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United Airlines Lost My Friend's 10 Year Old Daughter And Didn't Care

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Re: United Airlines Lost My Friend's 10 Year Old Daughter And Didn't Care

#101

Post by briandear »

ljf wrote: post #72
chimi wrote: post #33

This is a problem bigger than United -- which has a lot of problems. This is what you get when you subsidize bad companies that need to fail. United needs to fail so someone better can take over. The moral hazards are ruining the country. I saw it recently with farmers struggling from the drought. Compare this farmer: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7417774n who has acres full of hay that don't do well in the…

I've only been to the US once, and I really wasn't sure how I would find the 'service industries' (waiting, bar staff, shop staff) always asking if I 'had a nice day' etc. I thought I would find it cloying and draining. In reality I generally felt VERY well taken care of by everyone I met in retail or service industries - EXCEPT for the airlines. We flew BA, London to LAX, and as ever BA were fine. We then flew Delta…

The unions are the big problem along with a lack if accountability. They can break baggage laws, for example, with impunity leaving the passenger little recourse except to attempt to sue in federal court.

Re: United Airlines Lost My Friend's 10 Year Old Daughter And Didn't Care

#102

Post by briandear »

cjrp wrote: post #61
fleitz wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the article nails this on the head, management doesn't care about it's employees, and the employees pass this on to the customer. They care so little that they don't even want core pieces of their business done by their own people. It reminds me of a cable co in canada called Rogers, the entire thing is a bunch of outsourced services glued together with a couple sales people.

Ultimately I think it comes down to cost. As airlines predominantly compete on ticket price, they'll do whatever it takes to reduce that (outsource their logistics, operations, flight planning, etc.) Hell, Ryanair in Europe make their pilots pay for their uniform. All about getting the fare as low as possible, consequences be damned.

Except they can't easily reduce labor costs because of the unions. Southwest is not unionized yet almost every employee there seems happy and friendly. Flying on Southwest is almost fun and they have low ticket costs. Southwest knows how to properly hedge against fuel increases and as such they're one of the few profitable airlines around.

Re: United Airlines Lost My Friend's 10 Year Old Daughter And Didn't Care

#103

Post by drgath »

lunarscape wrote: post #89
objclxt wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, are you claiming these as factual stories, or are you just citing anecdotes?

Unfortuately I'm pretty sure they're all real reported stories. In one case the man asked to move away from his own children was Boris Johnson, the mayor of London[1], when he was an MP in 2006. Edit: There's more on wikipedia [2]. [1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3634055/Com... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_sex_discrimination_pol...

So, a handful of instances out of millions over the last 5 years. Got it.

Re: United Airlines Lost My Friend's 10 Year Old Daughter And Didn't Care

#104

Post by mseebach »

keithpeter wrote: post #100
theorique wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weigh each passenger and charge proportionally.

And then employ very small thin people for any work that requires foreign travel? Seriously the implications of that are boggling although I suppose modern technology makes it possible to do so.

"Proper" airlines generally aren't very picky about the weight of your luggage, so it probably wouldn't apply to them, only to airlines like Ryanair that are.

I don't think it's a good solution, but I can relate to to bitterness of being charged for a 2 kg overweight and then getting stuck in half a seat because the person next to you is the size of a cow.

Re: United Airlines Lost My Friend's 10 Year Old Daughter And Didn't Care

#105

Post by stonemetal »

jhcoaps wrote: post #94
chimi wrote: post #33

This is a problem bigger than United -- which has a lot of problems. This is what you get when you subsidize bad companies that need to fail. United needs to fail so someone better can take over. The moral hazards are ruining the country. I saw it recently with farmers struggling from the drought. Compare this farmer: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7417774n who has acres full of hay that don't do well in the…

Your post is endemic of something I see a lot on HN. You know nothing about agriculture, but you see a minor set of stories and you think you're a fucking expert. You have no idea if the diversified strategy has a higher expected value, or if it's just a variance play based on heat, or if different weather conditions could've affected interplay in a different way. You have no idea what the crop insurances for differe…

Your post is endemic of something I see a lot on HN. You know nothing about agriculture, but you see a minor set of stories and you think you're a fucking expert.

What is with the create a throwaway account to insult people thing? Karma isn't worth anything why not burn it under your real username?

Re: United Airlines Lost My Friend's 10 Year Old Daughter And Didn't Care

#106

Post by flyinRyan »

snprbob86 wrote: post #37
Foy wrote: post #2

This is the kind of rage-inducing stuff that makes you want to choke a flight attendant. I cannot even imagine what it would feel like to be told over the phone that the company lost your child, and the baggage, and that they don't really care... or even think it's a big deal.

As someone who is dating a flight attendant, may I say: Please don't choke a flight attendant. They are absolutely the least culpable people involved with airline incompetence. At least for Delta, flight attendants' primary compensation is based on scheduled flight time. Not actual flight time. Not tarmac time. Not delay time. Scheduled flight time. And even then, only with passengers! So when you're stuck at the gat…

>As someone who is dating a flight attendant, may I say: Please don't choke a flight attendant.

Everyone is responsible for their own actions. It doesn't matter if those are your "orders", you're still completely responsible if you carry them out.

Re: United Airlines Lost My Friend's 10 Year Old Daughter And Didn't Care

#107

Post by roel_v »

gnaffle wrote: post #79
chimi wrote: post #33

This is a problem bigger than United -- which has a lot of problems. This is what you get when you subsidize bad companies that need to fail. United needs to fail so someone better can take over. The moral hazards are ruining the country. I saw it recently with farmers struggling from the drought. Compare this farmer: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7417774n who has acres full of hay that don't do well in the…

Ryanair isn't subsidized. It's a bad airline that doesn't need to fail because it makes money. It's one of the airlines in Europe with the worst customer service track record. The same is true for lots of other compenies with terrible customer service. On the other hand, there are many state-owned or subsidized airlines that have very good customer service. So whether or not United needs to fail, I think the problem…

What are you talking about? Ryanair is great, it's pretty much always on time, you get what you pay for (which is little, it's a knife that cuts both ways) and because there are only a few people operating each flight (from checkin to trollying around peanuts, which you pay for, so that you don't pay for you neighbour's peanuts if you don't want any) so it's always clear who to ask when you have something to ask.

Re: United Airlines Lost My Friend's 10 Year Old Daughter And Didn't Care

#108

Post by roel_v »

pcrh wrote: post #69
chimi wrote: post #33

This is a problem bigger than United -- which has a lot of problems. This is what you get when you subsidize bad companies that need to fail. United needs to fail so someone better can take over. The moral hazards are ruining the country. I saw it recently with farmers struggling from the drought. Compare this farmer: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7417774n who has acres full of hay that don't do well in the…

I don't think weather forecasting is currently good enough for a farmer to plan which crops to plant based on rainfall predictions. If every farmer planted a diversity of crops to account for all likely weather scenarios, then the average productivity would drop, as most crops would turn out to be unsuitable for the weather that occurred.

"I don't think weather forecasting is currently good enough for a farmer to plan which crops to plant based on rainfall predictions."

It's good enough to offer insurance to farmers for when harvests will fail. This exists, I know because I (even if only at arms length) work in this field.

Re: United Airlines Lost My Friend's 10 Year Old Daughter And Didn't Care

#109

Post by Tyrannosaurs »

keithpeter wrote: post #99
mseebach wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ryanair isn't a bad airline. It's a fairly good airline in terms of moving passengers around. They are completely honest, even proud, to offer literally no customer service and comfort. Look at the comments here: http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/ryan.htm Not one is about Ryanair failing to deliver the service they've sold (as the article is very much about United failing to) - they're all about people being disapp…

Ryanair makes it possible for a work colleague of my sister to commute from Cork to Liverpool (4 day work week, digs while in Liverpool). You get what it says on the packet.

My wife and I once flew the length of the UK return for under £4 on one of their sales deals.

No typo there, under £4.

And I used to commute Glasgow to London once a week and would regularly pay for for the train from the airport to the centre of town than for the flight.

Re: United Airlines Lost My Friend's 10 Year Old Daughter And Didn't Care

#110

Post by dmix »

jhcoaps wrote: post #94
chimi wrote: post #33

This is a problem bigger than United -- which has a lot of problems. This is what you get when you subsidize bad companies that need to fail. United needs to fail so someone better can take over. The moral hazards are ruining the country. I saw it recently with farmers struggling from the drought. Compare this farmer: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7417774n who has acres full of hay that don't do well in the…

Your post is endemic of something I see a lot on HN. You know nothing about agriculture, but you see a minor set of stories and you think you're a fucking expert. You have no idea if the diversified strategy has a higher expected value, or if it's just a variance play based on heat, or if different weather conditions could've affected interplay in a different way. You have no idea what the crop insurances for differe…

> if you travel via air around the globe, nearly all of the airlines are absolutely terrible, not just the subsidized ones in the US.

And where are your sources and analysis to back this up?

The original commenter at least linked to a few interesting articles to support his argument.

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