Scott Kirby, United’s President and second in command, understands how essential providing good customer service is. But can his leadership empower employees to deliver it?
Speaking to employees in Houston this week in a recording obtained by Live and Let’s Fly, Kirby stressed the importance of customer service:
We need to, in 2019 and beyond, start to change how people feel about United Airlines. And a lot of time I will hear from employees that will say, “Why does United always get beat up in the press and Southwest gets a free pass? It’s not fair” Maybe it’s not fair. Also completely irrelevant whether it’s fair or not, because it is what it is.
And I would argue there’s a rationale for it. To a frequent flyer who knows all the rules, who understands how to get through TSA, who knows our rules about changing flights and when they can upgrade and when they can’t, that feels professional, because it’s black and white. I know all the rules. To somebody who doesn’t fly often, the rules don’t make sense. They’re already tense, they’re stressed, trying to get through security, trying to get to the airport on time, figure out where to park their cars, you know, all that stuff. And then they get here and what doesn’t make sense to them feels like a set of black and white rules, that we’re this big company that just doesn’t care.
So a lot of this is about empowering you to take care of customers and do the right thing for customers, but getting all of us to start to recognize that we’ve got to change how people feel and so that they feel like we care. And that really is our mission, and if I have one request from [for] all of you it’s to do that. To start to think about how people perceive us, how our customers perceive us. Actually, it’s not even just our customers, it’s the community at large. How others perceive United Airlines.
The Problem
Clearly, Kirby understands the correlation between treating customers with respect and dignity and how the airline as an entity is perceived. Kirby is particularly perspicacious about why legacy airlines like United are more likely to receive negative feedback simply based upon their structure.
But I suspect many employees in the audience might have found Kirby’s admonition as an “unfunded mandate”. To be clear, I do not think providing good service costs anything. A smile and empathy should not require additional coercion in a customer-facing industry. But that’s the attitude I sense among front-line employees (generally).
Nevertheless, we have stories out of Houston like a United employee shoving a senior citizen or calling a black passenger a monkey. Put simply, something is broken. Kirby should not have even had to say what he said. But it needed saying. Stressing good customer service must be underscored constantly.
Flight attendants will say how is this possible when you have cut one flight attendant onboard and reduced the quality and quanity of onboard service? Gate agents will say how is this possible when you have stressed the importance of D:0 (on-time departures) even more than good customer service? Reservation agents will say how is this possible when United’s website is broken in so many ways?
And these are all fair arguments. Perhaps what Kirby is saying that customer service at United will never be high as Southwest due to fundamental business model differences that cannot be changed. I don’t buy that (see Delta), but I go back to my earlier point: treating others the way you want to be treated should not require more resources or threats.
It’s often as simple as a little empathy and a smile. That’s all customers needs and that is so often lacking.
CONCLUSION
Kirby shared some other interesting insight which I may share later in the week. In the meantime, he gets it when it comes to customer service. While he’s a frequent target for attacks due to his bean-counter mentality (which I also question), I think Kirby deserves more credit than he’s given for accurately understanding the key issues facing United and tackling them directly.
image: United
Did you notice this is the second interview of a high level exec (Oscar the first) that they refer to the customer as “stressed and tense” before they get to the airport. There’s no way that’s a coincidence. Seems to be a concerted effort to make it seem like any issues or stress the passengers encounter was there prior to interaction with UA.
That to me shows they are still trying to deflect any customer service away from themselves, Scapegoats don’t make travel less stressful.
here is thefull text of his remarks:
“All that bitching by Our customers…it’s just noise around the edges. Carry on!”
I was having a great vacation and enjoying time with my family until yesterday when United put my daughter’s car seat on the wrong flight, after which I became “stressed and tense” as I approached the Baggage Service department. Totally my fault, right?! 😀
I agree with Shaun. It seems Kirby and Oscar have the same talking points. It’s not United that is the problem, it’s everybody else.
United has hired the wrong employees and created a culture that can’t be changed so easily. For a large part, United employees are lazy and rude, while Southwest employees are mostly friendly and cheerful. That’s not something you change with an email, an announcement or even with compensation. It’s an attitude and if over decades you hired the wrong people, in return hired more wrong people, you created a rotten culture. Good luck changing that. But it won’t matter to the execs at the top, they don’t even get it. They should fly basic economy incognito to see the truth. But they won’t, they get paid millions for doing nothing and fly first class.
Maybe it’s the people doing the hiring that is part the problem or the lack of parental training and discipline?. Then dumb everything down to the (poor) quality of life that graduates high school and college (actually, college is the new high school) these days and pay people minimum wages to begin with, what do you expect?
Observe what people look and sound like – sloppy appearance, weird hairstyles, poor grammar and speaking ability coupled with a fear of thinking out of the box. All of THAT is what all customer facing companies are hiring. United didn’t “create” this culture, it’s been evolving over the last 10-20 years – everywhere – and getting worse by the day. I see the same element in McDonalds, retail stores, supermarkets, on phones with banks etc. Again, it’s back to the source – upbringing and parental guidance (if they even have any). All you’re doing is what everyone else does – blame the schools, businesses, workplaces for not “fixing” the personalities of the people they teach or employ. Teachers, for instance have to be social workers, nurses, psychologists and policemen – they do everything but teach and then take criticism from parents and school authorities for not “changing” the errant/bad behavior. Maybe these companies (United included) should include psychologists and psychiatrists in the interview process ? Kirby can psychobabel all he wants about improving customer service – it’s the same story that’s been spouted for the last 20+ years at United – probably since before he was born.
“They’re already tense, they’re stressed, trying to get through security, trying to get to the airport on time, figure out where to park their cars, you know, all that stuff. ”
This is borderline insulting. Isn’t that similar to what Oscar said the other day? They’ve got the talking points down!
They’re clearly trying to suggest that, well, schucks, our customers are just too damn grouchy to love our superior airline, because they waited a few extra minutes at TSA and now they won’t be satisfied with their first class meal of two cold slices of chicken and a handful of noodles.
Passengers traveling with the airlines that score high also have the same issues including getting to the airport on time, finding parking spots, and going through security. They still score high in customer satisfaction. It all starts at the top. Treat employees well and they will look out for the customers. Remember Gordon Bethune. Have we forgotten already?
Gordon was amazing and a trend setter but too bad the trend did not stick. We know him and he was a gentleman to begin with…trickle down is very important. I booked a trip on United to Montana and was unable to go. I am lifetime platinum with AA so get pretty good service there. I am nothing on United but was in first class. They were awful to rebook and the fees were crazy. I am using a portion of the 1800 I paid for the ticket just to get something. I will not use the balance after that as they are difficult to work with and not pleasant at all. They need Gordon back. Good Luck.
I’d say this is in direct contrast to Oscar’s argument that the airport and flying is stressful and United is not at fault/nothing we do will matter. Oscar took this talking point and made it awful, whereas Kirby took it and made a better message and said ‘let’s do our part to make things better for passengers who are already stressed’. And I am NOT a Kirby fan, but in this he got it right. Or at least “righter”.
Matthew – I get your point about empathy and a smile costing nothing, but I do think one of the main reasons that southwest has such a good reputation is that the employees feel like they’re part of a positive culture, and that they feel well taken care of by management (which doesn’t necessarily mean higher wages).
Kirby talks about all of the stressors involves with traveling, except the ones that his own company and policies cause. He wants his employees to empathize with and take care of his customers, without empathizing with his employees, or making them feel well taken care of.
In short, he puts the responsibility on everyone but himself.
Kirby thinks that the occasional, less experienced traveler is more prone to frustration because of lack of familiarity with complex and seemingly arbitrary rules, and the stress of the airport experience generally. I can’t speak for that traveler, since s/he hasn’t been more for over four decades of air travel. But implicit in his comment are two very questionable assumptions:
1. That the rules will make sense once they are properly explained. But how does that address the failure to provide honest and accurate flight updates, or the tone with which the explanation is given? If I am sitting at the gate with my boarding pass in hand half an hour before boarding, by definition I did not cause the delay. So don’t treat me with exasperation and impatience for wanting some honest communication. Also, explaining the rules is one thing, consistently and accurately implementing them is something else entirely. See point #2.
2. That frequent, experienced travelers are somehow satisfied with the United experience. Can he really believe this? That the people who know the rules as well as United itself – sometimes better – are not frustrated with their experience of United customer service? That customer is most positioned to observe the difference between good and poor service under comparable circumstances, and to know when the information being provided is accurate or not.
My major problem with United – and American – is inconsistency. I had a flawless flight on United from DCA-ORD last week. Planeful of road warriors, experienced and proactive flight attendants, efficient ground operations. But it’s a bit sad when that type of experience is so notable – it should be the norm, not the exciting exception.
When I read your headline, I was hoping that he was addressing the problem through positive actions rather than making mouth noises that blame the employees and customers rather than himself. Not much of a way to display leadership, IMO.
From the UK, I don’t often travel to the US but as a *A gold, UA should be my natural choice however I never use them prefering Delta and AA – and looking forward to Jet Blue.
Why? My perception is that their customer service is actually customer contempt, service standards are low even for the North Atlantic and their business fares are in any event usually more than double those of the competition.
The publicity UA have received because of some appaling customer service incidents make me think there is no way I will touch them, ever.
Let’s see if they can persuade me to try them.
As a side note they do have a good lounge at LHR!
I wouldn’t call myself a road warrior by any stretch, but I travel enough to have decent status on a couple of airlines. That said, I find Kirby’s remarks about stressors absolutely laughable. I have Global Entry and, aside from TSA using bomb-sniffing dogs thus granting everyone TSA-Pre and slowing down every. single. passenger. at security, I find my biggest stressor is knowing I’ll be flying UA or AA in Y. You know, the anxiety induced from know I’ll soon experience their terrible seats, staff, performance, and other airline-induced issues once at the aiport. My stress starts long before – and is hardly caused by – anything that happens at the airport itself. And, often when I’m on UA or AA, that stress is only exacerbated by rolling delays, lack of communication, and other hallmarks of an operation run poorly.
Also, much like Jeff Smisek, Kirby has an extremely dislikable face. Moreso when you hear the nonsense that falls out of his wordhole.
I read this blog and Gary Leff’s (for travel)…and nobody seems to actually fly Delta, they just refer to it as this untouchable ideal of an airline where nothing goes wrong. I like to imagine there is a frequent Delta flyer out there who is just blogging their flights where rainbows and unicorns shoot out the back of the plane.
If I’m hub-captive (and I’m not really), it’s to WN here in SoCal. That affords me the opportunity to fly any airline domestically, to include the LCCs beyond WN. I have the lowest status on DL at the moment but gave up decent status on AA and UA because their suck factor was so high. Just terrible. I can attest to DL being ideal, as far as the US3 go. I’ll gladly take a stop over in Detroit, Atlanta, or Portlan en route to fly DL. Internationally I have zero loyalty as I fly J mostly with CC-earned miles/points or I just buy a ticket outright on whomever is cheapest/best. It may be anecdotal, but I absolutely believe all the hate and discontent aimed at UA and AA is wholly deserved and DL simply just does EVERYTHING (save SkyMiles) better domestically.
They should quit blaming the traffic for people being irritated at UA. Not one customer hears that and thinks “yeah, that is why I don’t like flying UA”. It just sounds like trying to shift blame. I am 1K, yet fly a lot other airlines when I want or need to. I don’t fly the LCCs much, but that is because I don’t like how they deal with IRROPs, and I am usually flying for work and need to be wherever I am going on time. But I know when I fly Southwest, for example, I know what I am getting, and it is done well and consistently. On a given domestic flight, it is as good an experience as on any other airline in economy, maybe better. Now, UA is a much bigger airline with multiple classes, so I get that it is harder to manage, but I don’t think UA is trying to deliver a quality in-flight experience, and fly domestic economy and F and international J a fair amount, and I know that, though often better than AA, the experience is below pretty much everyone else. It doesn’t mean I won’t fly them, just that they are not competing on quality.
I am not into violence. But these top executives deserve a cursed and painful future for their arrogance. Luckily, I live in Orlando which gives me some good options for my frequent trips overseas. My Golden Rule…..
“Never, Ever, fly a domestic carrier overseas, if there is a foreign carrier available for the flight”.
I want to kick them in the place that hurts these arrogant bastards the most, their quarterly report to shareholders. Out of principle I will not even buy their stock shares. However, I had owned shares of COPA airlines from Panama, that I bought in 40’s and 50’s, and have done very well selling into the 120’s. Paid for a pile of international travels with that. Obviously not on United or American airlines.
If United treated their employees better they wouldn’t need to be having these conversations!!!!
Practically, how should United treat its employees better?
Matthew,
I would be happy to share a few ideas of how to treat employees with a little more respect. The list is long, so this is just a thumbnail sketch.
1. The company has created unrealistic staffing paradigms for both inflight and ground staff. One agent working a flight allows for no time to do any real passenger service. Ie seat changes to accommodate families. Inflight crew complement has been reduced in an effort to “speed up the service on board” so passengers can sleep. How do less crew members expedite the service? The excuse is disingenuous. It’s a numbers game I’d metrics and paradigms that are not based in reality.
2. The culture has become adversarial. Departments looking to shift blame for issues and delays, instead of finding solutions. The push for D-0 has become the end all be all thrust of the airline. Catering issue? Supervisors tell you go without. We cannot delay the flight. Supervisors have become disciplinarians. If I delay a flight because of a catering issue, I receive discipline. Not a thank you for showing up early to the plane and calling early to rectify the mistake.
3. Crew scheduling “forgetting” to book hotel rooms. I have been told that after a 14 hour duty day I can just “rest in the crew domicile” before a six hour flight. The contract violations are rampant and egregious.
4. Pay issues are also a long standing problem. As if by magic, hours or whole trips go missing off of pay registers. The least can expect is my pay to be correct, no?
5. OJI’s have also been an issue. The insurer United uses is absolutely criminal. They use string arm and delay tactics. I was told by my nurse case worker that they delay payment so that you will settle for pennies on the dollar because the client is so desperate for any money. United has been made aware of this and changed carriers. The new carrier is much the same as far as I have heard from colleagues. As an aside, I know a flight attendant that was injured breaking both arms in a clear air turbulence accident. After months of delays in her treatment and repeated “accidental” cancellation of her insurance, she lost her house, her car, and declared bankruptcy. In all that time, no one from united contacted her to see how she was doing.
All of these issues have been brought up to management. The response has been that they are being looked into or this is the “new norm”. At the end of the day, the executive suite is more interested in share prices and metrics, the all mighty RASM And CASM, than a happy passenger, in my opinion.
Colette – the employer/employee syndrome: a bit like the chicken and egg question…
I have read reports about the awful management of BA, of the inept senior/executive management, how badly BA treats their staff, etc. and yet – and yet – people are now electing to fly BA more often because of the cabin crew: how friendly, helpful, understanding, etc.
No one in their right mind would say that BA treat their staff well but yet, here we are, the staff come out tops…. there is a message there.
Contrast that to a recent inter-continental flight with United where there was a flight attendant who would take absolutely no notice of any request and she was surrounded by a bevy of colleagues who firmly believed the passengers were there for their amusement…
Let Kirby et al say what they want about ‘noise’ and customers but they should remember they are in the services industry and what goes round comes round.
What’s even more ridiculous about this is that Southwest’s customers tend to more recreational flyers than United’s so if anyone is “stressed” about the unfamiliar environment, it’s likely to be Southwest’s customers. This is how I read the quote:
It’s untrue and unfair
It’s the customer’s fault
It’s the employee’s fault
You have hit the nail on the head. While I am not an airline employee, I understand your post. I worked for a couple of companies before I did my homework and went to work for an owner who really got it. When a customer had a complaint we always looked at the complaint in a light most favorable to the customer. This owner knew how to delegate responsibility, set guidelines and take care of the customer. I handled all escalated complaints because there were few because my phone staff was empowered to handle an issue in the customer’s favor if at all possible. If they could not satisfy a customer they were referred to me for further attention as I had more leeway than a line employee to handle any issue. In 20 years I only remember 2 issues that I could not resolve. I understand that managers say one thing then do another. They expect you to do as they instruct you then when you do they come down on you. If any decision is made that affects the bottom line you are put under a microscope as to why you did what you did. Were we taken advantage of periodically? Yes, we were but that was what the owner understood was going to be a part of the program. As an aside, I flew United back in the early 2000’s and had an awful experience and have never flown on one of their planes since. I will pay more and make stops and change planes if necessary to avoid their airline. I have traveled Southwest Airlines on numerous occasions and I have never had an issue. Never.
As an ex frequent flyer on United and reading a lot of the above comments it is very evident that Mr Kirby needs to attend his own “core 4 “ program he had his employees attend. This time he needs to take written notes on customer satisfaction.
Why is no one talking about the correct usage of the word ‘perspicacious’ in a sentence?!
Flight attendants are just plain snotty and rude, all it takes is a smile and a little kindness. Not good when you feel like you’re putting them out by being on the plane!
As a frequent flyer out of Houston IAH, there is one remarkable fact that stands out. When the merger (acquisition?) with Continental happened, the passengers were treated to a vast difference in customer service, beginning at the check in counter, through the gate and continuing on to the plane, I could tell in 10 seconds if the crew attending to me were former Continental or legacy United. The Continental crews were pleasant and helpful, the United crews were rude, snarly, follow the rules, and obviously didn’t care about the passengers. This pretty much hasn’t completely changed, but I think the attitude is contagious. I don’t think United went out of their way to hire rude people, it has to be a product of their culture and their focus on brutal efficiency and $ rather than passenger service. With a culture like that, still being reinforced from the top with executives using language that tells their employees they think that all passengers are anything; stressed, crabby, experienced or not, there is absolutely no hope for United to get better. My recommendation for United is to stop with the unfunded mandates and start rewarding the behavior that supports the Delta / Southwest culture. Catch your employees doing something right and reward it, meaningfully and publicly, not just one column in a monthly magazine. A sincere pat on the back goes a long way, but I am afraid United is too far gone for that. At this point and for the foreseeable future United is just another fancy bus with a rude driver.
Service industry employees should ALWAYS be pleasant, helpful, understanding, warm, attentive, respectful. and on-and-on. The product that service employees are selling is, of course, SERVICE. This said, I’d like to speak about myself, personally.
When met with unpleasantness from service employees, rather than return unto them what they expect, reciprocated unpleasantness, I know that I can often get what these employees are, at first, seemingly unwilling to give me. Shocking such employees with what it is that I want from them—-being pleasant, helpful, understanding, warm, attentive, respectful. and on-and-on—-can (ofttimes) change the negative attitudes, values, and beliefs that such offending employees have towards me.
My comments here aren’t an attempt to in any way minimize the negative behaviors of any service industry employees. Rather, I am focusing on my personal needs and how I can get them met. I am focusing on my personal interactions with negative, adversarial employees who seem to go out of their way in blocking my receiving what I need. The old adage, “I can get others to do what I want,” is usually true.
I’m a United Million Miler. That’s mostly not by choice. United has been my Corp. airline or the only approved Government-rate carrier on a route when I had to conform with GSA city-pairs & rates.
Their Customer Service has been abysmal across the decades I have flown them. It almost seems that they are TRAINED TO LIE to customers whenever there is a problem (which is often). I have frequently seen them list flights as on-time long after the incoming aircraft had been delayed to the point where they could not possibly ARRIVE at the airport in time for the flight to depart on time. I’ve seen them list dozens of flights to the Chicago and Houston hubs when there were massive weather delays ensuring that the listed flights would also be delayed by hours.
The lies seem simply designed to prevent customers from taking any effective action, even if it’s just “enjoying” a meal to wait out a long delay or, heaven forbid, managing to re-book on an earlier flight, something that would require ground personnel to actually DO something.
I now have much more flexibility wrt airline choice, although being tied to a United hub makes it hard to avoid them entirely. But apart from burning the ~500,000 FF miles I still have banked, I WILL avoid them whenever I can, and that’s DESPITE having lifetime Gold status as a result of my million-plus miles. United is a pathetic excuse for an airline, and I can only hope that they go bankrupt and sell their planes, routes, and gates to someone who can make proper use of them.
Amazing how pent up the ill will is for all those who have posted here…..I have almost 6MM miles among UA and AA….neither deserves my loyalty, although I enjoy lifetime elite status on both. I can add nothing original to what has already been said. How sad is it that all of us flying domestic carriers long to travel on any airline that carries an int’l flag. After being dropped from GS on UA due to a job change, I’ve now restarted routine travel from ORD to FRA and I had to beg UA to restore me to 1K from lifetime Platinum…it actually took two appeals to supervisors to acknowledge my more than $50k in spend so far in 2019, even if I hadn’t hit the mileage threshold. Empowerment? Smart CRM? Unfortunately, neither is part of UA’s DNA…..Oh, btw, I now fly LH whenever possible, as even the German’s offer a superior product. Jawoll! (Is anyone old enough to remember Sgt Shultz on Hogan’s Hero’s?)
Talk is cheap, action may not be…
I fly United out of smaller airports to smaller airports via O’Hare. Sure, the airlines are not actual United, but they carry the United name. I don’t understand how a flight can have mechanical issues more than once a week. I worked on a railroad, and our engine inspections by the crew took up to 45 minutes, far longer than the quick walk-around that airline crews do. If preventive maintenance were done properly, there would not be so many delays and cancellations. Of course, we’re dealing with only 50 passengers here and 45 passengers there. So what if United loses them as customers. There are always more who are unsuspecting to take their places.
Excuse me, but there’s a simple answer to the United employees’ complaint (“Why does United always get beat up in the press, while Southwest gets a free pass? It’s not fair!“) It’s because Southwest employees demonstrate, over and over and over again, that they CARE, that the customer’s comfort and overall experience is their first priority. The regular examples of United employees who have absolutely no apparent understanding of the value of simple human kindness, whose unwavering adherence to rules and whose not-so-private plain disrespect for THEIR CUSTOMERS is in sharp contrast to the SWA culture, I will never book United again; I go out of my way to use a different carrier, even if the published flights and costs of a United flight appears to be more affordable or convenient. I don’t need the aggravation. The “friendly skies” of yesteryear have been unfriendly for quite some time now. Change, adapt, or go the way of the dinosaurs, Mr. Kirby.
The difference between southwest fa and the legacy fa is that they have struck rules on how to do things and dress in suit or dress cloths where as Southwest lets the fans be themselves and dress in shorts and loose clothing and be comfortable instead of stuffy. I managed to get this one flight attendant that had a great sense of humor. During the preflight briefing he jokes around acting like he was suffocating by not putting on the dropped oxygen mask and got some of the front row passengers involved and had the whole cabin watching for a change and enjoying themselves. Had him again a couple of months later and his antics changed but I noted all the passengers were watching him and laughing when on legacy airlines they are taught a certain way and boy they better not change the way they were taught and maybe five percent watch the safety briefing. When I asked him why he said he noticed everyone reading or looking else so he joked around and found people watched and he never got reprimanded but was awarded for it. He joked with the passengers during the flight and made a boring flight quit enjoyable. The latitude to be themselves instead of robots brings out the fun in a job that puts everyone at ease and makes work fun for them and their customers. Letting the fans be themselves would make a world of difference in their treatment of the customers and their staff.
As someone who flies for work about 50 times a year on Southwest, and only occasionally finds himself on a United flight, I don’t really have a stake in this conversation, although I do want to offer up some thoughts on a recent experience that I think illustrates some of the problems I’ve seen at United.
Yesterday, there were a number of delays due to weather, and as a result I wasn’t able to make my connecting flight from Houston to Chicago. When I got to the service desk at Houston, I was kind of amazed to discover that there were only two people staffing it. (There was a third person behind the counter briefly, but she got up suddenly and left without explanation to the person who was next in line). This despite a giant line of frazzled passengers that snaked down the hallway, some of whom had been there for over an hour while waiting to talk to an agent.
That’s not the important part. The important part is that it wasn’t like the weather was a shock and everyone had no idea it was coming. The weather had already been screwing up flights for the previous 24 hours and my flight out the previous day had also been delayed.
So, if you are United, and you know the weather is bad and you are liable to have an influx of passengers who will need help with arranging new flights or hotels, why would you only have 2 people at a hub like Houston? For that matter, why did it take over 70 minutes to get someone on the phone at their call center? Do they not have the ability to scale up as demand for service increases?
I’ve seen this a lot at United. Empty gate agent booths. Empty customer service desks. Dilapidated lounges. My impression is they are trying to run a super lean operation in terms of headcount, and I think, like airline seat space, they have developed an almost pathological obsession with seeing how far they can push things until they break. The result is that things never work well, and everything feels like it’s slowly breaking apart.
The other issue I see is they do not empower their employees. At Southwest, you get the sense that they have discretion and latitude to do something “against the rules” if it means keeping you happy. I get the exact opposite impression of United employees. Unlike some people, I don’t think they are actively trying to frustrate passengers, it’s just that they are punished if they do something, well, human.
Frankly, I don’t see this getting better. The economic incentives to change aren’t there, and the culture has been hollowed out over the decades by an ever-increasing focus on squeezing as much revenue as possible out of passengers while Congress is content to look the other way.
I got a personal email from Scott Kirby today about all they are doing for me. Problem is my company flew me first class for business and they gave United my personal email address. Now I get regular spam mail from them I cannot stop because you need an account to log in and stop the email. They think I want an account to stop spam? “There oughta be a law.”