United Finds Little Sympathy
Among Middle Seat Readers
June 22, 2004
Last week, the Middle Seat looked at how discount carriers were attacking struggling incumbents right in the heart – their own hubs. It turned out to be a very timely topic because less than 48 hours later, the Air Transportation Stabilization Board rejected the latest application for federal loan guarantees from UAL Corp.'s United Airlines.
United is trying again this week, and since we all know that in politics, things aren't necessarily over even when all the votes are counted, the nation's No. 2 airline may yet win government assistance for its restructuring.
Many readers shed no tears for the predicament in which both United and US Airways Group Inc. find themselves. (As always, letters have been edited for length and style.)
John A. Olson: "I cheered this morning when I read that the federal government denied United's $1.6 billion rescue loan request. … The irony, of course, is that I fly United all the time and have a couple hundred thousand points as a United frequent flyer. So why do I hate them? Arrogance -- there's so much about the major airlines to hate (I'll define the majors as being other than the low-cost carriers). I'm tired of their surly staff: gate agents, ticket agents, flight attendants. And just having a pilot show his smiling face at the cockpit door as I deplane doesn't change the fact that it's been a miserable experience interacting with the many faces of United throughout the transaction.
Airline fares are one particularly strong complaint from Mr. Olson. "Even when filtered through a pretty interface like Orbitz or Travelocity, the entire process is still absurd and I feel violated every time I have to buy an airline ticket on a major. Saturday stay makes the whole flight cheaper ... who invented that rule and why should it be? Cheaper to fly from D.C. to LA than from D.C. to Columbus, Ohio ... 'splain that to me, please. The fare was $269 yesterday, why is it $584 for the same flight today?''
He also wonders why untrained customers can check themselves in, change seats and check bags at a self-service kiosk in about 30 seconds, but it still takes a ticket-counter agent "about four minutes to do the same thing? From where I sit it's a software problem, but then I can't see the screen that it takes him/her 8,000 keystrokes to navigate through."
William Pickard: "There is too much capacity in the industry anyway, so the failure of loan guarantees is probably not a bad thing. The survivors will be airlines like Southwest, AirTran, and the others. Delta, United, and American -- and their managements and (thank the Lord) their unions (with their Jurassic managements) with them will dry up and blow away. We'll be left with a vibrant, competitive transportation market."
Jason Womack, a road warrior who recently took his 75th flight in 2004 on United, notes that being a United flyer perhaps doesn't have the panache it once did. "I know that I've been holding on to the notion that I'm a "United flyer;" however, I see that edge beginning to dull. A year from now, do I want to say 'I'm a 1K Premier Executive?' Or, 'I saved my company X thousands of dollars by flying smart?' Only time will tell."
Some readers wrote with tales of woe traveling on Atlantic Coast Airlines, a United feeder carrier that is splitting from Mother United and remaking itself into a discount airline, Independence Air, with a pack of regional jets. It's a risky venture, and readers suggested that it will be even trickier given ACA's operating history. After all, in Department of Transportation on-time rankings, Atlantic Coast ranked 17th out of the 17 carriers that reported arrival statistics over the past 12 months.
Al Stubbmann: "I am a 1K, million-miler on United and the worst part of living in Allentown, Pa., is that since 9/11, Allentown became a United Express city and we became completely dependent on Atlantic Coast. … ACA is a real dog operationally. I have never seen less-competent gate agents, generally unconscious flight attendants and unreliable aircraft maintenance. I must say that I am not going to go out of my way to fly on Independence regardless of the fare."
Atlantic Coast says that its operational and customer service problems stem from being so dependent on United, and that once it's free to run its own ship, things will be better. But United has actually been running a much crisper operation for the past year or so. We'll have to wait to see if an unfettered Atlantic Coast can do better as Independence Air.
Have a question about air travel or the airline industry? Write to me at middleseat@wsj.com.
