United Airlines, You Chap My Hide
All seemed normal: my flight to Denver made it on time. My flight to OKC was on time according to the board. Then an announcement that our flight was going to contain passengers destined for Tulsa AND we were actually going to stop in Tulsa! My 1-stop trip to OKC now turned to a 2-stop trip. Grrr. The worst of it, the new stop put me in jeopardy of getting to the rental car agency before they closed at midnight. (I made it by a few seconds, btw. The lady was locking the door and was kind enough to reopen up for me.) The United crew mentioned several times how unique this was, but I have my suspicions. United says there was a “crew problem”. When we got to Tulsa, half of the passengers got off. In my estimate, United combined two planes that were 1/3 full by themselves. Maybe we were indeed the rescuers of the Tulsa passengers and I should be happy about helping others. Regardless of how I feel, I didn’t have a choice. That really chaps my hide.
February 26th, 2010 at 4:05 pm
That’s weird as hell. I know all the major airlines have problems, but United is by far my least favorite.
February 26th, 2010 at 11:47 pm
Been there. I remember the exact scenario about the rental car happening to me & that’s been over 10 years ago. For me to remember something that long ago, is an accomplishment for me these days. I usually can’t remember anything for 5 minutes.
February 27th, 2010 at 11:46 am
I got caught on the other end of this thing as Jek was coming here to visit and inspect MR Headquarters….. I usually turn-in fairly early these days, so, I was already losing my beauty rest being up for Jek’s original flight arrival time, which would have put him at MR HQ about Midnight, as it turned out, it was well “After Midnight” before his smokin’ rental car wheels touched down in the parking lot of MR HQ….. Seems his ears were smokin’ too…..
Why should the airlines care about customer satisfaction (as in “Can’t Get No”) when they know our Government will just come along and bail them out again…. PD Bob told me I’d better shut up now and he promptly hid my soapbox…..
February 27th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
Where were you at practice?
February 28th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
What are you talking about Anon?
March 1st, 2010 at 1:53 pm
Mr. Jeck,
An attempt at humor. I guess you had to be there. Never mind.
March 1st, 2010 at 2:49 pm
I’m about to get on more United flights… maybe they’ll take me through The Bahamas.
March 1st, 2010 at 7:27 pm
How was your trip to the Bahamas Jek? Or was it Boise Idaho that you got rerouted to this time.
March 4th, 2010 at 10:52 pm
Update:
Well, United is trying to make good by offering the following choices of appreciation:
I went with the first option, as I just cashed out my miles on the trip. If I use the $150 voucher, okay. If not, okay. I do feel better about the situation, especially after filling out a survey and being able to tell them my POV. Maybe this truly was a 1-time affair.
March 6th, 2010 at 3:27 am
That is what happens when there is no accountability for actions. The airlines have the mindset of “What are you gonna do about it” Until the industry has stiff punishments for customer service infractions it will only get worse.
March 6th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
I read the other day, some airlines are going to start charging more for “wing” seats, more leg room. What’s next, pay toilets, oxygen masks. Companies used to bust their ass to get your business. Now days, most act as if they could care less whether you are or not.
Things just seem to be getting dog eat dog. Is there an end to this insanity. Maybe 2012?
March 6th, 2010 at 10:26 pm
I think charging different prices for different levels of service is just fine. It fits in with our capitalist society. I am happy to pay more for less stops: a nonstop from SEA to OKC would be EXCELLENT! Maybe there’s a market for old school flying — big meals, big seats, cute flight attendants — but you’re going to pay for it. People have clearly stated their preferences for cheaper fares over more amenities by always going with lowest fare. At this point the airlines are struggling to avoid going broke. Back when flights were full service, only the rich could afford to fly.
March 7th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
jek, we are paying more for less in practically every aspect of our financial existence. Just a few years back, we got the amenities gratis, even with cheap flights.
March 7th, 2010 at 10:48 pm
The airlines have started charging for luggage to make more room for the commercial freight. Seems to me the airlines can’t tell the difference between passengers and freight.
March 8th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
In 2001:
10% owned 71% of the wealth
1% owned 38%
while the bottom 40% owned less than 1% of the wealth.
I couldn’t find figures for 2009 but between 2001 and 2007 wealth for the top 10% has increased at an even faster rate than previous years.
Capitalism: characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods. Prices, Production and distribution of goods that are determined by competition in a “free” market.
Does anyone believe we have a functioning “free” market?
March 8th, 2010 at 9:13 pm
Robo & Anon, most of us ARE just extra baggage as far as big business & government are concerned.
March 9th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Anon: I’m curious: Are you associating wealth distribution with capitalism? Does one necessarily follow the other?
Also, what are good indicators of a functioning free market?
March 9th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
Mr. J,
I mean we dont have capitalism if we dont have a free market….and we dont have a free market. Government and capital controlled by a few private individuals is called an oligarchy, not a democracy or republic.
Distribution of wealth comes any number of ways under any number of systems. Under an oligarchy it migrates (trickles) to the top.
One indicator would be that when everyone does well the market does well. A bad indicator would be a recession or depression. When capital is held in the hands of a few ( or the state) the system stagnates and will fail.
March 10th, 2010 at 1:02 am
“Does anyone believe we have a functioning “free†market?”
Yes, the upper 10%, Wall Street bankers, Oil Companies, Military Industrial Complex. The other 90%, probably not. Everything depends on how it affects you, personally. Personally, I don’t think we have a functioning ‘free market” & it is so far out of line, I don’t have a clue how that can now be achieved.
March 10th, 2010 at 2:09 am
Sunn,
I’ve been waiting for Obama or anyone to acknowledge the elephant in the room……….Campaign Finance Reform. We need a single payer health care system for every one (gasp! Socialism!) and that is one important issue. Working from the bottom up is critical. But so is working form the top down. We need to get the money out of politics. Maybe we wouldn’t have a health care issue if we had solved the problem of money in politics.
And a big special thanks to the Robert’s court decision allowing corporations to finance campaigns as if they were individual voters.
That will keep every thing even. One man one vote. One corporation one vote.
March 10th, 2010 at 4:05 pm
Anon, in the long run, one of the worst legacies of the Bush administration, will be his appointment of THREE Supreme Court Justices.
Obama had his chance & blew it. Instead of the Bi-partisanship he was trying to accomplish his first year in office, he should have taken his cue from the GOP & said to hell with them & gotten the changes the people that backed him wanted, right out of the gate. That’s the way the GOP operates. Seems to work for them.
March 10th, 2010 at 4:54 pm
Sunn, Maybe one of those conservative judges (or more) will have a stoke trying to justify their twisted logic. A bad legacy indeed. I hope women don’t end up in back alley abortions like the good old days when men were men and maybe women shouldn’t have got the vote.
Bush, all hat and no cattle.
I expected more of Obama coming out of the gate. I’ll still wait awhile and see. I’m waiting to see what happens with financial reform. There’s a lot of hype about consumer protection. I hope that’s not a cover for no real reform. A friend informed me that Obama with his Chicago connection is in the Friedman economics camp. I haven’t seen any verification though. I hope to crap it’s not true.
March 10th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
To me, the jury’s still out. I think his second year in office will be the turning point as to whether true change has a chance. His recent demeanor has given me a glimmer of hope. As I stated, I think he should have had this attitude from the very start.
Truthfully, I don’t think this country can ever have true reform until we do away with lobbyists, which has a very slim chance of happening, outside a full out revolution. Go back to some of the 60’s philosophies (although, admittedly, quite a few of them backfired).
March 11th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
And this all stated with an airoplane ride. Amazing!
March 11th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
Doesn’t take a whole lot to get me started, these days!
March 12th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
“A friend informed me that Obama with his Chicago connection is in the Friedman economics camp.”
I hope not, since he was a Reagan adviser, which in my opinion, was the beginnings of the mess we’re in today. Off hand, can you thing of anything that has improved with deregulation?
March 12th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
That’s unconfirmed. How would you Google that one?
March 12th, 2010 at 3:14 pm
So, I Googled up “Obama economic philosophy” . Here’s what I got.
A University of Chicago Democrat.
A liberal “Friedman” who thinks Friedman got some things right.
An Economic Behaviorist.
March 13th, 2010 at 11:13 pm
So….what are you trying to say, Anon?
March 14th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Those are quotes from article about Obama’s take on Economics.
The “Chicago School” of economics ( Friedman was the big thinker) states the market will correct itself. Regulation of the market is not good for economics.
University of Chicago, where Obama went to school, is conservative and Republican I would guess.
Although a liberal, the influence of U. of Chicago makes him think Freidman was right in some respects (not specified in the article).
An Economic Behaviorist………? I know Skinner and his pigeons and I know what a Behaviorist is in psychology. I can guess what that might mean in economics. Sounds a bit like Friedman but could mean a lot of things.
March 14th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Seems to me, Obama is for more regulations, which is one reason the GOP tries to tell us he is trying enable the government run our lives. That seems
contrary to Friedman economics.
What has happened? The GOP is now the radical party & the Democrats are the conservative party?
Sure seems that way to me. What a “Simple Twist of Fate” (Dylan).
March 14th, 2010 at 10:06 pm
He talks about regulation but not much is getting done. I’m waiting and watching.
March 15th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Good point, Anon.Why do you think that is?
March 15th, 2010 at 11:48 pm
So today on the news Dodd comes out with his committee’s recommendations for reg changes in banking and financial. What you didn’t hear was anything about returning to the Glass/Steagal act, breaking up banks to either commercial or investment, bringing shadow banking into the light, swaps and derivetives, all things that caused the trouble we are in. (I forgot to mention bond raters)
What you did hear were recommendations to deal with banking if it happens again…….which is some kind of deterrent…..I guess.
Obama says he is backing Dodd 100% with more to come. Dodd said he didn’t have the votes in committee for tougher regs.
I figure Obama has two problems; a fight from the GOP and his own convictions may be in the way of regulating Wall Street…the Feidman thing. We’ll see how much influence Wall Street has on any changes and Obama.
March 17th, 2010 at 11:24 am
For Wall Street, it’s back to business as usual. Instead of what the bailout was intended to do, it just enabled them to keep doing what got us in this mess in the first place. I really do want Obama to succeed. But I am concerned that Goldman Sachs was one of his chief backers.
March 17th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Hang on to your wallet. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
March 17th, 2010 at 6:24 pm
They want my wallet? Take it. There’s not much in it anymore (thanks to the previous administration) & pretty sure there never will be again. I guess since they’ve robbed us of our 401K, the next step will be to privatize social security & medicare/medicaid. “No Country For Old Men” seems more like an omen, than a movie title, that is now running on cable.
March 17th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
Okay boys, it’s time for you to get your own post, or go co-opt a different one.
I say that though I’m dying to ask who robbed Sunn’s 401k. Called the police yet?
March 18th, 2010 at 10:09 am
I agree with Jek….. Anon and Sunn, you’ve pulled a J.J. on us by taking this around Neptune (Valleys and all), or, is that you J.J.?…. Did you hack their passwords?….. I think you’ve broken the record for the number of comments on a Post along with the furtherest distance from the subject of the Post….. PLEASE continue this train wreck with a new Post with comments that stay somewhat close to the subject….. This would go better for us in the year 3010, when some Geek digs up the MRambler archives and finds it has some semblance of organized thought, instead of the Too-Loose Production it really is….. On second thought, maybe that wouldn’t be so bad….. Maybe they would use our thoughts and comments to rebuild the World…… Boy, is the future in trouble!……
March 18th, 2010 at 11:16 am
OK, OK. But just one more……………..
March 18th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
I just have to stick my nose in here and say why stop now were almost to 50 comments most off the subject. So lets hear what happened to Sunns 401k.
March 19th, 2010 at 4:51 pm
jek, I know you know exactly what I’m getting at. Quite possibly, you would feel differently, had you been much older & in no position to cover your losses. Of course, you seem to be much wiser on the ways of the world than some of us grandpas.
I apologize to all for hijacking this thread. I need to stick to things I know more about, like music (IMHO).
Off the soapbox, I’m done (literally). Put a fork in me. Roger and Out.
March 19th, 2010 at 6:35 pm
I just would like to get in here for a second and say that I have absolutely nothing to say on this subject at this minute and this the first time that I have appeared on television.
March 19th, 2010 at 8:31 pm
Hi, Bye
March 20th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
45 and counting. Ha, ha, he, he, he (maniacal laugh).
March 20th, 2010 at 11:54 pm
46 and counting
March 21st, 2010 at 7:35 pm
You guys are killing me! So YES, this post has now surpassed all posts on MRC in having the largest number of comments. The 2nd most commentrific post has 37 comments and is “MR’s De-Educational Quiz – This and That”.
http://www.mrambler.com/blog/2007/09/08/mrs-de-educational-quiz-this-and-that/
You know, I do miss those MRC quizzes.
March 21st, 2010 at 10:35 pm
We can’t let that be the last post. Are for that mater this.
March 30th, 2010 at 10:52 am
Did someone mention quizzes?….. PDB’s ears perked-up and his nose twitched uncontrollably as he bounced around the room shouting, “I LOVE QUIZZES!”…… OK, if I hear one more request I’ll check my resources and see what I can do about it…… Quizzes, eh?……
March 30th, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Yes, quizzez and fabulous prizzez.