How about give them a hotel?
United is like the Sears of air travel.
FWIW, I’ve noticed lately United has consistently had lower airfares than its competitors on the same routes. Hooray for Adam Smith!
They are going to have more and more issues I imagine. I personally will avoid United due to all the negative press, as well as Delta (for the fact that they show a ton of flights, and then systematically take them away as the departure date comes closer)
I’d rather pay more and go Jetblue.
This thread, jeepers. A lot of these expectations are simply absurd.
Powered wheelchair damage seems rare, but not that rare.
[Early this year, at the meeting of the Delta Air Lines Advisory Board on Disability, the airline announced that 3.34 of every 100 wheelchairs transported were damaged in 2014.] (Flying With A Power Wheelchair: How To Prevent Damage - Wheelchair Travel)
But according to this thread, United’s damage to a wheelchair is simply outrageous (someone literally suggested the company is taken over and split apart).
Thing is, we have no idea. We’re getting a sensationalist third-party story intended to attract clicks and generate outrage. The article said “United Destroys Mans Wheelchair”. See the word ‘destroy’? The other article said the couple “forced” to sleep on the floor.
Actually it seems like they did. They searched as far away as other airlines at other airports to try and find them a flight that would get them to their destination on time for their cruise. They didn’t get a hotel too, which is annoying as hell, but who knows - that flight could have cost them 5 grand on a 500 base fare.
That article covers events from December 2, to July 6, a period in which United flew around 85 million people. I’m not suggesting that every passenger was happy, but it provides some context. Is the expectation here really “friendly cuddles and zero incidents among 300,000 people per day”?
Jetblue has a skytrax rating of 6/10. Check the horror stories, they’d make national news if they were United.
When your company is taking a huge PR hit already, you eat these costs, and bend over backwards to make sure you aren’t generating even more bad press.
The expectation should be that the company owns their mistakes and provides reasonable compensation in the general case, but goes above and beyond when they’re already taking a beating in the public eye.
They are beset from all sides by Special Snowflakes! Oh, woe betides these enormous multinational supercorps!
We should have an idea. This is United’s terrible, awful, not acceptable problem. If it’s not their workflow; it’s their communication. Fix it already. United is coasting through a PR nightmare kind of like how their staff seems to coast through issues until someone throws it on Social Media. They’re so weak at communicating and sounding human it’s clearly a problem at the company cultural level
But Scott, let’s get real here. You’re not interested in what they could do better to help reduce the number of look it’s United again at all. You’re just fine with seeing one United Social Media disaster after another and shrugging. Since you don’t get the problem either, there is no way for someone to explain it to you. You’ve got the same problem United does, so we’ll just keep churning articles because… no one is going to get bored with these.
Sit and wait works huh… how old did you say the first one was? No one’s bored yet.
Yes, that’s correct. They’re not United. You can say it’s unfair or unjust, but when you’re in the spotlight for fucking up, all your other mistakes turn into PR hits. The goal is to get off the social media buzz train by going above and beyond to make things right.
man that website is painful as hell to pull overall information from…
I’m not seeing many USA domestic flight carriers that beat that 6/10.
Delta comes close with a 5/10
Virgin has a 7
Southwest a 7
Flying out of the north east I don’t see many Virgin nor southwest flights out of there.
A 6 seems to be pretty good for domestic flights.
That being said that website looks like a dumping ground for people to go to and bitch and moan about their air travel owes. If it makes them feel better more power to them.
I enjoy the debate, we’re all civilized over here, no one is calling for me to be banished to an overflowing airplane bathroom, yet.
I’m just not seeing the negative intentions that people are saying are there.
This is United under a microscope. They have to do better than average until they get out of the spotlight. If this is their best, assuming their leadership and their employees know what the rest of the world knows, I will only reiterate what I’ve said before… if this is their best, there is a problem with culture at that company.
United is not going to lose this spotlight doing what they’re doing. They can exit by doing better, going ABOVE and BEYOND for all these incidents or you know maybe some other disaster will take it from them. There have been other incidents on other airlines… no one is budging from United. Before the ink is dry on one article, they have another incident where it appears they don’t give a shit.
And whether or not it’s fair, appearance matters. They onerous is on them, not their customers, to show they can do better.
What a snowflake.
Some positive news from social media.
Yep, Southwest. They’re not perfect, but they are generally head-and-shoulders above the other big carriers in how they treat passengers. For starters, most of their gate- and cabin-crews don’t look like they hate their job and everyone around them.
That is what I have heard. When you make a PR blunder, always overcorrect.
I really wish she’d just hurry up and die.
Look at the expression on those guy’s faces when they realize who she is. “Oh my fucking god, it’s Coulter! That bitch is crazy.”
Despite the “no assigned seating” thing, Southwest is pretty great. Alaska is my first choice, but Southwest is a close second.