United Airlines customer service

Obviously nobody in their right mind would think United will fail because of this. But it will be hundreds, if not thousands of times more expensive than just offering decent compensation in the first place.
 
Palmpilot said:
It's a little over a 1% drop. I, for one, have not found that I can predict what the stock market will do. Maybe you've had better luck at it. :dunno:
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I agree. But then again, I am not the one that brought up the $0.81 one day price drop.
 
If anyone is looking for some good laughs, go check out the reviews of the United app.

You can all you want about whether or not the actions were justified or appropriate, but either way, they are taking a beating in the PR world.
 
jordane93 said:
Other companies have done equally worse PR stunts and have still survived. I think United will be ok. Maybe not short term, but in the long run they'll be fine.
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How's that working out for VW?
 
Palmpilot said:
So it's OK for you to assume that he was Chinese, but it's not OK for me to assume that the fact that he told someone he was from Vietnam means he was Vietnamese? What's up with that?
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I knew Dr. Dao long time, he strong Chinese man
 
We need to make this thread a new PoA record for length...keep it coming folks
 
CC268 said:
We need to make this thread a new PoA record for length...keep it coming folks
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Never going to beat the "Next word that comes to mind" thread! Also Captain's "Pet Peeves" thread has got to be up there as well.
 
jordane93 said:
They're still in business and made 217 billion last year in revenue
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17% less sales than 2015.

Sure, I don't think companies go backrupt from PR disasters, but it hurts them enough that it doesn't make financial sense for them to keep on doing that. At some point you make more money by treating your customers like human beings.
 
Palmpilot said:
VW actually did something wrong.
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I think what you meant is that they did something illegal. Sure that's one aspect and that hurts them in terms of recalls, fines etc. United doesn't fall in this bucket.

But what goes hand-in-hand with that is the PR problem of what they did to their customers. And that is now hurting them in sales. United is in this bucket.

Granted, just by a little bit. But that 'little bit' in this context easily adds up to a couple of new Citations. Which is still not much for United, but they just put themselves under the spotlight for any other little thing that goes wrong with them. And that can add up.
 
It's not about legality or who is right, it's a dumb move in a service industry. It doesn't matter if he is a felon or not. It's a matter of public perception and that hurts like hell. They are trying to expand in China, can't imagine what UA hotshots are feeling and going thru this while trying to get in a growing market like China. Imagine being the UA rep in the negociation table with Chinese govt discussing expansion and this gets brought up... u think China will get a rats behind about the COC and FAR and any legality???

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 
Palmpilot said:
Do you think it matters who brought it up? If so, why?
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Not a thing said on this thread really matters. But some things are dumber than others. Like pointing out that the stock ONLY dropped 81 cents today.
 
rsleeds said:
I am not an airline pilot, just a PP-ASEL, and I think United was toatally right in how they handled the bumping situation and that the physical escalation is 110% on the passenger. They probably could have handled the aftermath better - but in reality, by the time the social media masses decreed that United beat and drug him off the plane, there wasn't much they could do to try and tell the sheeple any thing factual.
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Do you see any irony in using the term "Sheeple" as a derogatory in the same post as advocating people meekly bow down when a company is ****ing them over?
 
deonb said:
I think what you meant is that they did something illegal. Sure that's one aspect and that hurts them in terms of recalls, fines etc. United doesn't fall in this bucket.
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I meant both. I don't think refusal to transport a passenger is wrong as long as the rules are followed, as appears to be the case here, and I don't think it's wrong for an airline to request law enforcement assistance when a passenger disobeys an instruction to get off the plane.

But what goes hand-in-hand with that is the PR problem of what they did to their customers. And that is now hurting them in sales. United is in this bucket.
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I don't think that bad PR necessarily means that the airline did anything wrong. My point about VW is that in addition to the bad PR, their actions were both wrong and illegal, so I don't see a basis for assuming that the impact on their business will be a predictor of how this incident will affect United's business.
 
Katamarino said:
Do you see any irony in using the term "Sheeple" as a derogatory in the same post as advocating people meekly bow down when a company is ****ing them over?
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Nope, I don't see a company doing anything wrong. Just a bunch of people who don't know what they agree to when they buy an airline ticket.
 
JOhnH said:
Not a thing said on this thread really matters. But some things are dumber than others. Like pointing out that the stock ONLY dropped 81 cents today.
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Actually the stock is up 53 cents right now for the day.

United is being raked over the coals over the actions of the LEOs. *Shrug*, there isn't much they could have done about it. So for them, it's ride it out. I wouldn't expect a lawsuit against them to be successful.
 
bflynn said:
Actually the stock is up 53 cents right now for the day.

United is being raked over the coals over the actions of the LEOs. *Shrug*, there isn't much they could have done about it. So for them, it's ride it out. I wouldn't expect a lawsuit against them to be successful.
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After $0.66 up Monday. Yep, the market has spoken ;)
 
I'm kicking myself right now, controller tonight accidentally used United as my callsign. I wasn't thinking.... such a missed opportunity for jokes.
 
So.... did he get his eight hundred bucks?
 
Is it time to invoke Godwin's Law? I don't remember it ever being invoked in the past.

I have to agree the LEOs overreacted to a pax who's only 'disruptive' behavior was refusal to leave. Wonder what the FA's were thinking while they watched it.
 
here you go - http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...d-seats/ar-BBzJLPS?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp

“Including advance-seat-assignment charges among the ‘basic ancillary service’ fees that must be disclosed as part of initial fare displays makes no sense,” the airline wrote to the Department of Transportation. “Every ticket, of course, guarantees a passenger a seat on the plane, with no additional mandatory seat-assignment charges."

Later in the filing, United Airlines expanded on its promise to regulators that it guarantees every ticketed passenger a seat.

“Importantly, every passenger who buys a ticket on a United flight or a flight on any of United’s partners or competitors in the United States will be assigned a seat at no additional charge (though in some cases this will still happen at the gate),” the airline wrote. “Therefore, the rule does not need to prescribe how carriers must disclose charges concerning advance seat assignments because passengers need not purchase this service to receive a seat assignment.”
 
bflynn said:
Actually the stock is up 53 cents right now for the day.
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How do you figure that? Perhaps you are looking at after hour quotes, but as of 7:58PM, they are down another 31 cents, after the negative 81 cents during regular trading.
(which really means nothing for the long term).
 
Fearless Tower said:
If anyone is looking for some good laughs, go check out the reviews of the United app.
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Yeah, the "new drag and drop feature!" could not have had worse timing, LOL!

deonb said:
How's that working out for VW?
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I might be using up some of my POA lives with this... but other than cheating on some EPAs laws (and media having a field day with a foreign auto company, after years of Ford and GM getting **** on) I have not personally at least met anyone who was like "I will never buy VW now!" - in fact, to the contrary, a lot of our friends and family have VW and they still love them and appreciate the insane mileage they were getting out of their cars. Admittedly there is some shame now in admitting to liking VW because there will be some perceived personal implication with the cheating thing, but what UA did was far worse in my opinion, and the later response by the CEO only made things worse.
 
Silvaire said:
So.... did he get his eight hundred bucks?
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I think they owe him $1,350 now -- in cash, not funny money.

That's not counting the hospital bills, of course. But I suspect airport security will pick up the tab for that since they already publicly admitted that their officer screwed up.

Rich
 
Who can tell me if it's true that this guy had actually left the plane and then ran back down the jetway and got back on and the video is them removing him after he did that?
 
RJM62 said:
I think they owe him $1,350 now -- in cash, not funny money.
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$1,350 is the limit. It is four times his fare, up to $1,350, if he is delayed more than four hours. Less for delays between two and four hours. 14 CFR 250 is the controlling regulation.
 
EppyGA said:
Who can tell me if it's true that this guy had actually left the plane and then ran back down the jetway and got back on and the video is them removing him after he did that?
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u missed the fact that he had C4 strapped on his twins and is a known terrorist with direct ties to Syria
 
Larry in TN said:
$1,350 is the limit. It is four times his fare, up to $1,350, if he is delayed more than four hours. Less for delays between two and four hours. 14 CFR 250 is the controlling regulation.
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four hours is for international, for domestic:

(2) Compensation shall be 200% of the fare to the passenger's destination or first stopover, with a maximum of $675, if the carrier offers alternate transportation that, at the time the arrangement is made, is planned to arrive at the airport of the passenger's first stopover, or if none, the airport of the passenger's final destination more than one hour but less than two hours after the planned arrival time of the passenger's original flight; and

(3) Compensation shall be 400% of the fare to the passenger's destination or first stopover, with a maximum of $1,350, if the carrier does not offer alternate transportation that, at the time the arrangement is made, is planned to arrive at the airport of the passenger's first stopover, or if none, the airport of the passenger's final destination less than two hours after the planned arrival time of the passenger's original flight.
 
Cap'n Jack said:
New SWA slogan going around the interwebs:
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TKLs9lo.jpg
 
If he paid $109 for the ticket (cheapest OW ticket on UA between ORD-SDF on a random date), he is owed $436.
I think the lawsuit will net him 4 or 5 zeros after that $436.

United will either settle this for an "undisclosed amount", and the good Doctor will be a VERY popular guest in Las Vegas...
But that's not necessarily the smartest move for United. If the rules aren't changed in a DOT approved way, the next time this happens, nobody will get up and offer to deboard, and that will ruin the whole yield and crew management for the airlines.
So, I'm guessing there will be a new rule from the congress/DOT/someone (and this really should happen, the current rules are open to abuse by airlines), and THEN this will be settled. UA really, really does not want this in front of a jury, because they would lose massively. It has all the jury buzzwords in it. Race, "corporate greed", and so on.
 
Tantalum said:
Admittedly there is some shame now in admitting to liking VW because there will be some perceived personal implication with the cheating thing, but what UA did was far worse in my opinion, and the later response by the CEO only made things worse.
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VW too tame a comparison for you? Ok, Ill raise the stakes:

Seaworld

I believe they hit their worst quarter since Blackfish came out at the end of last year - 3 years after the fact. Some things people DO remember.
 
murphey said:
Is it time to invoke Godwin's Law? I don't remember it ever being invoked in the past.

I have to agree the LEOs overreacted to a pax who's only 'disruptive' behavior was refusal to leave. Wonder what the FA's were thinking while they watched it.
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"I don't get paid enough to put up with this crap"
 
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