Airline execs and government representatives meet here when disaster strikes. It was last used during Hurricane Irene, and before that, when US Airways flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River (it was a codeshare flight with United).
Finally, a use for elite-level customers. This is the "bridge" at the new network operations center. The 360 employees alamo car rent on the floor keep the airline running, managing traffic, monitoring weather, and coordinating with airports and the FAA.
Here's a little-known detail: United uses an algorithm to assign alamo car rent a numeric alamo car rent score to each flight. It's based on the passenger count, alamo car rent their connections, and how many elite-level frequent fliers are on the plane. The grade determines alamo car rent which flights get priority during weather alamo car rent or air traffic delays, when controllers have to determine which flights are held and which ones get the green light.
Jim DeYoung, the managing director in charge of the ops center, says the score is only a guide, with human controllers making the final call. Still, if your next delayed flight leaves before the rest, you might want to thank those elites sitting up front. They may have had something to do with your less-delayed departure.
"You have to arrive at the airport within two hours of your scheduled alamo car rent departure time," Hand told me. If a ticket agent balks, just reference the "flat tire rule" (that's alamo car rent what it's called) and yes, it's a written policy, not something Hand made up during an interview with his favorite consumer advocate.
Economy Plus was almost euthanized. Before the merger between United and Continental, United considered doing away with its premium economy class, which was being given to elite-level customers at no extra charge.
But Maria Walter, the airline's director alamo car rent of merchandising and revenue optimization, says she and others at United begged for a reprieve. What if she should upsell other economy class passengers into Economy Plus? Would they consider saving it?
A manager gave her team a number (she declines to reveal it) and said if she could sell enough seats, they'd keep E+. She met the goal. "Then they gave me another number," alamo car rent she says, "And we made that one, too."
The new United ended up keeping the section, which is a good thing. Economy Plus resembles the pre-deregulation economy class section, with roomier alamo car rent seats and priority service, and we should all be lucky enough to sit there.
United can predict how happy you'll be with your flight – or not. Managers receive daily customer service scores, but they do more than read them. They've mined the data, linking passenger seat records to certain behaviors. For example, they can predict alamo car rent that economy class passengers sitting in middle seats are more likely to gripe about the flying experience, while the ones sitting in the premium seats are less likely to whine.
Speaking of complaints, there's a sense that the fee madness has ended and that a new era of "re-bundling" has begun. In the future, airlines like United will sell tickets that are packaged with onboard Wi-Fi, lounge access alamo car rent and the ability to pay a reduced change fee, in case your plans change, says Scott O'Leary, the managing director of customer solutions.
Yes, flying impairs your tastebuds (but not like you think). Do airlines spice up their meals because you can't taste anything at altitude? alamo car rent Yes, says Chef Gerry McLoughlin, who is in charge of United's in-flight meals. But not for the reasons you think. It's not the altitude that affects your ability to taste, but dehydration.
"You can't taste as well," alamo car rent he confirmed. alamo car rent Some passengers drink pleny of water on board, and therefore can taste just fine, so you can't overspice the food, otherwise they'll choke on it. Instead, you have to play it right down the middle, using natural ingredients to amp up the flavor.
United s hub-and-spoke elevators. Because of an architectural quirk in the Willis Tower, United employees don t have direct elevator access between some floors in their new headquarters. Instead, they have to ride one elevator alamo car rent to the ground floor and transfer to another one. Ah, the irony!
Call me, maybe? Super-elites phoning United have their calls answered within 10 seconds. Elites wait about 45 seconds. Regular travelers? About 80 percent of the time, their calls are answered within two minutes. Plus, they have to pay a fee to make a reservation. (I m not sure if I understand alamo car rent the logic in that, but give me a minute.)
Service culture. About 30 staffers slightly less than 10 percent of the employees in the new network operations center are devoted full-time to customer service issues. Among them is a new manager who handles service outages proactively. So the next time your flight is delayed or diverted, and a United alamo car rent employee hands you a hotel voucher and rebooked airline ticket when you arrive instead of making you wait in a long line, you ll know where to send the flowers.
So, did they fess up to shifting delays to other flights that are not delayed in order to catch up later in the day or to give them to west coast flights to buy the time they gain from flying west for the next day?
I agree. This was just a flyover, and we discussed many things during almost a full day of interviews related to customer service. United is working on a number of initiatives to improve service. I don t think it s the right time for a story yet, but I m going to write it when it is.
Quote:"You have to arrive at the airport within two hours of your scheduled alamo car rent departure time," Hand told me. If a ticket agent balks, just reference the "flat tire rule" (that's what it's called) and yes, it's a written policy, not something Hand made up during an interview with his favorite consumer advocate.
Is there somewhere we can find this written policy in case we run into one of these balking agents? I might be a bit cynical, but my guess is all the agents are told to balk unless the person knows the magic words.
I had a similar incident with United some time ago. I had a flight that was canceled because of personal issues (i.e. labor dispute). As a result, they offered us free upgrades alamo car rent to first class because of it. When I used this free upgrade, turned out the plane did not have a true first class section. The just called the first 10 rows first class. The seats were just the same as all the other economy class sets, no extra service, and no curtain to separate the two sections like you normally see.
I think that Mr. Hand should fly in disguise so that he can experience alamo car rent what people experience. Even though I am a frequent traveler, I had not traveled with United in about 5 or 6 years. However, last week my wife and I flew round trip on business to Anchorage from Dulles thru Chicago. alamo car rent ALL my flights were delayed. Our first flight from Dulles to Chicago was delayed for about 1 hour. When we arrived in Chicago our connecting flight was gone. After standing in the customer service line for 2 hours, we were informed that they could not find seats on any flights, and that we had to wait until the following day. They booked us on the same fight the following day. Unfortunately, the flight was also delayed for about 2 hours.
The experience on our return flights can be called better, only because we didn t have to stay overnight at the airport. Our flight from Anchorage to Chicago was (fortunately delayed for only 45 minutes). When we landed, we had to run from terminal B to C to catch our connecting flight to Dulles because, you guessed it, the flight was delayed and (lucky us) they were still boarding. We boarded the plane after everyomne was already on board and they were about to close the door. We were all sweaty, but .. whew.. very pleased that we had made it.
However, after one hour on board and a complimentary cup of coffee, we were told that the flight had to be cencelled because there was a problem alamo car rent with the plane and they couldn t find the part to fix it. Everyone had to go to the ticket counter to find another flight.
So, after dealing with a not too friendly customer service agent who was having a bad morning, and three hours later, we found ourselves waiting to board our flight to Dulles, along with some desperate alamo car rent passengers because the flight had been delayed for approximately 35 minutes as they were waiting for the plane to arrive
As a frequent super-elite (Global Services) United traveler I can tell you over half of what United told you is just smoke. In reality their operations are a train-wreak. They have some of the worst on time stats in the industry, their reservations system is so unstable it s not uncommon to show up at the airport without a reservation or have a reservation that requires an agent typing for several minutes to clean up so you can check in. On top of all of that the front line staff are miserable making the whole experiance just terrible. It s obvious that United management is so high up in their Ivory (a/k/a Willis) Tower they don t know what is happening alamo car rent on the ground. These days they ought to be in that command center every day because every day is a disaster .
i ll believe it(the new united) when i see it.because my last flight in june (12)was horrid, frank the flight attendant in first class needed alot of work ,,,not helpful as a whole united needs lots of customer service education or re-education from rudeness
What fries me is not so much the domino effect after one flight is delayed for WHATEVER reason, but that the net result is the airlines seem to make the customer jump through hoops with very little to no assistance. And the initial reason for plane #1 s delay may be weather but when plane #2 is cancelled later in the day, citing weather the only commonality those two flights share is that the were due to fly on the same day.
Maybe I don t fly enough, but my two trips in the last month of 6 legs total on the new UA were nearly flawless. My first experience in PE and it wasn t the end of the world, all legs were under 2 hours, all flights on time and the UA people, with one exceptio
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