Dear United Airlines:
Over the years I have flown about 330,000 miles on you. Not a million, but not a small number either. Flights to Tokyo, flights to Dulles, flights to Orlando. Flights that may have cost a little more than competition but preserved my status, which, at the time, seemed important.
9/11 came and went. Travel went down, then came back. The government handed out money, and you spent it.
I’ve watched you go in and out of bankruptcy. I’ve watched you *not* hedge in the face of rising oil prices and then complain about rising oil prices. Your competition, at least some of it, was able to hedge and talks about it each quarter in its investor filings so I know it’s possible. I’ve made money on one competitor’s stock. Repeatedly.
In recent years, with parenthood, with competition (on on-time record, on destination, on price, on service, and on total flight duration), and due to general frustration at poor service from you, I’ve been less faithful. In particular, JetBlue and Southwest have taken business that used to go to you. I’ve used up my miles as much as possible, either on free travel or on Red Carpet Club memberships.
And well, you’ve rewarded me for it, by reducing my status, or better yet, by limiting the amount of co-passengers I can lift up with me to better seats to one. Basically, at the time of greatest need, i.e., when traveling with my wife and toddler son, you boot me to the back of the bus. To add insult to injury, there was a time when you boarded “families traveling with small children or needing extra time to board” first. Apparently that courtesy has been forgotten. A gate agent today told us that “children are a blessing, not a burden.” Great spin, but as my wife and I stand with toddler, car seat, diaper bag, and his and hers laptop bags, I can see why that’s a false dichotomy.
Today was the last straw. We’re traveling to see relatives on short notice. Concern is a co-passenger, plus we’re traveling with a toddler, which is as we’ve established, complicates things already. (See this post on the danger boiled water presents to the homeland.)
But nonetheless, we are doughty, hardy souls. We got to the airport early. You punted on seating us and sent us to the gate agent, who punted until he was done dealing with the previous flight. In the end, you didn’t punt, you just dropped the ball, and in the ensuing mess decided that seating a 14-month-old by himself was a fine idea. We weren’t alone - other parents were similarly hosed and this led to a long horsetrading process that only complicated departure further as parents tried to, um, sit with their kids.
And that, my friends in the friendly skies, was the last straw. I will be taking the remainder of my business over to JetBlue, Southwest, Virgin, ANA, or ABU - Anyone But United, whenever possible. A drop in a big bucket, perhaps, but a drop nonetheless. In the wireless business they call this churn. It adds up. Smart companies try to prevent this by preserving customer loyalty. It’s easier - and cheaper - to keep a customer than attract a new one. (Hmm. Perhaps you could secure customers through offering two-year service contracts with some subsidized hardware like the wireless carriers do?)
I imagine you must feel some schadenfreude watching ATA and Aloha go belly-up (and now Frontier?), especially since they probably don’t have the scale or lobbying schwack to cadge out a bailout. Remember, there but for the grace and non-economic reasoning of Uncle Sam go you. Multiple times.
Sincerely yours,
Jon Metzler
ex-United frequent flyer