DenverBrian

One of the many advantages of this merger is a consequence of CO management taking the helm: CO has a much better history of participating in, and listening to members of, social media.

Glenn Tilton is a 1990s construct. I'm guessing he may still have his secretary print hard copies of e-mails for him.

avsrock90

I think the statement:

Isn't really true. Sure, some are highly skeptical, but others are excited to see what comes out of the merger. When the talking head on TV frames the question in that way, he's obviously looking to get something out of Tilton...in this case, he got it.

Biff98

+1

otptravels

Isn't the definition of an MR "too much time on your hands"?

smn

In the same interview, he also said that he only reads the positive comments from customers about how well they are doing and prefers to ignore anything else

UALfromMSN

At this point, what does GT have to lose? He's got his payday almost locked in, so he can pretty well say what he wants. He wins, and we get to B/M/C about it, so we win too.

TechnoPagan

No, it's not enough EQMs in your account

All of my MRs have been HIGHLY productive (at accumulating EQMs)!

Wainwright

Definitely true. The impression I have of Tilton is that of an outdated/archaic leader who has little to no understanding of new media.

ryan182

well if one was to objectively look at some of the threads on FT its not a stretch to say some have too much free time. As pointed out the lengthly thread about the livery, how many threads are there about the temperature of nuts? How much $$ should I get for <insert sometimes legitimate sometimes not wrong here>? A whole forum dedicated to the act of flying for no reason other than to get more miles (if that doesn't say too much time I don't know what does!) etc etc

Perhaps his dismissive attitude towards FT also has something to do with the fact many around here seem to regard him as the devil incarnate, if I was him I'd take my big check and laugh as well.

ric_wx

At this point, I am more concerned with what Smisek thinks. Tilton is fast becoming yesterdays news.

mahasamatman

I am so looking forward to the day that Tilton has too much time on his hands. Retirement can't come fast enough for self-serving morons like him.

ucla99

I'd agree, (some) FTs do have too much time on their hands

However, Tilton needs to understand what social media is about. It's the quick sharing of information. There's a lot of good info on FT and also a lot of random dribble. Just got to sort thru the good and try not to contribute too much to the other random.

I'm sure UA has people that frequently look at FT and other blogs to get an insight into its customers. If they're wondering about how mobile checking is going, they can search FT, see if people are talking about it, see what problems or complaints their flyer have about the program. Same w/ UDUs, changes to terminals, level of compensation given for problems, etc. FT has provided the airlines with more, unfiltered and cost effective (i.e. free) feedback than they could've ever received from customers in the past.

Granted, FT is not going to change the merger/acquisition, nor should it. FTers provide a customer perspective on issues. It's up to the companies to figure out how to integrate this input with all the other inputs (financial, legal, employees, unions, shareholders, etc.).

vandalby

Sorry, UnitedPR is too busy making sure that no customers abscond with the aluminum cans...

Seriously, we have FTers literally DESINGING their own UA livery...even thought this was already done by a professional design firm (note: maybe).

Regardless, that is about the personification of having too much time on one's hands.

Please understand, I think that Tilton's commentary was off base, but not entirely inaccurate.

ButIsItArt

Sounds like GT spends too much time on OMNI/PR!

seanthepilot

A million posts per year works out to be almost 2 posts per second. And we've been doing this for the past dozen years.

Tell me. Does the truth hurt because he got it right?

Now, if every post was deeply constructive we may have retort. But... look at some of the dribble we write.

I say he's pegged us bang on. If FT wants to be more respected, it has to be more respectable.

I'll be the first to stand up and say that we have a great, knowledge base, and are experts in many respects. But to get the respect that come with being experts, we need to raise the quality starting at the bottom level.

Another view is that it's not what we know, it's what we do. With our incredible resources and industry connections, I would have thought that Flyertalk, in its second decade would be more involved in action, trying to change some of the problems instead of just writing about them... take travel security for instance... by not having taken any action we really are just a bunch of talkers....

two posts per second for the last decade, sounds like people with too much time on their hands to me