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Why did United neglect to tell parents of a minor she was rerouted?

publikdemand.com

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Re: Why did United neglect to tell parents of a minor she was rerouted?

#81

Post by kenjackson »

venus wrote: post #29

What is this hysterical nonsense? Fine, UA should have called the mother to let her know what was going on. Someone screwed up. But they obviously went to a lot of effort to take care of the kid, putting her up in a hotel to wait for the next flight, with a UA employee of the same sex chaperoning her. The case was seized upon by what appears to be a professionally outraged busybody trying to "monetize" shrill complai…

"But they obviously went to a lot of effort to take care of the kid, putting her up in a hotel to wait for the next flight, with a UA employee of the same sex chaperoning her."

How is that a lot of trouble? Isn't that what they were paid to do? Isn't that the minimum obligation? Sure they could have put the kid in a suitcase and kicked it down the Mississippi, but that seems like a high bar for outrage.

If they don't intend on informing the parents they should let the parents know, "Over the next 2-24 hours you may or may not know where your child is and we have no obligation to let you know as long as they eventually get to their destination". But I'm sure that may not fly with a lot of parents.

Re: Why did United neglect to tell parents of a minor she was rerouted?

#82

Post by mikeash »

svachalek wrote: post #62
kingnight wrote: post #17

One 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…

In any perfectly competitive market, prices will be driven down to the marginal cost of the product. This is basic economics.

To the extent that companies are able to make a profit, it's because markets aren't perfectly competitive. People identify with brands, large capital investments are often required, regulations have to be overcome, it's illegal to create a product identical to one already being sold, etc.

But still, many markets come close enough to cause trouble. Insurance may be one. Airline travel certainly seems to be another one. There's an old joke that the way to make a small fortune in the airline business is to start out with a large fortune. In aggregate, the industry appears to take a loss, long-term, but they manage to keep going through bankruptcy, new entrants, and the occasional government bailout.

A lot of non-US airlines are national airlines which are somewhat governmental in nature. They tend to have regulatory advantages and may be outright subsidized by their government. Their motives may be less about making money and more about providing services, showing a good image of their country abroad, and whatever internal bureaucratic motivations they end up with.

Re: Why did United neglect to tell parents of a minor she was rerouted?

#83

Post by ricardobeat »

courtneypowell wrote: post #14
JeremyBanks wrote: post #13

Was 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.

They were most likely upset that I called their emergency press line in order to get the mother help. After I gave United the contact information for the mother they refused to talk to me further. They blocked us the next morning.

I'm not sure things would go well if we started having third-parties take over all personal business like this. There are lots of things to worry about, and it's double the work for the company.

Re: Why did United neglect to tell parents of a minor she was rerouted?

#84

Post by [deleted] »

venus wrote: post #29

What is this hysterical nonsense? Fine, UA should have called the mother to let her know what was going on. Someone screwed up. But they obviously went to a lot of effort to take care of the kid, putting her up in a hotel to wait for the next flight, with a UA employee of the same sex chaperoning her. The case was seized upon by what appears to be a professionally outraged busybody trying to "monetize" shrill complai…

[deleted]

Re: Why did United neglect to tell parents of a minor she was rerouted?

#85

Post by malbiniak »

venus wrote: post #29

What is this hysterical nonsense? Fine, UA should have called the mother to let her know what was going on. Someone screwed up. But they obviously went to a lot of effort to take care of the kid, putting her up in a hotel to wait for the next flight, with a UA employee of the same sex chaperoning her. The case was seized upon by what appears to be a professionally outraged busybody trying to "monetize" shrill complai…

I agree with a lot of your sentiment, especially considering some 3rd party that doesn't hold a ton of credibility is acting as the mouth piece.

Out of curiosity, are you a parent? I'm not, but as an uncle that loves the shit out of his niece and nephew, I'd have a hard time telling their parents to chill out when their kid is not sticking to the plan, and UA's response (3 hours) seems minimize the importance (to the parents). To be fair, I'm not sure my sister or brother-in-law would allow a 10 year old to travel on their own, either.

Sorry, you asked for perspective :)

Re: Why did United neglect to tell parents of a minor she was rerouted?

#86

Post by darkarmani »

8ig8 wrote: post #75
pud wrote: post #22

Part 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…

I can't believe that airlines accept the liability of flying unaccompanied minors. It seems they have so much to lose when something like this happens. I understand the need/demand. So if the airlines stop offering it, I'm sure some kind of private travel companionship service would develop. They might be more expensive, but as their primary business, they may be able to provide a higher level of service/assurance.

All they had to do was notify the parents. Why was that so hard?

Re: Why did United neglect to tell parents of a minor she was rerouted?

#87

Post by jowiar »

mikeash wrote: post #77
jowiar wrote: post #63

From 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 ca…

Your proposal to plan better would make more sense if airline travel didn't require an order of magnitude or two more advance planning than weather forecasts can provide.

Getting stranded is a fact of life when flying. Especially during winter. Especially with connections. Especially when flying to airports with very few flights where one missed connection breaks everything.

If, going into the trip, the possibility of her daughter being somewhere overnight was unconscionable, Ms. Neff-Aguilar could have originally planned to meet her daughter in Montana and travel home together. Or compensate a family member / friend in Montana to accompany her to Nashville.

Re: Why did United neglect to tell parents of a minor she was rerouted?

#88

Post by venus »

kenjackson wrote: post #81
venus wrote: post #29

What is this hysterical nonsense? Fine, UA should have called the mother to let her know what was going on. Someone screwed up. But they obviously went to a lot of effort to take care of the kid, putting her up in a hotel to wait for the next flight, with a UA employee of the same sex chaperoning her. The case was seized upon by what appears to be a professionally outraged busybody trying to "monetize" shrill complai…

"But they obviously went to a lot of effort to take care of the kid, putting her up in a hotel to wait for the next flight, with a UA employee of the same sex chaperoning her." How is that a lot of trouble? Isn't that what they were paid to do? Isn't that the minimum obligation? Sure they could have put the kid in a suitcase and kicked it down the Mississippi, but that seems like a high bar for outrage. If they don't…

> "Over the next 2-24 hours you may or may not know where your child is and we have no obligation to let you know as long as they eventually get to their destination"

That is actually pretty close to my expectation? Isn't it close to yours? Let's rewrite to remove the snark:

"We will transport your child safely from A to B, accompanied by our staff at all times. We expect it will be according to the itinerary provided but due to operational reasons, there may be changes, which we will attempt to notify you about"

And who knows, maybe they did try to call the mother? Everything in the airline industry comes down to checklists; I'd be surprised if there isn't one for this situation, and equally surprised if "try to contact the guardians" isn't on there somewhere.

Re: Why did United neglect to tell parents of a minor she was rerouted?

#89

Post by mikeash »

jowiar wrote: post #87
mikeash wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your proposal to plan better would make more sense if airline travel didn't require an order of magnitude or two more advance planning than weather forecasts can provide.

Getting stranded is a fact of life when flying. Especially during winter. Especially with connections. Especially when flying to airports with very few flights where one missed connection breaks everything. If, going into the trip, the possibility of her daughter being somewhere overnight was unconscionable, Ms. Neff-Aguilar could have originally planned to meet her daughter in Montana and travel home together. Or co…

It's not the stranding itself that was unconscionable, but rather the stranding plus the not telling the parents plus not being reachable by same parents.

Re: Why did United neglect to tell parents of a minor she was rerouted?

#90

Post by mindcrime »

Not necessarily related to this incident, but United really have become my least favorite airline in many ways. There's just something about dealing with them that constantly leaves me with this weird feeling, like nobody there knows what the f%!# is going on. When I've had flights delayed with other airlines, the process has at least felt organized, and while the delay was annoying, it never felt like a total clusterfuck. OTOH, with United, it seems like every time there is a delay, things get, well, weird. There will be 3 or 4 gate changes; airport monitors with information that doesn't match what is on my phone via their mobile app, neither of which matches the screen behind the gate agent stand; gate agents who seem totally clueless and so on. At times, when I fly United, I wonder if I'm ever actually going to get where I'm going at all.

American, Southwest and Delta all seem to do a much better job of organizing things, from what I can see. The only thing United really has going for them is Economy Plus seating, and American is adding a similar feature. Honestly, I try to avoid United these days.

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