RooseveltL

It is an attempt.
They need to address their pet & service dog abused policy. Flying UAL is like visiting a zoo.
If a passenger has Rover spread out across the bulk head row and a passenger complains - they move the passenger and not Rover and his owner.

richarddd

"3. United will increase customer compensation incentives for voluntary denied boarding up to $10,000."

Will this be vouchers rather than cash?

username

I think these tangible changes are good - "friendly" was just a cheap way to market themselves as it provided nothing tangible (and certain things were down right unfriendly).

However, I also would like to know how UA will really train its management and staff to be customer oriented. Would these "additional annual training" sessions be opportunities to do that or for staff to vent about things....

Hipplewm

Voluntary is whatever you negotiate, but they are not required to give you cash

Involuntary is specified as cash

goodeats21

Easy. It is a VBD situation, with the amount increasing until someone accepts, up to $10k. The exact way that the original incident should have been handled.

And I wholeheartedly disagree with the underlined above: Airlines have shown repeatedly that they will make decisions that benefit themselves.

zymm

It seems a bit like they're both empowering and not empowering staff at the same time. I guess they'll be the ones deciding what "safety and security" issues are? And they'll be the ones who are both empowered to offer more $$ and solutions, yet also constrained by an auction system? They mention new annual training, but that doesn't really seem like enough in order to get these enacted. There ought to be an ASAP training offered over the next few months, and realigned incentive plans for GAs, FAs, etc to get it to stick. I guess I'll believe it when I see it...

emcampbe

Bullk of these changes seem good to me.

Im flying a flight to IAH tomorrow that is showing 'full' in flight status, and has Y2. Wonder what comp might get to - I'll see if I can report.

i dont VDB much, but agree. Both pre-/post-merger, with IRROPS, even those that weren't UAs fault (weather/ATC), I can only think of one time where I was denied a request to be put on another carrier, for example. A lot of these were last flight of the night type situations where these allowed me to get in on the same scheduled evening. I've also done to another airport. Sometimes, the carrier change was even presented to me as an option - though most of the times, I asked and this almost always been granted, especially when I present specific flights.

I agree there can be Grey areas. Of course, no matter what, if you allow the option to remove anyone to be removed for any reason or not, and a pax wants to make a scene, they will. As for getting up for the bathroom during taxi - IME, it depends on the situation. If the plane is sitting in the penalty box, pax can easily ask about going to the bathroom quickly, and based on the situation, FA can say yes or no (or consult with captain first, and then answer). Just assuming you can is wrong, IME - you never know when the plane has clearance to proceed, but at least if it's known someone is in the Lav, they know they have to wait. If the plane is actually moving, yes, most certainly a safety issue, not to mention a potential issue in the air if the pax isn't going to bother to follow crew instructions on the ground, why would one think they would follow them in the air. Then guess who sues when the pax is out of their seat during turbulence and gets injured?

JHake10

UA should offer Amex/Visa gift cards in these situations like DL. More people would jump at something that is basically cash over a voucher with an experation date.

Classic UA looking for breakage on the vouchers.

MSPeconomist

It's sad that UA needs a special "customer solutions team" to deal with "creative solutions" such as rebooking on other airlines, using nearby airports, going to ground transportation, etc. This should be common sense and standard for any customer service employee.

halls120

Only if management gives front line managers the discretion to respond as they see fit. I think we all remember SMI/J and his posse at the beginning of the merger complaining about how front line sUA employees were too generous in giving out compensation. They were going to end that and "run UA as a business."

That sure worked out well, didn't it?

H3A3H3

Today's Chicago Tribune put the spin on this that United Airlines wanted, and carefully choreographed; what is portrayed is primarily the alleged "new way at United of doing things," not United's post mortem of UA #3411 . Now, I understand the reason for the spin, but in my opinion, United Airlines has still not come clean; in fact, they appear to be devoid of any conversation about a potential, major system failure:

"Was the Captain of UA #3411 really "in command" of UA #3411 , and if so, where was he/she, and what was he/she doing when mayhem broke loose in the aircraft cabin?"

aoumd

Several of the items on the list are essentially post-merger repeats of the customer-friendly actions Gordon Bethune instituted at CO in the 1990s. As I recall he and some HQ employees literally took the manual of arcane rules GAs were bound by and burned them in the parking lot, then came up with a list of guidelines which GAs were free to bend if it would prevent a truly bad customer service situation from occurring.

With so much CO management presence at UA post merger, makes me wonder how much of Bethune's work was lost due to the merger, and how much was lost as the entire industry devolved into its current state at the demand of shareholders.

All that aside, glad to see UA make some solid commitments that will translate into a very different handling of not only the Dao situation, but many others which cause real customer service messes.

deskover54

Why in the world do you need a customer solutions team to do this? Just allow agents to say "yes" when requests like that are made. Or allow agents to think of these things - they work the airport, they know what's nearby. Give an authorization of $500 for alternate transportation discretionary to a GA in an overbooking situation. You don't need some bureaucratic HQ team finding solutions.

MSPeconomist

It remains to be seen what will happen if two revenue passengers board with the same seat assignment, especially if the cabin or aircraft is already full. UA is saying that they won't remove the one in the seat, but what if, for instance, the one who got to the seat first has left the seat to use the lavatory when the second passenger arrives and sits down?

Note to self: On UA, rush the podium, run up the jetway, and occupy your seat ASAP. [Gate lice problems just became a lot worse.]

EWR764

A copy of the full report, including a complete narrative on flight 3411: https://document.li/nL8z