American Consumer Council: “United Is Broken”
by Thomas Hinton
President & CEO, American Consumer Council
[Editor: Regarding "United Breaks Guitars" on YouTube:] While Dave Carroll and Taylor Guitars have come out winners, one must wonder what in the world United Airlines’ management was thinking? Did no one at United Airlines call a “time out” to ask their colleagues, “Hey, how do we come out of this scenario without egg on our face?” Sadly, this isn’t an isolated case at United Airlines. Acts of stupidity and customer abuse are repeated multiple times every day by a growing number of disingenuous United Airlines employees who lack common sense and do dumb things that alienate their customers and passengers. I’ve witnessed it personally in Chicago and Denver several times. Of course, it begs the obvious question — why?
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The Strategic and the Myopic
While United applies itself to the important problem of insufficient employee load factor on Chicago-area expressways, the number three airline in Denver (Southwest) is spending strategically to acquire its number two competitor (Frontier) and move within single digits of United’s market share in that important western hub.
Southwest EVP Ron Ricks explains the anticipated “Southwest Effect” in Denver, including expected impacts on Frontier’s employees, in the company’s blog on last Friday:
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