My client is their biggest US competitor. I've seen operations across many business units and can say, sadly this does not surprise me at all. The employees I spoke with told me that the other airlines they've worked at are similar. The employees generally, across this particular company are generally very angry, feel screwed by their employer and simply don't care.
Why did United neglect to tell parents of a minor she was rerouted?
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Re: Why did United neglect to tell parents of a minor she was rerouted?
#62One could swear to never fly United, if one hadn't already done so for American. Airlines have the worst customer service of any industry. Their horror stories are actual horror stories.
One interesting property of the insurance industry, as I've heard it, is that left to pure capitalistic pressures, companies will charge too little to actually provide the product they are selling.
I don't see why that same problem would apply to air travel but it certainly seems to be the case. I know airlines outside the US provide a much more civil experience but I don't know whether they face the same competitive pressures.
Re: Why did United neglect to tell parents of a minor she was rerouted?
#63From http://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/travel/specialneeds/...
What if my child’s travel is affected by delays, cancellations or other problems?
It can be very stressful when flights do not operate as planned, especially for unaccompanied children. In the case of weather or other delays and cancellations, United will contact you or the person designated to meet your child at his or her final destination. You can also track the status of the flight on united.com. Advise your child to remain with a United representative at all times. Consider giving your child a calling card or teaching him or her how to make collect calls so he or she can reach you.
That said, flying from Great Falls to Nashville (which is already hairy due to the small regional airports on either end of the journey) on a day where there's a major winter storm forecast to slam the midwest. This including a foot of snow on Chicago, which ruins United's system for the day (is this not a well known fact)? If you don't want to entertain the possibility that your child might be stranded without you? Fly yourself to Great Falls, meet your child, and fly back together. Alternatively, driving to Atlanta or Memphis will up your odds considerably of a successful venture.
Instead of sending her on the next flight to Nashville, they have routed her across the country on three connections and is staying overnight in Houston with a complete stranger!
This doesn't excuse United's behavior, but Ms. Neff-Aguilar could have prepared better.
Re: Why did United neglect to tell parents of a minor she was rerouted?
#64My sister (several years ago) was flying United solo (minor, 17, first solo flight) from CA to ME, connecting in LGA. Her flight came in late and she missed the connecting flight (late at night). There were no United employees on staff (at all!) in LGA at that hour. My mom spent several hours trying to get someone at United to help her out and they couldn't get ahold of their "on call" staff member to assist her. They ended up telling her to "sleep on a bench" and wait till the staff came in some 4-5 hours later in the morning and someone could get her set up with a new connecting flight. They eventually offered a $150 coupon for her "next" flight, which will never happen.
Re: Why did United neglect to tell parents of a minor she was rerouted?
#65This is a plain case of kidnapping. I strongly encourage the parents to push for kidnapping and any other charges that may apply here such as child endangerment. United already admitted wrongdoing.
Think about it, if you replace United with John Doe in this article, there is no doubt that this was kidnapping. We all want to see justice and justice, in this case, needs to be a very long and hard prison sentence for someone at United.
Period.
Re: Why did United neglect to tell parents of a minor she was rerouted?
#66Was this Tweet the only one made @United from the account before it was blocked, or were there others? https://twitter.com/PublikDemand/status/309093527697104898 If that's the only one, that's very surprising. It doesn't seem like the sort of thing that would spur an instant block, even from an overprotective overzealous social media rep.
That tweet looks like a trolling attempt to me. I would have responded and directed them to have the customer contact the company directly and then blocked them.
Re: Why did United neglect to tell parents of a minor she was rerouted?
#67One could swear to never fly United, if one hadn't already done so for American. Airlines have the worst customer service of any industry. Their horror stories are actual horror stories.
"Transcontinental Monopoly Airlines, this is Lisa. How may you help us?"
Thanks, Berkeley Breathed (http://www.thecomicstrips.com/store/add_strip.php?iid=84029)
Re: Why did United neglect to tell parents of a minor she was rerouted?
#68Part of me feels bad for United here. They're bound to make some mistakes when flying millions of people around the planet every day. But thanks to social media, all it takes is one of those mistakes to turn into a viral blog post -- and now you've got a PR crisis. Not defending United or saying they didn't screw up. They did. But dang it, as an entrepreneur, that business seems really f'ing complex and I feel for th…
The "problem" is that these social media users can sometimes achieve parity in expectations. United (and business in general, on the large) expects people to take what they're given for the price they pay. "You pays your money you takes your chances." That "one tweet" or whatever is seen to cause United problems is evidence of how inured we have become to their abuses. Your critique kind of reminds me of police vs. v…
The entrepreneurial lesson to be learned here is not to sell items you can't provide.
[1]: http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2011/11/29/american_...
Re: Why did United neglect to tell parents of a minor she was rerouted?
#69Part of me feels bad for United here. They're bound to make some mistakes when flying millions of people around the planet every day. But thanks to social media, all it takes is one of those mistakes to turn into a viral blog post -- and now you've got a PR crisis. Not defending United or saying they didn't screw up. They did. But dang it, as an entrepreneur, that business seems really f'ing complex and I feel for th…
The "problem" is that these social media users can sometimes achieve parity in expectations. United (and business in general, on the large) expects people to take what they're given for the price they pay. "You pays your money you takes your chances." That "one tweet" or whatever is seen to cause United problems is evidence of how inured we have become to their abuses. Your critique kind of reminds me of police vs. v…
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Re: Why did United neglect to tell parents of a minor she was rerouted?
#70All this reminds me of when I used to fly internationally as an "Unaccompanied Minor" in the early 90s. This clusterfuck would NEVER have happened back then (at least never happened to me..) -- kids travelling alone were treated like royalty. I'd randomly get bumped up to First Class, be able to use the nice lounges in airports, and got put up in really nice hotels when flights were delayed too long. All this amidst…
Nah, you're just lucky. I'm an older fart than you, and pretty much exactly this happened to me in 1984. The airline had a delay, bumped my friend and I (13 and 12 years old) to a later flight (NY -> Paris!), and didn't tell anyone. And of course we were too dumb to call someone too.
This isn't an issue of malfesance or neglect. It's just what happens when a bureaucracy hits a situation it didn't forsee. You can only "fix" it with common sense, which was in no greater supply 30 years ago than it is now.