They're bound to make some mistakes when flying millions of people around the planet every day. But thanks to social media, all it takes is one of those mistakes to turn into a viral blog post -- and now you've got a PR crisis.
Not defending United or saying they didn't screw up. They did. But dang it, as an entrepreneur, that business seems really f'ing complex and I feel for them.
The reason I don't feel particularly bad for United is that this was not a single mistake. It was a series of mistakes, each compounding the last to really create damaging PR. I feel like they earned this one.
1) They didn't notify the parents when the child was first re-routed. While this is a serious mistake, and not something to dismiss when you're considering sending a child with United, I think it falls into that small error rate that might appear when you're serving millions of customers.
2) When the parent contacted customer service they weren't immediately helpful. This, to me, is the point when they start earning the "name and shame" treatment. If a parent calls with an issue related to an unaccompanied minor this should immediately be raised to the level of "take this very seriously" customer support.
3) They only refunded the chaperone costs of the ticket. After making a serious mistake, they didn't issue a mea culpa and do everything in their power to make up for their mistake. After what the child and parents went through, it should be a no-brainer to refund the entire ticket price. If they are making mistakes of this level so often that they can't afford to refund the tickets in situations like this the "small error rate" defense no longer applies.
4) They blocked the account of someone trying to resolve the issue. This looks extremely petty and makes it appear as an "us" vs. "them". In a PR war you never want to be up against a wronged child. Guaranteed outrage.
The combination of these factors make me think its totally appropriate to name and shame. Of course social media reactions should be a concern for every business, but if you don't monumentally and repeatedly make mistakes you have a lot less to worry about.
I guess my point is, don't paralyze yourself by fear of making mistakes. When (not if) you do make a mistake, own it and respond appropriately.
I couldn't agree with you more! Unaccompanied minors should come before everyone else on the flight - even first class. They certainly charge you enough for it.
It is a complex business but this error wasn't caused by complexity. It was caused by a combination of dreadful management, low quality standards and bad reporting.
There are so many examples of people being badly treated by United that as awful as this story is, it's probably also acting as a nucleation point for the general anger and disappointment they have created.
agree, I flew with United this past month, long story short, my boarding pass got confiscated by ground crew, when I claimed i wasn't happy with their service for another matter, and only when I threatened with calling the police was it given back to me at the gate. I wrote to customer service but canned response was the best I got. Never flying them again. US airline industry needs a serious disruptions - end of story. Look at IRR on these companies, they have been relative disasters for investors. Most should have gone under a while ago... Too big to fail I guess...
Also don't forget that foreigners can't come in and shake things up either due to protectionism enforced by law. In the land of the free, this sort of nonsense happens a lot. For example car dealerships are also protected by protectionist laws. In most locations you couldn't open a hospital that saves people money due to certificate of need regulations that mean you can't reduce the profitability of existing hospitals!
I might feel some small smidgin' of sympathy if it weren't for (1) the fact that this isn't the first story like this and (2) they charge money to chaperon a minor and simply did not do it.
I can't believe that airlines accept the liability of flying unaccompanied minors. It seems they have so much to lose when something like this happens.
I understand the need/demand. So if the airlines stop offering it, I'm sure some kind of private travel companionship service would develop. They might be more expensive, but as their primary business, they may be able to provide a higher level of service/assurance.
I have no idea how many unaccompanied minors fly in a given day, but I suspect that it is relatively few. As a result, no one has ownership of the minor. Training for these situations is low priority.
You're right, a phone call goes a long way in these situations. It's simple, but I'm guessing that training is limited so people just don't know the protocol.
Having flown my daughter solo (not via United though), I can state with certainty that generally, 'unaccompanied minor' policies are pretty strict.
They require that the parent that purchased the ticket for the child drop be the same person that drops the child off, presents ID, and fills out a ton of paperwork at the time.
Similarly, you must designate a person to receive the child at the other end, and that designated person is the only one allowed to receive the child (even if they have an emergency or something), and they must also present ID.
I had a hard time because I used a nickname for my designee (whom I've only ever known as 'Lynn Cooper', when her legal name was 'Jerry Lynn Cooper', and her driver's license showed 'Jerry Lynn Cooper'. They refused to release her initially and it took three calls to untangle and I, the father, but not the person who dropped her off at the airport initially, was not allowed to verify that 'Jerry Lynn Cooper' was the same 'Lynn Cooper' designated, despite being on a conference call with all parties.
So yeah, if we have to go through all that, they should probably be held responsible for making a phone call on a reroute.
The "problem" is that these social media users can sometimes achieve parity in expectations. United (and business in general, on the large) expects people to take what they're given for the price they pay. "You pays your money you takes your chances." That "one tweet" or whatever is seen to cause United problems is evidence of how inured we have become to their abuses. Your critique kind of reminds me of police vs. video, "Hey, you're not supposed to have any power here." Why should a business deserve sympathy? They certainly don't have any for us in the profit-margin-improvement meetings.
The entrepreneurial lesson to be learned here is not to sell items you can't provide.
If supervising unaccompanied minors is too hard, they're under no requirement to offer the service. They offered the service and then they screwed up delivering it. I don't see why you should be sympathetic.
Nope. They're not flying millions of children around every day, where they're paid a premium to ensure their safety and care. I can't feel a thing for them, which is exactly what they felt for that kid and her parents.
I don't think the original failure is that big a deal; the child wasn't in any danger and could easily communicate with her mother. I agree with you that things of that sort are inevitable when running an airline.
The problem is the customer service response. Asking a parent looking for her child to fill out a form when your company is supposed to know where she is is not acceptable. Blocking someone trying to get a customer service response on social media is not acceptable.
Yeah but we aren't back in the old days of "coffee tea or me". In the end the bad PR actually means very little. People choose airlines based on price and schedule. In the end does a screw up like this actually change buying behavior? I don't think it does. People fly because they have to. Even the cruise lines typically rebound after a major disaster which effects many more people. People who forget and are on to the next shiny ball from the media.
I feel bad for the person who's going to have to defend United as a company. I don't feel as bad for the several people who are going to get fired over this.
Yeah, sorry. Had the misfortune of flying with United some time ago, and it was just one fuckup after the other. Out of 5 flights only one went without problems (the international one), all national ones were foobar.
They're bound to make some mistakes when flying millions of people around the planet every day. But thanks to social media, all it takes is one of those mistakes to turn into a viral blog post -- and now you've got a PR crisis.
Not defending United or saying they didn't screw up. They did. But dang it, as an entrepreneur, that business seems really f'ing complex and I feel for them.