Remove United from your flight results • Hacker News Board

Re: Remove United from your flight results

#291

Post by braveo » Fri, Apr 14, 2017, 3:08 PM UTC

zzrg wrote: post #283

chrisbennet wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"DOT's denied boarding regulation spells out the airlines' minimum obligation to people they bump involuntarily." https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/fly-rights

"If the airline arranges substitute transportation that is scheduled to arrive at your destination between one and two hours after your original arrival time (between one and four hours on international flights), the airline must pay you an amount equal to 200% of your one-way fare to your final destination that day, with a $675 maximum." It certainly looks like they are specifying a maximum compensation for the rele…

> But suppose it were entirely up to United. Whenever I've asked people what United should have done instead, "offer more money!" is really the only response I've gotten.

That can only be true if you haven't really been anywhere talking about it.

People have suggested paying more money, having them take a later flight (or a morning flight), having them take a different airline, paying for a rental vehicle and asking someone to drive them the 6 hours.

Part of the reason people are so angry about it is because there are SO many other options, and they went STRAIGHT to the nuclear option.

Re: Remove United from your flight results

#292

Post by triangleman » Fri, Apr 14, 2017, 7:09 PM UTC

hexane360 wrote: post #223

perseusprime11 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In terms of culture, United needs to learn from Southwest. Southwest has great culture internally as well as externally. United has bunch of slogans as culture. Their CEO has no clue about creating a culture that delights customers. He blamed the customer in the letter and then blamed it on system failure but never on him. He failed to create a customer centric culture and instead fostered a culture that perceives cu…

Do you have some examples of Southwest's good culture? My only experiences with Southwest have been negative. a) They're always more expensive on the flights I take. b) They hide their fares from aggregators like Google Flights.

They are well known for being the cheapest domestic airline, and the only one to turn a profit every year for the last 30+ years, and thus have never gone bankrupt or been bought out like every single other American airline.

They only buy a single type of plane and fly it back and forth between the same city pairs. Thus their main competition used to be bus service. Often they would advertise one-way fares for $39 or even $19 as a promotion. Today you can still fly for under $100 between many cities (I live in Texas where they were founded so maybe my experience is different from yours).

As for hiding fares from aggregators, it turns out that there is a global booking system served by only a few companies, the largest I think is called Sabre, and in order to list on that system you need to pay a big annual fee. So in another example of cost cutting, Southwest refused to pay the fee and just sells tickets directly to customers, cutting out travel agents.

They were the first to have unassigned seats, the first to eliminate meals from flights, and they even used to have provocatively dressed stewardesses before that became uncool. Today the flight attendants sing songs over the intercom.

They even used to shave off a few minutes of turnaround time by having everyone out on the tarmac for boarding when the plan pulled up. It was a big game of musical chairs and apparently people found this fun.

Re: Remove United from your flight results

#293

Post by triangleman » Fri, Apr 14, 2017, 7:15 PM UTC

portal_narlish wrote: post #230

On a trip to Europe last winter, United Airlines lost my luggage during a connection at ORD. I landed in Germany in the dead middle of winter without any clothing, and not a single United employee in person or on the phone could tell me what had happened. Two days later, after dozens of calls and an accumulated 8 hours on the phone (90% of that time was spent on hold), my luggage was finally found. But the issues did…

Well the refund is nice to hear about.