RooseveltL

Perspective -
Republic Air DBA United PR handling was bad.

However, if the passenger was a Middle Eastern requested to exit because of his garments, praying or box of cookies - society would be more accommodating.

If Chicago Dept of Aviation officers handled an urban youth outside of the airport - society would be more accommodating.

United just needs to give this time as it will be replaced by politics/war/murder/etc. An 8 yr old student was shot dead in his classroom but we are immune to school shootings.

rickg523

They lost a quarter of a billion dollars in market cap today.
Because this story followed on so closely to the leggings PR fiasco, newshounds are now actively searching out more examples of UA's - let's call it what it is - rather cavalier stance towards their customer's priorities. So today a story that no one heard about when it happened last week is top news. And there wasn't even video.
This will without doubt go down as the most expensive crew repositioning in the history of aviation.

leungy18

Oh yes.

UA will become the butt of every joke in MBA courses. From United Breaks Guitars to...United Breaks Faces, I guess?

rostovru

They can't win back the public with their current attitude.

UA, even after Smisek moved on, continues these tone deaf campaigns talking about how great their new cutbacks are for passengers.

The incident this week is just the PR nail in the coffin for UA.

Everything, from pricing, mileage accrual, ancillary revenue, inconvenient flight times, lounge quality, food on TPAC/TATL flights is a nightmare.

If they can ever make a comeback, it'll be worthy of an HBS case study.

cova

As nice as Oscar is as a person and an HR manager, I think he will have to be sacked. Not just for the poor handling of this incident, but failure to change the culture created by his predecessor.

Agent performance is based on how much they save the airline, not how they create good will with the customers. I think most here know the culture - some items being - go out of way for GS, sell TODs, weather excuse, etc. Many of these being started by CO.

UA should bring in a legacy UA person to re-invent the culture. If the Chinese and Asian sells drop too much - Oscar will be gone. More competition in that market, than domestic market.

Guy Betsy

To win back Asian confidence, they can hire someone Asian to man the company... if not, the fallout will continue..

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplo...-view#comments

Now up to 300 million views.

24left

"So how does UA win back the flying public? "

OMG, spanked.

.

SeeingtheWorldfromIndy

As a 1k (should hit it by June) that spends $30k+ w UA (and the perks of Millon Miler), I have to admit I'm struggling with this. I travel enough to know that if you don't cooperate, it is going to be no bueno. However, I'm not excited to throw them my business right now.
I'm shopping for a b-class flight to Europe right now for a business trip. United is more expensive that KLM. Normally, I would push through the UA flight and hope it helps my GS chances. Today, I'm considering giving KLM a shot. If I enjoy it better, I might switch my EU business to them.
That is probably as far as I'm willing to go at this point, but it's how you lose high value customers.

fly747first

Please... they have been the joke of top-tier MBA programs for nearly a decade now. As if their customer service alone isn't ghastly, add to that a culture where underachievers with C averages from Embry-Riddle are quickly promoted to directors when they can't master basic Excel, so much for being publicly traded.

You can't change the horrific culture Smisek and his buddies created overnight. Even far better companies than United struggle with change and the most successful changes are those that progressively occur over time.

What United needs is a complete rebranding. Get rid of the disgusting livery that still reminds people of all the nightmares Smisek caused, get tough on your employees and fire the bad apples (airport agents aren't unionized and should be fired for not being able to handle a rather simple overbooking situation), and train, train, and train employees until they realize that everyone is better off when customers are treated with respect and kindness. It amazes me how United cannot do beyond simple things... even McDonalds consistently delivers a decent experience for customers.

SeaProf

No. Absolutely not. That you think this is shocking. No passenger, ever, should have blood running down their face because the airline could not get their crew to another city in sufficient time. Violence is not acceptable in a civilized society. Not at all. I don't care if the passenger was insisting that they fly on a plane for which they paid or not, it is not acceptable to resort to violence.

AggieTexan

I'm actually not surprised this happened -- maybe not the specifics as they happened, but UA certainly was ripe for an enormous public gaffe. In my opionon, UA's total disdain for their customers and their caustic employees made an incident like this a certainty. It was just a matter of time.

For United to really recover from this, I think they need to completely revamp their communication and training, stop being condescending towards paying customers, and quit hiding behind the contract of carriage every single time someone has a legitimate complaint. Start listening to customers and treat them like valued passengers instead of dollar bills with appendages. United will never win back any trust until they take a look in the mirror, learn to communicate, and train/empower employees to make common sense decisions that fit the circumstances.

Will I stop flying UA? No, not completely. I live in Houston, and that means many times it's the best option. Will I fly them exclusively? No, we did with Continental, but UA has upset us enough times that we look at all our options.

fly747first

You realize that it was Continental's management the one that destroyed United right? They kept the United name because of its global scope, but the top executives after the merger were all from Continental. Jeff Smisek made it a priority to fire all the pre-merger United people who actually believed in customer service.

Jagboi

Pardon my ignorance, but why is the value of the voucher considered discounted?

Is it something like Air Canada's discount codes that only apply to the base fare, not taxes, fees and carrier surcharge? (which can be the vast majority of the total. I recall seeing Canada-LHR breakdown where it was a $99 fare and $1000 carrier surcharge)

Kacee

It's considered discounted because it can only be used on UA operated flights, within a year of issuance, and because of these terms, a large percentage of them go unredeemed. Additionally, UA is giving away its own product so there is an internal discount. Bottom line: It's nothing like cash and is carried on the books at a substantial discount to face value.

Jagboi

When going TATL I always fly with a European carrier simply because of the EU261 protection I have for the entire flight. I know that when stuff happens I will be looked after and compensated fairly.