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Upon news that United was rock bottom last on the 2012 Airline Quality Rating, company spokesman Charlie Hobart told The Plain Dealer's Janet Cho, "United's operations improved significantly in the fall of 2012 and we continue to meet or exceed our on-time standards and set new records for performance."
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Last fall, when American Airlines couldn't get a plane off the gate and in the air on time, when turbulence associated with AA's bankruptcy and subsequent vacating of union contracts caused the airline to cancel flights by the hundreds, an airline spokesman, Bruce Hicks said, "This is not the way American Airlines runs an airline. It's not the way we're going to be running it in the future." Fast forward a few months and the airline is even putting these words into the mouth of Mad Men superstar Jon Hamm in the ad he narrates for the new American.
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Last fall, when American Airlines couldn't get a plane off the gate and in the air on time, when turbulence associated with AA's bankruptcy and subsequent vacating of union contracts caused the airline to cancel flights by the hundreds, an airline spokesman, Bruce Hicks said, "This is not the way American Airlines runs an airline. It's not the way we're going to be running it in the future." Fast forward a few months and the airline is even putting these words into the mouth of Mad Men superstar Jon Hamm in the ad he narrates for the new American.
"Its time to become better versions of ourselves, better than expected and more than before," goes Hamm's voice over. It's been a rough go for American, but at least they're not ignoring their jumbo jet-sized public relations problem.
When I say United's customer service is in the toilet, that's not just me overstating the case, just ask my sister.
Okay, s**t happens. What the flight attendant added, however, came as a surprise. She told my sister, "this is not an infrequent occurrence, particularly on the weekends."
So when the professors at The Advanced Aviation Analytics Institute for Research at Purdue University issue a report saying that United is "the lowest rated airline" for 2012, it seems entirely credible. What I have a hard time believing is that no senior executive will step up and acknowledge that airplane on which my sister flew - the one scented with eau de toilette - is a metaphor.
United, fess up, flush the tanks and start fresh.
Post script:
From Hong Kong, my sister wrote to me today to say she went online to the site given to her by United, to register a complaint about the smelly plane. She logged in, wrote the synopsis and hit "submit". In reply she got a message that the site was non working.
"What an outfit!" she said.