Comments

UNITED - US AIRWAYS - ALMOST ALL THE AIRLINES with the exception of Southwest and a couple of others: BRAND CHAOS! I feel for you and Tom and the AIRLINE ABUSE you endure each month.

Posted by John at March 7, 2005 7:43 AM

And yet ... why is Hertz Rental Car so good?

Posted by Steve Yastrow at March 7, 2005 8:06 AM

Hertz approaches LOVEmark status apparently - and they prize their PEOPLE as talent and family members.

Posted by John at March 7, 2005 9:04 AM

Steve, what is it with you bashing airlines (United in particular) all of the time?

As a very frequent traveller, I myself experience many hassles, but when you think about the big picture, they really do an amazing job with their core business...getting you from point A to point B, safely.

Not once in my thousands (literally) of flights have I felt unsafe. RARELY, have I not been able to make my final destination within a few hours of my originally scheduled time...amazing considering the planning, coordination and number of possible points of failure. Thanks in large part to United!

Posted by Brian at March 7, 2005 9:51 AM

I don't think its bashing of an airlines .. I think --like its titled "brand dissonance". What matters is that getting you from point A to B can be done on a bicycle...is not the point. The point is to keep the main thing the main thing. That is, synergies of customer satisification and Employee Satisifiction which resonates and does not dissonacates.

With poor, CSI and ESI impacts Branding off course and thats why southwest is creating a niche market for themselves..

Steve, to answer your : "Do you think the top brass ..", question. No, they are not fixing the problem, they are only interested in bottom lines at any costs. Their credo is serve those above you, rules those below you and dam'nd be you, if you dont like it !!!

Posted by /pd at March 7, 2005 10:07 AM

Oh good, a chance to rant! I recently had one of those US Air/United experiences, which entailed dragging my bags from one terminal to another and back again. They could have salvaged the situation, for me anyway, with excellent customer service.

Instead, the people at each airline blamed each other for being too lazy to look up the flights (I missed my original flight due to a snowstorm problem), and even berated me, to the other people in line, saying, "Can you believe she's so stupid that she didn't even know which airline to go to." Of course, the fact that it was a United flight operated by US Air was mentioned nowhere on my e-ticket. I'm pretty easy-going, but that got me fuming as I schlepped my stuff back to the other terminal. No lovemark there.

Frontline service is so important, especially when the top brass is only focused on the bottom line. These people can make or break a company. Pay attention to them, please!

Posted by Sue Pelletier at March 7, 2005 10:56 AM

The saddening thing is that the information is there among the front-line people, and they are not being heard, no doubt any information that gets through is brushed off by management as "disgruntled," "hostile to change," "don't 'get with the program.' "

Posted by AH at March 7, 2005 1:00 PM

So, is anyone surprised that a couple of bankrupt companies can't get it together and perform to the satisfaction of their customers? That's why they are bankrupt in the first place, and not due to 911 as they like to trumpet when crawling up the capital steps with their hats in their hands--again. And as for Southwest, they remain profitable, yes, and they have a "folkloric" perception of good customer service--mostly put forth by Southwest, not Southwest's customers. This airline rediscovered the old Saturn advertising success of quirky ads plus the company claiming high customer satisfaction and loyalty. That gets everyone believing that this airline must really be excellent. Southwest actually performs no better than any other airline, nor is their staff living up to their advertising (CEO says they only hire smiling faces, so it must be true, right?). The web abounds with people mad at rude flight attendants, ticket people, etc. who are part of the Southwest team. Southwest retains customers because of PRICE. Anything else is just advertising, so be wary of it. The problem with this is that it all becomes "true" in the way it was "true" that the sun orbited the earth before Copernicus and Galileo. It gets repeated and taken as fact by people with no actual experience of the event. You can say that's just good branding, but I'm cynical enough to be turned off by it and to choose not to use this company. Of course, my other options for airlines are pretty lame as well, but at least they aren't telling me how wonderful they are at the same time. I'll stick with Northwest for now, for the best on-time rate and safety rate. And, I already know most of the flight attendants act like the headmistress in The Little Princess, so I get what I expect.

Posted by Mike at March 7, 2005 1:36 PM

John, I have to agree that this is another banter on your part of United Airlines.

The practice is not limited to United. I fly frequently and I have to say the scenario you mention between United and US Airwaus would also happen between code shares between Continental and Northwest, American and Alaska, Delta and Continental and even now Southwest and ATA.

Certainly there is some agravation with this practice, but one also has to look at the glass half-full, with these arrangements I am able to earn mileage with two airlines, find a schedule and a fare between two cities where my favorite airline does not fly, and I can use the lounge of the other.

I guess I see these are very good benefits to me as a customer.

Posted by xoff at March 7, 2005 10:50 PM

how to buy cheap viagra online Both orgs were bankrupt when they got together. A simple case of two wrongs don't make a right.

The guys at the top are actually pretty desperate.

Survival tip: Code share flights are easy to spot by their flight number. For example, if you are flying on United flight number 123, then the US Air code share flight will probably by 4123. You'll know to check in at the UA terminal. Look for 4 digit flight information, your first clue.

Survival tip no. 2 - Use a good travel service, especially if you travel often. Not all are created equal. The good ones will note your itinerary if you are on a code share or not.

Posted by Carey at March 8, 2005 1:34 AM

Yeah Steve! Let's bash the airlines! Just kidding... All the different comments above make a point: great service is in the eye of the beholder: for Brian it is getting safely from point A to point B, for Ms. Pelletier is not losing her luggage, for Mike is on-time and safety rates, for xoff is frequent-flier miles and shared lounges. But for all of us, it is getting what we expect (as Mike mentions in his post). Sometimes I wonder: Do companies offer bad service because they don’t know what their customers expect, or they do know but can’t or don’t want to offer it?
Gabriel S.

Posted by Gabriel Salcido at March 9, 2005 12:32 AM

No pillows for you!
__

Posted by Jeff at March 9, 2005 11:37 AM

Fly them both and have not had a single problem with the codeshare arrangement. Have benefited immensely from them honoring each other's elite status. They aren't quite as smooth with the arrangement as my experience with NW and Continental, but I'd say it's a pretty good deal. And it's not too much to ask that we look at the ticket to see who's operating the flight so we know with which airline to check-in. it's printed right there for us to see.

Posted by Jeffrey at March 10, 2005 5:05 PM