boolean64

I think this is the nut of it. The "CO culture" SMI/J is trying to push on United relies on the fact that CO has fortress hubs. When he makes a customer-unfriendly business decision, the CO folks have one choice..."thank you sir, may I have another." That's definitely not the case for people who fly out of ORD, SFO, or LAX...or even DEN to some extent.

I thought he finally figured that out when he decided to keep E+. But this shows that he is reverting a bit.

The charitable explanation for all of this is that he assumes that 6-in-6 is fair because he'll whip the UA fleet into shape so there is no way that anyone would experience more than six customer service fails in six months. I find that assumption highly dubious.

neuron

This does seem like a CO-influenced decision. I am not against a 6 complaints in 6month rule (bar exceptional events like your 7th complaint involves major delays or problems, etc).

What I think is less palatable is that they will reduce the level of compensation, which the first two posts (responses by UA CR) have indicated.


I have not had to deal with CO "Who Cares" program. Is it bad?

hobo13

Interesting.

bmvaughn

I actually am not too big of a fan of CC or FDs, and I think ASKING for compensation for trivial things is silly. However, comp for reasonable issues should not be affected; for example, I recently had a broken C seat on a CDG-IAD flight, no recline/legrest, and was issued a skykit. I got $200 off a future flight. That seemed slightly low - maybe that and my SWU would have been fair - but if I were offered $50 or $75 for that, I would be pissed.

GUEST052119

As a legacy CO flier, I have to say that I was shocked and surprised to receive a $75 e-cert and a personal response to an email I sent for a broken reading light (didn't expect or ask for compensation, just wanted to point it out) in domestic first ORD-NYC. I have come to expect from CO that similar emails will only occasionally get a response, and NEVER compensation whether or not compensation is requested. Case in point, I recently went through a 3-hour mechanical delay, eventually boarded a plane that was leaking fuel, de-planed and waited another hour before finally taking off. The whole time was spent in the absolutely wretched Continental A terminal at EWR. Frankly, I was pissed, but it didn't even cross my mind to seek compensation as I know how futile it generally is. A few days later I received a mass, auto-generated email apologizing for the delay and noting that 500 miles would be added to my account. 500. I wrote back saying that 4+ hours of my time is worth more than 500 miles and that CO should have kept quiet rather than issuing a slap in the face. I received a response that made no sense and was completely out of context to the message I had sent. I responded to the gibberish "please read my email and send a response that addresses the issues I raised." Months later I received a phone call from a nasty woman in Texas who told me that she had approved an additional 1000 miles to be added to my account but that it was against company policy and that I shouldn't expect it in the future.

A stark comparison.

Frankly, as the merger unfolds, I'm hoping that the combined company is more UA than CO.

Otherwise, here's to a DL status match for 2012!

kb1992

As SMI/J takes over, expect $25 or 500 miles in the future.

CO's culture is "We are the most professional. We can do nothing wrong. No apology."

zombietooth

Since the primary goal of any business is to make a profit, there is no doubt that UACO needs to cut costs and increase airfares unless they want to go down the road to bankruptcy that seems to be par for the course in the airline business. Some have argued here that reducing compensation vouchers is a de facto airfare increase and they are absolutely correct. I would argue, however, that increased airfares is not necessarily a bad thing. Those of us who fly primarily for business are either expensing the costs and deducting them on our, or the business'/corporation's taxes. So, absent a drastic increase in fares, our companies/corporations become slightly less profitable, thereby reducing the amount of taxes we pay. Thus, I believe the negative consequences of increased airfares are largely offset by the decreased taxes paid out of pocket. However, there is a possible positive side to increased airfares: Reduced passenger loads. Since most of us value the availability and frequency of upgrades more than anything else the airline has to offer, a reduction in loads would theoretically increase the availability of upgrade space. Of course, if there were to be an increase in paid premium cabin travel, no such benefit would accrue, regardless of the overall loads.

uecsome

This is very interesting thread!

I would like to see more followup actions rather than just compensation.
They can give us a copy of repair order or report from unprofessional employee and his/her supervisor, then I would be happy with $25 or 500 miles range.

If they cannot do so within a week, add one digit so internally they would "work harder" to solve the problem.

channa

I'm not sure I follow your logic. Reduced loads will eventually mean reduced service, which could mean no or reduced upgrades. There are stations today with very little service, or RJ or prop only service with little to no F, that used to have significant mainline service. If that trend continues, I don't see how it could be a positive for the customer. Remember also that from a UA flyer perspective, we now have to accept the CO RJ fleet, which contains no F class, not to mention the pilot scope issue whereby CO can only outsource flying of planes with 50 or fewer seats. So reduced loads may not mean more upgrades, it may mean that they get stuck with legacy CO RJ aircraft with no upgrades.

But back to compensation, part of the goal of compensation is to demonstrate a tangible goodwill gesture to retain the customer. If that gesture is so insignificant with respect to the customer relationship, then it becomes a slap in the face.

The CO example that's often touted here is 500 miles. What is 500 miles to someone who flies 100,000 miles, gets those doubled, and has a credit card and other ancillary sources of mileage? When you're raking in 250,000 miles a year, or a domestic ticket costs 25,000 miles, 500 miles seems paltry.

kb1992

I am raking half million miles a year.

CO's 500 mile or $25 compensation is a total joke.

zombietooth

I agree that 500 miles is nothing---it is more like a slap in the face, but I haven't been able to spend any miles in years anyway. So even 15,000 miles, which is the latest amount that I received from UA, doesn't actually help me. $250- to $450- vouchers were valuable and will be missed, however.

Note that I said that it was only a "possible positive side".
I am open to to the possibility that increased airfares could be negative across the board--even for elites, and your scenario is a plausible alternative. I am just looking at what is obviously going on with the merger, i.e. increasing revenue and decreasing costs. Smisek doesn't think that these changes will cost him many customers, at least at the high end, and this is a juggernaut that will not be stopped by complaints from the elites and FT postings. Smisek has already made up his mind on the "overly generous" compensation scheme at UA and is committed to stop it. Only reduced profitability will stop this experiment, which means that only if the high-yield, primarily business, customer actually takes their business elsewhere will Smisek consider changing things back.

UA-NYC

500 points (offered to my flight 2 months ago for a 3 hour delay) is the new normal for CO. As I've said before, since airlines typically value miles at $.01 per, CO is saying your time wasted on MX delays is worth between $1.25-$1.35/hour. Classy.

jhayes_1780

Very OT, but who was it (or maybe still does) give like 250 or 500mi if your upgrade doesn't clear?

StingWest

Agree, actually I got an unexpected $200 cert last year for complaining about the new earplugs - now that's over-the-top! But it left me with a good feeling about a vendor (UA) with whom I've spent more than $200,000 over the years.

emanon256

Thats DL. If you are Diamond, you get miles and a free drink and snack. If you are gold, you get a free drink or snack.