United Airlines: A Dying Mom, and the Unkindness of Strangers
I missed this story last year — it is a bit dated now, some 10-11 months after the fact, but I’m going to post the story today, in its entirety because quite frankly, it made me sick to the pit of my stomach. This was reported first in The Consumerist, and picked up later by Shashank Nigam in his excellent blog, SimpliFlying:
A United Airlines customer with Premier status (“Mike”) was assisting his girlfriend with an urgent flight from San Francisco to Portland because the woman’s mom was dying. Some of you already know where this is heading, so I won’t editorialize here; I’ll let the man’s letter to United CEO Glenn Tilton speak for itself:
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Daley and Tilton: Broke and Broker
In his letter to the Chicago Tribune on August 7, Mark Warchol of Hickory Hills gets to the point concerning Mayor Daley’s $25 million gift to United Airlines: It is corporate welfare, pure and simple:
“While the City of Chicago has laid off employees and is forcing others to take days off without pay, it’s disturbing to see that Mayor Daley is doling out $25 million dollars in corporate welfare to United Airlines.
“I think it’s great that United Airlines wants to move from Elk Grove Township to the Willis Tower.
“I would like to move into a larger space myself, but I know that when and if I do move, it will be money out of my pocket; not at the taxpayers’ expense.
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Crain’s Chicago Business: Tilton’s Troubles
Crain’s has this piece about United’s current cash flow problems. In the piece, the author (John Pletz) states what is now common knowledge:
That’s far from the flight path Mr. Tilton, 61, envisioned when the longtime oil industry executive took charge of a struggling United in 2002. He expected to purge excess costs in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, then initiate a badly needed airline industry consolidation with a sale or merger that would send him into retirement with a handsome payday.
“That was Glenn’s plan — to consolidate,” says Mo Garfinkle, CEO of Virginia-based GCW Consulting LLC, who has advised Mr. Tilton and United. “The game plan now is to survive.”
So, this begs the question: How well is United now positioned to survive?
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