“United Breaks Guitars,” Song 3: Rhapsody in Bluegrass
As promised, Dave Carroll has released the third and final song of his United Breaks Guitars trilogy. In a special webcast event that happened live last night (recorded & available here; things gets started at about 04:30), Dave introduced the last video and spent another 45 minutes or so telling a more complete, behind-the-scenes story of both his broken Taylor guitar and United Airlines’ profoundly broken customer service organization.
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“United Breaks Guitars” Goes to Washington
Dave Carroll, the baggage-busted, guitar-disrespected Canadian musician and viral archnemesis of United Airlines, has announced that he has been invited to testify before Congress in a September 22 hearing concerning passengers rights.
Dave has not yet released more information than this, but anyone wanting or needing to learn more about his appearance should follow Dave on Twitter. (He also has a Facebook page and a web site.)
I expect that Dave’s testimony will happen before the Senate’s Science, Commerce, and Transportation Committee, in support of S.213, the Airline Passenger Bill of Rights Act of 2009.
C-SPAN publishes the complete Congressional hearings schedules on this page, which includes links to streaming audio of the hearings as well. (As of the date of this post, information about the 9/22 S.213 hearing is not yet available on the C-SPAN site.)
[ As it turns out, Dave Carroll and Jeremy Cooperstock (here and here), are two talented, no-nonsense Canadians who are the bane of United's existence. I have it on good authority that Glenn Tilton, United CEO and magisterial head of the Air Transport Association, is quite concerned about Canadian meddling in U.S. air space. He has apparently dispatched an envoy (UAL spokesperson Robin Urbanski; new BFF of Dave but ... hmmm ... not Jeremy) to her Majesty, the Queen of England and Canada and elsewhere, to formally request that she (the Queen) constrain her citizenry from pestering the corporate royalty of the United States' formerly preeminent airline. -- Ed. 
]
Human Toll of a Pension Default
by Dale Russakoff
The Washington Post
[This article is dated, but worth remembering as we near the eighth anniversary of 9/11. For many airline families, 9/11 was only the first shoe to drop. -- Ed.]
Ellen Saracini lost her husband, United Airlines Capt. Victor J. Saracini, when his Flight 175 crashed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Now she stands to lose more than half of her widow’s pension in a very different kind of crash — United’s default of its $9 billion pension obligations.
[... snip ...]
… United Chief Executive Officer Glenn Tilton testified to the Senate Finance Committee about $4.5 million he is receiving from United to replace benefits he had accrued over a 32-year career at Texaco, his previous employer. Tilton said that the default will not affect the payment, and that he has $1.5 million left to collect. He said this does not represent a double standard because United promised him the money in his contract.
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Tale of the Tagues: An Airline Story, Part 2
[Read first » Tale of the Tagues: An Airline Story, Part 1]
After his first departure from ATA, John Tague and two partners started The Pointe Group, an airline consulting firm with presence in both New York and suburban Washington, D.C. Tague’s only two consulting engagements as an ex-ATA executive were short, almost simultaneous, and quite unusual. At the request of a west coast investment bank, he became the consulting CEO for two ailing regional airlines: Air South, based in Columbia, South Carolina and, a few months later, Vanguard Airlines, based in Kansas City, Missouri.
It wasn’t clear to industry observers at the time how a single CEO was going to simultaneously nurse back to health two struggling airlines that were located 850 miles apart. One analyst, George Hamlin of Global Aviation Systems in Washington, D.C., likened the airlines’ plight to “two drunks staggering down the street trying to hold each other up.”
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Ex-United DC-10 to Become New Airborne Eye Hospital
by David Kaminski-Morrow
Flightglobal.com
Orbis International, the eye-surgery charity, is to replace its ageing McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 with a DC-10-30 to be donated by its ex-operator, United Airlines, and FedEx.
The organisation’s DC-10-10, registered N220AU, was the second DC-10 off the production line and first flew in late 1970.
It was in service with carriers including Laker Airways and Cal Air International before being transferred to Orbis in 1992 and fitted out as an airborne eye hospital. It includes an ophthalmic surgical centre and training facilities.
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[This YouTube video shows Orbis at work aboard the current DC-10-10. Truly a wonderful organization. -Ed.]
