{"id":18112,"date":"2010-12-09T16:52:40","date_gmt":"2010-12-09T20:52:40","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/?p=18112"},"modified":"2010-12-09T16:52:40","modified_gmt":"2010-12-09T20:52:40","slug":"outlook-for-the-united-continental-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/outlook-for-the-united-continental-merger\/","title":{"rendered":"Outlook For The United Continental Merger"},"content":{"rendered":"

United is, by far, the most dreadful airline to disgrace the skies of this country.\u00a0 Their management is the pits, and their employee dissatisfaction is rivaled only by that of United’s customers.\u00a0 It has been said that an employee will never treat customers any better than they are treated by their management, and United Airlines seems dedicated proving that axiom.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Like breeding a mutant zombie with an average human, the offspring of the United\/Continental merger cannot possibly be as bad as United had been.\u00a0\u00a0 Conversely, it is the customers of Continental that clearly have the most to loose.<\/p>\n

Brett Snyder, AKA The Cranky Flier, has a recent post about the prospects for the combined carrier’s fleet consolidation.<\/a> It is his observation that Continental, under the leadership of Gordon Bethune, has rapidly upgraded the in flight product of it’s fleet, while United is year and years overdue in it’s upgrades and repainting of its airliners.\u00a0\u00a0 That said, I take offense his analogy of United with the Cessna Skyhawk, while comparing Continental to an F-16 fighter.\u00a0\u00a0 As someone with hundreds of hours of time piloting and instructing in the Skyhawk, I know that Cessna’s product, while not fast, is reliable and efficient.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Those two words are rarely used to describe United’s operations.<\/p>\n

What The New United Really Needs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Imagine if you asked for a glass of water at a restaurant from your server.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The server acted like you were bothering her and told you to ask the busboy.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The busboy said it is not his job, and told you to speak to the host.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The host said she couldn’t help you, but perhaps you could ask another diner for their water.\u00a0\u00a0 That is the kind of mind-boggling customer service failures that are the norm, not the exception at United today.\u00a0\u00a0 It is the central theme in many United failure stories from Dave Carrol’s “United Breaks Guitars”,\u00a0 to a multitude of FlyerTalk threads, to my own personal experience.\u00a0 Painting and upgrading aircraft interiors are needed, but the airline will not have a chance at winning back my business until it undergoes a radical shift in it’s customer service.<\/p>\n

If I were in charge of turning United around, I would start by implementing comprehensive service training to all customer facing staff.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No longer would staff be able to tell a customer “it’s not my job.”\u00a0\u00a0 I am sure that some of their staff is simply not up to the task of providing competent customer service.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If a non-customer facing position is not available to such a person, it is probably time for that individual to seek a new line of work.<\/p>\n

While I think compensating elite level travelers has to continue in some form, I think there should be greater emphasis on treating all customers a little better.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Simply put, United has become a two class airline, with staff occasionally making some attempt to treat their elites well, while treating on-elite passengers with contempt bordering on disdain.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It needs to be drilled into everyone’s head that every elite level passenger was once a non-elite.\u00a0\u00a0 You never know who is an elite on another carrier that is considering taking his or her business to your carrier.<\/p>\n

United needs to distinguish itself from the pack somehow.\u00a0 Currently, United is known for terrible service, Starnet Blocking<\/a> and fees, fees, and more fees.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Other than Economy Plus there really is nothing at United that is better than another carrier.\u00a0 If United could bring back one small perk from the old days, such as free food, a free checked bag, or even free same day standby, it would win fans nationwide.\u00a0 If it were up to me, I would have them join Southwest in eliminating change fees.<\/p>\n

Simplify<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the most difficult things about dealing with United is all of their rules.\u00a0\u00a0 Understanding their frequent flier program, their upgrade policies, or even redeeming a voucher requires an in-depth study of their kalfk-esqe rules for everything.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is even more absurd when you have to deal with their poorly trained, outsourced, overseas call center staff who has even less understanding of the rules than you do.\u00a0\u00a0 It doesn’t have to be that way.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Someone needs to look through all of their rules and eliminate as many as possible.\u00a0\u00a0 It would save both their staff and their customers a huge amount of training and headaches.<\/p>\n

Turning around a behemoth as big as United and Continental will be a monumental task.\u00a0\u00a0 Many industry observers, like the Cranky Flier, seem to feel that Gordon Bethune is the right person\u00a0 for the job.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For the sake of United’s customers and staff, I hope he is right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

United is, by far, the most dreadful airline to disgrace the skies of this country.\u00a0 Their management is the pits, and their employee dissatisfaction is rivaled only by that of United’s customers.\u00a0 It has been said that an employee will never treat customers any better than they are treated by their management, and United Airlines […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nOutlook For The United Continental Merger<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/outlook-for-the-united-continental-merger\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Outlook For The United Continental Merger\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"United is, by far, the most dreadful airline to disgrace the skies of this country.\u00a0 Their management is the pits, and their employee dissatisfaction is rivaled only by that of United’s customers.\u00a0 It has been said that an employee will never treat customers any better than they are treated by their management, and United Airlines […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/outlook-for-the-united-continental-merger\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ask Mr Credit Card Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-09T20:52:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jason Steele\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jason Steele\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/outlook-for-the-united-continental-merger\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/outlook-for-the-united-continental-merger\/\",\"name\":\"Outlook For The United Continental Merger\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-12-09T20:52:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-12-09T20:52:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/18331587d05ff4eaeee29fd913227597\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/outlook-for-the-united-continental-merger\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/outlook-for-the-united-continental-merger\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/outlook-for-the-united-continental-merger\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Outlook For The United Continental Merger\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Ask Mr Credit Card Blog\",\"description\":\"Just another WordPress site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/18331587d05ff4eaeee29fd913227597\",\"name\":\"Jason Steele\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/author\/jsteele\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Outlook For The United Continental Merger","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/outlook-for-the-united-continental-merger\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Outlook For The United Continental Merger","og_description":"United is, by far, the most dreadful airline to disgrace the skies of this country.\u00a0 Their management is the pits, and their employee dissatisfaction is rivaled only by that of United’s customers.\u00a0 It has been said that an employee will never treat customers any better than they are treated by their management, and United Airlines […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/outlook-for-the-united-continental-merger\/","og_site_name":"Ask Mr Credit Card Blog","article_published_time":"2010-12-09T20:52:40+00:00","author":"Jason Steele","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jason Steele","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/outlook-for-the-united-continental-merger\/","url":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/outlook-for-the-united-continental-merger\/","name":"Outlook For The United Continental Merger","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-12-09T20:52:40+00:00","dateModified":"2010-12-09T20:52:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/18331587d05ff4eaeee29fd913227597"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/outlook-for-the-united-continental-merger\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/outlook-for-the-united-continental-merger\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/outlook-for-the-united-continental-merger\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Outlook For The United Continental Merger"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/","name":"Ask Mr Credit Card Blog","description":"Just another WordPress site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/18331587d05ff4eaeee29fd913227597","name":"Jason Steele","url":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/author\/jsteele\/"}]}},"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18112"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}