Don't Call When The Tatty Skies Catch On Fire

I don't mean to pile on United Airlines, but they do bring it on themselves sometimes. The latest TravelCommons podcast talks about how the "friendly skies" of United Airlines have become a bit thread worn -- duct tape holding together armrests, seat backs that can't stay up (which was my experience again on my Monday flight from ORD to SFO). Not surprising since United is the only major US airline without any current orders placed for new aircraft.

Two new news stories illustrate United's slide. Scanning the front page of yesterday's Chicago Tribune while sitting forward in my auto-recline seat, I saw an article about a women whose luggage was burned by United:


"As Shannon Tadel waited in the Syracuse, N.Y., airport for her flight back to Chicago on Dec. 1, a United Airlines employee approached her and asked if he could speak to her privately.

"'He said, "Your luggage has been set on fire,"' Tadel recounted later. "I kind of chuckled at him because it was so unbelievable. I was like, 'Um, OK.'"The employee explained that her bag, containing most of her wardrobe, had been placed too close to the exhaust of a belt loader used to deliver bags to the cargo hold. Someone turned on the equipment and, voila, luggage flambe.

"A dumbfounded Tadel boarded the plane, not quite sure what to do. Moments later, the pilot summoned her to the cockpit.

"'He said, "Do you see that over there? That's your luggage,"' Tadel recalled.

"She looked out the plane's window and saw a man with a hose and a big plume of smoke."


Tadel says she filed a claim on December 4 and didn't receive a check from United until last week -- after she got the Tribune's What's Your Problem columnist involved.

And then comes the story of United's announcement yesterday that they are closing their complaints call center, telling customers to send a letter or an e-mail instead. United said the reason for this move is to improve customer satisfaction -- "We did a lot of research, we looked into it, and people who email or write us are more satisfied with our responses," said United spokesperson Robin Urbanski. But this is also a cost-cutting move -- managing written inquiries is easier and costs less than taking phone calls.

It's also another push toward self-service -- putting the burden of writing up the issue/complaint on the customer rather than having an United employee take if from a phone conversation. In TravelCommons #71, I said "The duct tape holding together the tatty skies are the employees," that in spite of all the management mistakes, most of the United employees are doing a good job in serving their customers. Yet this latest move by United continues a trend of separating customers from employees -- book your tickets on-line, use a kiosk to check in, and now send an e-mail if you have a problem. I can't wait until they try to replace flight attendants with vending machines.