DrunkCargo

I prefer DL as well, despite the connection in SEA... Where I can shower, drink, eat, and just generally be treated better onboard. (DL F vs UA F)

Kacee

The fact they chartered a private jet to return the dog from Japan and diverted a flight to deliver today's misrouted pet shows that they're concerned about the bad pr at the most senior level. They really don't want to be known as the airline that kills puppies.

notquiteaff

757FO

You guys are lucky, I have to fly them almost every other week or so, and wear a United uniform. Do you have any idea how scary that is!? Soon we will need a security escort from the employee lot to the gate. On the upside for some, we are making TSA look a bit better, so there is that...

Seriously, many (most) of us are pretty embarrassed and upset over the issues we have had of recent. I do believe in the airline, and do think in time things will improve.

FlyingBeanCounter

I switched from DL to UA last year.

I suppose it all comes down to what you want. I saw plenty of stupid things on DL as well, they just didn't always make the news. UA seems fine if not a bit stuffy. I will say the UA fliers are WAY less loyal or protective than the DL fliers. DL seems to generate this ridiculous loyalty among their frequent fliers even though they screw them every bit as much as UA screws theirs.

as for UA going out of business..... that is absurd. UA has a lot of faults but until their planes start falling out of the sky they wont have to worry. with two other main line legacy airlines left they will have sizeable amount of the market. TBH this is a freaking airline we are discussing. If they went kaput I would just move to someone else. Its not like there is this panacea airline out there that would recognize my greatness and vault me to the top of their heap (unless I spend 100k+ a year in airfare).

adambrau

"Objection" moderators - this poster is leading Flyertalkers. Haven't we already seen hundreds of these types of threads? Isn't it true, your honors, that having several of these threads just clogs up and occludes posts which actually might be helpful to those flyers who seek to legally get the most out of Mileage Plus? I motion to strike this meaningless "romper room thread" from the record!

danielonn

Exactly!!

FLYMSY

spin88

You could expand that to: "United, the airline that drags bloodied passengers down the aisle when it takes their seats AND kills puppies" (and hates teenagers in leggings, and steals little kids seats and makes them sit on their mom's lap for 6 hours, kills rabbits, almost kills a toddler due to overheating, shoves elderly passengers to the ground)...

This article has a good run down on the cumulative damage. United Airlines' worst customer service incidents - Business Insider

The issue is that (1) United's culture is NOT one of customer service, (2) this causes bad things to keep happening, and (3) management is making the situation worse by focusing on trying to cut costs at a time of record profits rather than improving service and product.

Kacee

I think animals are a special category for pr purposes. Purely from a pr perspective, you're probably better off killing a passenger than a puppy.

Mountain Explorer

And they keep running ads telling everyone how friendly they are. As if saying so somehow makes it true

swested

I'm sure they do want to avoid that reputation, but these "cover our a$$" moves actually draw more attention to the problem and paints them as even more incompetent buffoons. It's a comical overreaction that only further highlights what must be some sort of deep flaw in training, procedures, or simply karma.

spin88

I suspect you are 100% correct, there are probably far more people who will actually boycott United as in "no, I am not flying them even though they are cheaper, pick another airline" for killing puppies (just learned the french buldog was 11 months old) than for dragging passengers bleeding out of their seats.

When they uncorked the "friendly skies" praddle back in 2013, a lot of us said it was a big mismatch, which would not ring true to the buying public over time.

I think they are far better to have tried to respond quickly, than create more bad PR. Had they "pulled a Dao" with the dead puppy, the blowback would have been 10x worse.

I agree with Kacee's good observation that Willis clearly sees they have a major reputational problem, but given Kirby's ongoing cost cutting, the ongoing densification in Y (3-4-3 on the 77s), and crazy stuff like turning the OT bonuses into a cheapo lottery, I think they have no clue about how what they are looking at via a spreadsheet is doing on the ground to United's already damaged brand.

Mountain Explorer

Agreed, the PR response here was 180 degrees opposite of Dr Dao incident PR response. They have clearly learned!

cyborg

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