From reader comments, traveler comments and my own experiences, I know that the United Airline brand is having a hard time. Although I will be flying with them on Friday, I often recommend avoiding the airline unless the airfare is a bargain passengers can’t pass up — like the deal I am getting on a flight from Boston to Dulles, the day after Thanksgiving, for $80.
United Airlines, it is reported, is trying to change its image. The airline is planning on sprucing up planes for the first time this decade. United is changing seating and decor on every aircraft in its fleet. This is all part of a corporate effort to restore its public image that has been bashed in YouTube videos and the Onion.
As turbulence has buffeted the airline industry, customer satisfaction has dropped for every major carrier except Continental Airlines and Southwest Airlines, researchers at the University of Michigan have found. But satisfaction rates have fallen furthest for United, which ranked last among the largest airlines in two of the last three years as measured by the school’s American Customer Satisfaction Index.
The airline began their efforts towards respectability with an push to get planes to take off and land on schedule. They went from being last among the major airlines in 2007 to ranking second in recent industry figures.
With timeliness back on track, United Airlines is now turning to refurbishing their planes, gate areas and Red Carpet clubs. These are welcome by many loyal United passengers and those who have no other choice but to fly United because of schedules and destinations.
United Airlines also elected to make some unsung customer-friendly changes to their contract of carriage that now allows passengers, too sick to fly, to change their tickets without change fees. This is not an insignificant clause that can save travelers between $150 and $250 should they be forced to change travel plans because of illness such as the flu. No other major airline makes such a provision in their contract of carriage.
Other changes such as the FAA clarification of the seat pocket rule will ease some of the tension between flight attendants and passengers by eliminating the once contentious cleansing of seat pockets prior to landing. Flight attendants didn’t like doing it and the passengers couldn’t understand why they had to take paperback books, etc., out of the seat pockets.
This all bodes well for the airline. Friends of mine, with thousands of United frequent flier miles, are cheering United’s efforts. They say they may return to United after defecting to Southwest, but are waiting to see how these improvements pan out.
(Robert Durell/ Photo for the Tribune / October 16, 2009)
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
