adstockton

I usually fill it out, particularly on outbound legs of business trips (something to do in the hotel while watching TV). The long version is ridiculously long, but I do fill that out as well when I have specific feedback. I figure it's an opportunity to actually get feedback to UAL somehow, plus I'm somewhat enticed by the idea of winning 100k RDM.

ImThatUALGuy

I'm glad someone posted this question and it's been interesting reading the comments. As someone who sees the survey results almost on a daily basis, I want to let all of you know that your feedback does matter and United does listen. Case in point, the #1 driver for customer satisfaction, that you tell us, is on-time performance. Because of that, processes were put in place to get our DOT rankings (Arrival :14) up. We have now been in the top 3 the last 3 months. Clean airplanes is another main driver. While I agree that it varies based on where you fly and in what class, overall, your feedback is that our planes are getting cleaner. Our crews say the same thing. Your feedback has also put catering items back on the aircraft.

As for responding to surveys, we do but it's very limited. Usually for something that has ended up in the comment section and is most egregious. There's just not enough people to follow up on all comments. However, the comments have been very useful tool in discussions with the employees. We will share the comment and the market it was in (no flight or date specifics). It is an eye opener for some.

The main thing with the survey is that the more people that fill them out, the more results United gets. It will then help in making better business decisions in the future. Again, thanks to those that fill out the survey and for those who haven't in a while, www.ualsurvey.com

Dr_wanderlust

Since the data are not drawn from a random sample how do you address selection bias?

bmvaughn

<looking up "selection bias" on wikipedia>

rch4u

Should we really have to choose among in-flight amenities, friendly crews, clean cabins, and on-time arrivals?

cepheid

Then perhaps you might want to consider my suggestion from previously: replace the long-odds 100K-mile quarterly sweepstakes with something that can reward more people, so that responders feel like they have a better shot at winning something. Market research shows that most people prefer either the guarantee of a small amount or a reasonably-good chance at a larger amount than a long-shot chance at a huge amount. If you offer even something small like 25 miles for the short survey and 100 miles for the long one, you'll get many more responses. (You can weed out "fake" responders by using heuristics to judge quality feedback and post the miles only after verification.)

It's not really relevant, because they're not doing scientific research or even polling the marketplace. They're looking specifically for customer feedback, and feedback is usually given either when something is wrong or when something is really right. They can weigh the number of responses against the (known) number of passengers on a given flight, during a given time period, or from a given airport/region to determine whether the percentage of responses (negative or positive) is significant based on historical averages, and/or whether one particular category is overwhelmingly commented upon by a majority of responders. Randomness of that sort isn't really necessary for this kind of brand-specific and topic-specific market research.

If they were polling for enhancements/changes to MP, or to see how they stack up against competitors, I'd agree. To address performance issues based on specific experiences, I'd say randomness is much less important.

Dr_wanderlust

The weighting only takes care of some of it. There may be something essentially different between the people who complete a voluntary survey and those who do not; a pooling effect that for all UAL knows may bias the results.

Again, I'd like to hear from ImThatUALGuy whether they do anything about it or not.

Intrepid

The poster is right.
(The color and the italics are mine.)
I added my phone number to one or two of my responses..., naiively thinking that some one will call, or someone cares. Don't worry. No one called. Nobody cares.
There is no evidence that anyone in UA management is really interested.
I don't blame them.

I want to see independent objective proof that someone wins miles...

How do you know for a fact that someone wins miles?
How many "someones" won miles?
How frequently do some win miles?
If you want to be an unpaid consultant to UA - enjoy.

cepheid

1) Because it's illegal to falsely advertise a winner, and UA has advertised winners. Sweepstakes are regulated and subject to various laws.
2) However many quarters the sweeps has been running... I think it's been 3 or 4.
3) Every quarter, assuming the winner doesn't decline the prize.

big V

Thanks for posting this, ImThatUALGuy. I would think that because this instrument is something that UA does across the board, they would consider this more representative than e-mailed complaint/kudos comments that are self-selected. (Yes, this has self-selection, too, but in a different way than what would motivate someone to write in.)

I am happy to hear that it is being used. I didn't think that UAL would go to the trouble of setting it up for me each time I fly if they weren't keeping an eye on the results. Hopefully your post will encourage some of the people who have ignored it in the past to spend a few moments to do it in the future. I feel like United has listened, and the cleanliness of the aircraft is one example. It's harder to feel like United is listening when there are personnel issues (i.e., a horrible or fantastic GA/FA), but I still think it's important for you to know which stations are doing things right, and which aren't.

Thank you for specifically mentioning the comments section---I go out of my way to fill out specific things there that I would like to see addressed. I'm glad you're reading them and discussing them.

Thanks again--I appreciate your insight.
big V

Intrepid

Facts, cepheid. Only the facts: where, when, who? Anything in Hemispheres?
Here is an example published this morning where the great Coca Cola company had to "correct" its misleading ads in Australia:
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/stor...AF4FEC5A92A%7D
Now you want me to believe UA claims?

as219

Do you seriously believe UA would go through the considerable expense to produce and administer an online survey, then make up bogus winners of RDMs?

as219

I know someone who has designed and implemented this kind of survey for major airlines. Taking selection bias into account in the analysis of voluntary surveys is an art, not a science; doing it well is difficult, and it's even more difficult to measure after the fact how well you did it. So the short answer is of course selection bias is taken into account. The long answer, though, is unanswerable unless we know the specific methodologies used in the production and implementation of the survey, information that is obviously highly technical and proprietary.

as219

On the one hand, you're absolutely right. I'm getting tired of answering these things for every segment I fly, knowing that my payoff is incredibly small. More and more I feel that if UA really wanted to know more, it would offer a better prize. Your suggestion to offer more smaller prizes than fewer big ones, though, may not be the solution. Getting more responses is far less important than getting better responses, and it's not clear that the kind of travelers who would respond positively to a sure thing of 25 RDM are the same "kind" that would respond to a small chance of 100,000 RDM. In fact, I would suggest that the former on the whole probably have less of importance to say to UA than the latter.

adstockton

+1

25/100 RDM would really not mean much to me, but I could really do something with 100,000 if that came to pass. I would be significantly less inclined to fill out the survey for 25 RDM.