limey1K

DALLAS (AP) -- CEO Oscar Munoz says United Airlines is busy preparing for bad weather this winter in Chicago, and he's got an unlikely source for that insight.

Farmer's Almanac.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/snow-j...212031090.html

I searched but couldn't find this already posted. Please move/delete if it has already been.

PHLGovFlyer

dmunz

The full interview was on NPR.

Another interesting tidbit, the interviewer said something like:

"...every time I get a survey request, its been a great flight. I never seem to get the surveys after crappy flights. Are you guys cooking the books..."

Of course Munoz said "no" and that it was a completely random process managed by a third party. BUt he did say that parts of the customer feedback experience were going to be brought in-house.

All I know is for the last 18 months every time I got a survey I complained about them not having Splenda (the yellow-pack sweetner) for my coffee. Last two trips - I got Splenda! So I'm convinced it works...

FWIW
DLM

wxguy

United used to have an in-house meteorology department; its director was a friend of mine. As a cost-cutting measure, it was eliminated in 2005 and replaced with a combination of measures, including commercial vendors.

aacharya

Sigh. The article is clear that he didn't state as such.

WineCountryUA

Hard to see how a joking reference to Farmers' Almanac would suggest UA relies on such sources -- especially when UA is known to use more professional sources.





Putting on the Moderator hat

As far as the debate on the reliability of those alternative sources, that does not appear to be a UA related topic. As for the topic of this thread, as the the OP mentioned, it was the joke.

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator

clubord

Sorry to hear about your friend but with the wealth of meteorological data available on the internet and the effectiveness of WSI, there's no need to have an in-house weather department, it's very redundant.

Also....no technical publications department at each base anymore now Jeppessen charts are loaded on the ipad.

Also....no in-house employee travel department since everything switched online.

Things evolve and it's not necessarily a bad thing

l etoile

It may seem so, but airlines use meteorologists to their advantage. United still has them, but they are apparently contract providers now. One way they are used is to predict when the cloud cover will lift and more arrivals will be able to come into SFO, as example. Each morning there is a conference call with ATC, carriers, SFO, FAA meterologists. The FAA meterologist maybe his best analysis shows the cloud cover is going to lift by noon. UA's meterologist may be able to convincingly show it lifting by 10 am. They agree to go with UA and release the East Coast flights. If the cloud cover doesn't lift, arrivals remain reduced but East Coast flights are already coming. Those are largely UA flights. The flights that now take the delays until it does lift are short-haul, having a greater proportional impact on competitors (of course, it impacts, UA too, but others much more). So airlines own meterologists can have a great benefit to their carrier.

clubord

I agree with you that they use contract meteorologists to their advantage, as they should. My point was that in today's age there is no need for an in-house meteorology department, thus it is outsourced. There's too much information readily available on the internet and via weather subscription services to justify such an expense.

The days of requiring 200' ceilings and 1/2 visibility are over for the most part with the advancement of technology on the aircraft and CAT III autoland.

l etoile

UA still has that meterology staff. They are apparently contract employees now. Technology has not replaced them.

lhrsfo

Why does nobody, other than Oscar, have a sense of humor?

clubord

Ok Bud...thanks for the insight.

Time to go pre-flight the airplane, flying to Europe tonight.

Kmxu

Just open up your meteorological Apps on your smart phone. You can predict the weather for the next two or three hours, especially the winter storms. UA cannot fool you for the reason of your delayed flight, for example, weather in our network, instead of the operation difficulty. Cheers.

Allan38103

"I'm not flying United unless my astrologist tells me it's OK," said John Knox, an aviation-meteorology expert at the University of Georgia.u=

It's bad luck to be superstitious.

gobluetwo

Good thing I'm not superstitious *knockonwood*