Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

publikdemand.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 109 posts

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

#91

Post by ajtaylor »

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…

From your tone, I'll assume you aren't a parent. The parent purchased a ticket with a specific itinerary plus paid extra for a chaperone. If my daughter was flying alone and my wife got this kind of call from her, you can rest assured that she would move heaven and hell to get things sorted out. From personal experience, never underestimate the power of a mother protecting her child.

PublikDemand aside, United failed big time. First by changing the itinerary (I've never had this happen to me) and second by not contacting the parents. Yes, the girl is fine, but that's really not the point.

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

#92

Post by ajtaylor »

ncallaway wrote: post #42
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…

The reason I don't feel particularly bad for United is that this was not a single mistake. It was a series of mistakes, each compounding the last to really create damaging PR. I feel like they earned this one. 1) They didn't notify the parents when the child was first re-routed. While this is a serious mistake, and not something to dismiss when you're considering sending a child with United, I think it falls into tha…

I couldn't agree with you more! Unaccompanied minors should come before everyone else on the flight - even first class. They certainly charge you enough for it.

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

#93

Post by saraid216 »

shrikant wrote: post #48

All 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…

I wonder if it was simply that they had more money back then.

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

#94

Post by paulyg »

mindcrime wrote: post #90

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 cluste…

US Air is like this as well. Always in a state of chaos. They are infamous for losing bags. I live in a US Air hub city and still avoid them at all costs.

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

#95

Post by jowiar »

mikeash wrote: post #89
jowiar wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Agreed, which is the unfortunate effect of the vast, vast majority of people being unwilling to pay more for better service when flying, thus leading to airlines being badly understaffed. In the Kayak/Orbitz/Hipmunk/Adioso era, people buy tickets based on price/number of connections, almost entirely without regard to the airline. The only folks who get better treatment from the airlines are those who have status (and are thus loyal customers worth the expense to retain) or who pay extra (first class or a lounge pass).

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

#96

Post by 8ig8 »

darkarmani wrote: post #86
8ig8 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I have no idea how many unaccompanied minors fly in a given day, but I suspect that it is relatively few. As a result, no one has ownership of the minor. Training for these situations is low priority.

You're right, a phone call goes a long way in these situations. It's simple, but I'm guessing that training is limited so people just don't know the protocol.

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

#97

Post by RougeFemme »

"As a result, no one has ownership of the minor." Maybe no one by name has ownership, but someone by role has ownership. So whoever is filling the role for the airline/airport at that time/on that flight/for that airline at that airport (however the process is defined) has ownership. So there is an individual with ownership at all times. I agree though, that training may be sorely lacking for those situations that are exceptions to the normal process. None of that changes the fact that ultimately, the airline has ownership.

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

#98

Post by venus »

ajtaylor wrote: post #91
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…

From your tone, I'll assume you aren't a parent. The parent purchased a ticket with a specific itinerary plus paid extra for a chaperone. If my daughter was flying alone and my wife got this kind of call from her, you can rest assured that she would move heaven and hell to get things sorted out. From personal experience, never underestimate the power of a mother protecting her child. PublikDemand aside, United failed…

> United failed big time. First by changing the itinerary (I've never had this happen to me)

This happens pretty often if you are a frequent traveller. Things go wrong! It may be an inconvenience but it is certainly not a "fail".

> and second by not contacting the parents

Right. So that's what this is all about. Someone at United Airlines forgot to make a phone call, or couldn't get through, or maybe the number was illegible, or something. That's all this is about. Absolutely, totally undeserving of this reaction.

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

#99

Post by thedragon4453 »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #45
thedragon4453 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$150 isn't enough to make sure the kid gets to their connection or someone calls the parents when something goes wrong?

All the facts so far seem to point to that conclusion.

I disagree. I think that there are probably no more than 5 kids flying by themselves on any given flight. I'm not even expecting a 1:1 ratio - I expect that for those 5 kids, there is maybe 1 person in charge of them. Those 5 kids are generating $750 in revenue. The expense for a chaperon is whatever a seat costs, plus that employee's expenses. I'm going to guess that they make a profit on the service (not to mention I'm doubting there is a special "kid rate" for a seat).

Now the problem comes when they start cutting costs. The flight attendant, who used to probably be a well paid, skilled employee who was serving 50 seats is probably a paid less, shorter term employee now serving 75 seats.

And instead of having a dedicated chaperon, it's probably now just one of those flight attendants.

That they can't deliver for the price they charge doesn't mean the price is wrong. If you buy a car and drive it off the lot and the wheels fall off, you don't say "well, I guess they should have charged me more."

Granted, there is a "too good to be true" factor, but I don't think that $150 to make sure that a kid makes their connection and picks up the baggage is more than enough. Honestly, I'd expect that as part of the ticket price.

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

#100

Post by larrys »

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…

"now you've got a PR crisis"

Yeah but we aren't back in the old days of "coffee tea or me". In the end the bad PR actually means very little. People choose airlines based on price and schedule. In the end does a screw up like this actually change buying behavior? I don't think it does. People fly because they have to. Even the cruise lines typically rebound after a major disaster which effects many more people. People who forget and are on to the next shiny ball from the media.

Post reply on HN