAP.

Signed,

A passenger who flies Delta whenever possible and puts UA on extreme backup.
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Old Sep 8, 2015, 5:08 pm
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You want to run a business, then run it like a business. I am a customer, i have my choices to go to a real business who appreciates customers, delivers proper service that i paid for, WALK THE TALK. Run it right and I am willing to pay (I have already proven that).

I care about my points and i care about loyalty and the program. If the airline is looking to ride on the cheap fuel, product cuts/devaluations, TOD, penny and diming to turn profits, it will not last. I would strongly urge you to start investing in your customers by investing in your PEOPLE and PRODUCTS.

You need to lead the market (international) like before and not race to the bottom and be a copy cat to DL.

Real customers go to Real Businesses
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Old Sep 8, 2015, 5:09 pm
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Add a "true" Premium Economy class, like partner Lufthansa, on international flights! Continue with E+ on domestic flights, but step it up like Delta.
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Old Sep 8, 2015, 5:16 pm
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For starters - STOP copying DL.
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Old Sep 8, 2015, 5:16 pm
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Make a HUGE effort to get back all the Elites who have walked away.
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Old Sep 8, 2015, 5:27 pm
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Dear Oscar:

Unleash your employees to do good customer service. The Smisek era drove employees to tears, with customers not far behind, because of all the controls and restrictions and limitations placed on employee actions. "I'm sorry, we can't do that anymore," came the refrain, over and over -- especially during irrops.

Change that now. Give your employees their own heads when it comes to trying to do right by customers, and it will pay you back tenfold.

(Stop fighting distressed customers to the death over an $8 foot voucher, too. Stop claiming every delay and misconnect under the sun is due to "weather," so you can save $69 on a hotel voucher but possibly lose a $25k-per-year customer in the bargain. Just stop playing chess against the people who keep you in business.)

Treat your employees with the same suspicion and contempt they got from Smisek, and you'll stay stuck in the mud, and eventually you'll walk the same plank Jeff walked.

There's tons more to do to get this company off the scrap heap, much of it technical / operational and complicated, and some of it political and laborious, like labor deals. (It's ridiculous that you're still two virtual airlines that despise one another under one flag, after all these years.) But this is something you can do with the stroke of a pen on day one. Do it.

Giving you the benefit of the doubt for now,

BearX220
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Old Sep 8, 2015, 5:28 pm
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Originally Posted by TonyBurr
Make a HUGE effort to get back all the Elites who have walked away.
To this end this TOD upgrade stuff has to end. Offering buy-ups to F is fine, if priced at the current fare difference, but shorting your long term customers who spends $20K+ annually to make an extra $39 is the kind of thing that drove us away.
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Old Sep 8, 2015, 5:35 pm
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BRING BACK JFK!!!

Even better, return it to where it was a decade ago,and expand it even beyond.


It's absurd that Jeff abandoned some 6-10 million customers who find JFK to be very pleasant and convenient, and EWR to be a torturous experience.
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Old Sep 8, 2015, 5:54 pm
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How about just treating your most loyal customers with the respect they deserve... AND have earned?
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Old Sep 8, 2015, 6:13 pm
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Originally Posted by bobbysfca
BRING BACK JFK!!!

Even better, return it to where it was a decade ago,and expand it even beyond.


It's absurd that Jeff abandoned some 6-10 million customers who find JFK to be very pleasant and convenient, and EWR to be a torturous experience.
------------

You said it for me !.....it also would keep about 200 UAL employees' jobs. All it would take is renewing the lease with.....THE PORT AUTHORITY OF NY/NJ .
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Old Sep 8, 2015, 6:14 pm
  #15  
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MODERATOR NOTE: Some of the posts here went astray. The topic of the thread is:

"Letters to Oscar
Let's help the new guy by sharing our POV about the things he needs to take action on ASAP (note, it would be good if the suggestions really ARE possible.)"

It's not to discuss why things won't change or the amount of revenue that comes from add-ons and such. There are other threads to discuss that. Please keep this thread to the topic.

Thanks,
l'etoile
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