Two former United States Senators have sounded off on Twitter today against United Airlines, including a six-tweet diatribe by former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) regarding a lost first class seat on a flight to the Dominican Republic.
First up, Norm Coleman, a former Republican Senator from Minnesota who lost out to comedian Al Franken in 2008–
Well, why was your flight delayed? Was it due weather or some other reasons like the pilot computer integration issue that has delayed or cancelled hundreds of flights? No analysis without more facts.
Bill Frist’s tweets were more interesting and a bit humorous–
Another reason to avoid the last row–vibrating seats due to lavatory toilet…
But it sounds like Dr. Frist has a very legitimate gripe about being promised one thing and delivered another.
My friends, who don’t travel much, flew to Sydney and back last year on United on a business class ticket. They were delayed out of Sydney on the return and missed their connection to Washington Dulles. After clearing customs at SFO, they were rebooked onto a later flight and were promised a first class seat, although they were given a boarding pass for row seven on a 757. At the gate, the agent said something to the effect of, “Sorry. That’s coach. Nothing I can do. First is full. Too bad.”
When I heard this later I was simultaneously livid and yet not at all surprised, and consequently I can vividly imagine a situation in which Frist was promised a business class seat on his connecting flight to Puerto Plata at SFO and told something like “pick up your boarding pass in Newark”. Bad idea.
United’s Response
The big issue here is not that Frist lost his seat, but United’s tweet back to him–
“We’ll do all to accommodate your seating requests, but we do not guarantee specific assignments.”
“Every airline reserves the right to adjust seating for operational purposes. We regret the confusion. Thanks for flying United.”
Talk about tone deaf…
United’s Twitter Team totally misses the point. The issue is not whether United enjoys the right to move passengers to different seats under certain circumstances, but the specific fact that Frist was allegedly moved from a first class seat to the last row of economy class.
There is no empathy from United (until its third tweet hours later) and no apology for the inconvenience. Rather, only a defense of what happened by rebuking Frist in an arguably condescending way (in implying that he was confused).
That is not the way to win customers.
Here is how I would have tweeted back–
“Dr. Frist, sorry you lost your seat. We do our best at UA to honor assigned seats and want to understand what went wrong. Please DM us your confirmation code.”
Well, that’s a few characters too many, but you get my point.
Why must airlines immediately go on the defensive when something goes wrong? My tweet above demonstrates that a sympathetic response is possible without conceding guilt. Things are bound to go wrong once in awhile at an airline as large as United and when the carrier owns up to its shortcomings, it earns credibility and patience when dealing with future shortcomings.
No matter what the fine print of the COC states, most passengers are under the reasonable impression that when they are assigned a seat, they get to keep that seat. More importantly, when they are assigned a certain cabin class, they will not be booted to a lower cabin. To dispute that widely-held notion rather than to try to immediately solve problems as they arise is indicative of a greater problem of customer disconnect that helps to explain why United continues to have trouble in the customer service category.
UNITED has the worst PR and Social Media team..
It sounds so tone-deaf to me that I don’t think the posters had any idea who Bill Frist is. That would have been the ultimate DYKWIA!
Matthew, be sure to send a consulting bill to UA for the good advice. Tone matters in every customer interaction, even when you can’t fix the problem due to equipment change, missed connection, etc.
@Damian: Worst social media team, I don’t know. But I would argue that the social media team (and the post-3/3 customer service trend in general) simply reflects the corporate culture and management’s feelings about customers and customer service. It starts at the top and filters down to the customer-facing staff. The social media team probably don’t get rewarded for making customers happy or satisfied, just on volume of messages handled.
Agree with Arun. It’s just a matter of clearing through the pile.
@Chris: Frist is a FORMER senator, who to his credit goes by Dr. vs Sen (an honorific which he’s entitled to keep), but that means he just like the rest of us, maybe an over entitled 1K… Without his majority leader security detail and status, he doesn’t get anything special. In a former life, I recall getting upgraded on United Shuttle and having my elected official boss walk by me on his way to coach. Awkward. 🙂 As for the social media crew, I suspect most people would be hard pressed to name senators not from their home state, let alone one that retired when they were in middle school or high school.
@Arun: Am I getting that old? 😉
Frist was running the Senate GOP when I was there…you make it sound like it was ages ago! 🙂
Arun – I know that he’s a former senator, especially since he left office about three months after I got to DC. ‘Twas but a bit of humor.
During the recent snow storms, United completely shut down it’s phone support…can’t get through, didn’t even bother putting you on hold. And on top of that, the online reservation system started giving constant errors when trying to change itineraries. Not a peep or apology out of them for that.
Way to go!
Chris, sorry didn’t catch the tone!
Matthew, the first way you know you’re getting old is that you think things my nephew would call “a long time ago” are very recent… 🙂 I was only semi-joking, I’m imagining some 22 year old recent grad working the Twitterverse for UA, and Frist there from like 2003 to 2008/2009? So the UA staffer would have been between 11 and 17 or so (and likely not as interested in politics or government as some of us).
Matters not, still no excuse for poor service/attitude.
This is one of the downsides of CPUs. We all want our CPU F seats confirmed at our elite windows and complain when UA holds back until day before or even day of flight, at the gate. However, with so many delays in the schedule, there are going to be many paid F and C passengers connecting from late inbound international flights who can’t be accommodated in the premium cabin if all the seats are CPU’d before boarding. Hard to take away a CPU from someone confirmed days before to accommodate a revenue F or C customer off a late international flight. So while UA may have blown it by using the standard boiler plate responses, those of us who fly regularly know the logistics involved in keeping a few F/C seats open until the very last minute on key domestic routes for such issues. In such cases, you can’t satisfy everyone!
“Most passengers are under the reasonable impression that when they are assigned a seat, they get to keep that seat.” The problem is passengers feel they’re entitled to their specific window/aisle/bulkhead etc. Frist complained about not sitting in the seat he requested and United explained they’re not able to guarantee specifics. He continued to troll and United asked him to clarify; he did not reply. Not sure why you’re suggesting they apologize before knowing the details behind why he was denied. Apologize for policy 1st and ask questions later is not a blueprint most companies would endorse.
@David B: Good point.
@Piere: Thanks for commenting. But read my proposed Tweet, “Dr. Frist, sorry you lost your seat. We do our best at UA to honor assigned seats and want to understand what went wrong. Please DM us your confirmation code.”
That is not claiming responsibility in the least, just a general apology that things did not go as he expected…I think that is very reasonable and smart policy for a customer-facing environment.