The United debarcle

[3WE]

I'm about to board a United International flight to New York...man I miss my the little J-31 and polite country folk. I am anticipating some COMmand Authority and measured restraint demonstrations from the cabin crew. It ain't gonna be Mayberry...

[TeeVee]

Had I been trapped by myself in an airport at age 15, I woulda thought it was the awesomest thing ever, bar none!

until everything closes and you can't buy any food, assuming of course you had money in the first place.

i dunno, seems pretty straightforward to me: air canadia screwed up. here in social justice land, if a parent did that they would likely be charged with neglect of a minor. of course airlines can never be held liable......

[ATLcrew]

until everything closes and you can't buy any food, assuming of course you had money in the first place...

Oh, I wouldn't even be thinking about food! The idea of having a whole airport to hang out in would have completely obliterated any consideration of nourishment.

[Gabriel]

What was the airline SUPPOSED to do with him?

How about walk the talk?

Air Canada policy about flight delays stated on its website: “Youths traveling alone (ages 12 to 17) … will be taken care of by our agents. We will also arrange for accommodations, meals and transportation if needed.”

[Gabriel]

of course airlines can never be held liable......

Even when they breach the contract?

“Youths traveling alone (ages 12 to 17) … will be taken care of by our agents. We will also arrange for accommodations, meals and transportation if needed.”

[3WE]

Even when they breach the contract?

Nice snip...and not arguing with it but speculating that there is heavy ironing if you apply reality.

Do you think the site manager has assigned agents to supervise the kid overnight at a hotel... I'm thinking if you check him in and leave him off and he gets hit by a car as he strolls to Applebee's the press gives you hell and The Tee Vee Passenger Defense Law Firm is all over you.

You really need TWO agents as false sexual assaults accusations can also be made...

And I think employees are burnt out too...nothing more beautiful than a BUNCH of weather disrupted people trying to rebook time sensitive flights and someone's shift ends... mgt sure isn't going to support them if they start earning overtime in the interest of the screwed over passengers. James and Cletus, you can't go home- you have to stay with Johnny at the Motel 6.

[TeeVee]

Oh, I wouldn't even be thinking about food! The idea of having a whole airport to hang out in would have completely obliterated any consideration of nourishment.

so having spent the night as a young teen in the toronto bus station (yeah, not quite the same as YYZ), i can tell you it was less than fun, but i hear ya!

[TeeVee]

Even when they breach the contract?

i don't wanna get into writine=g a treatise on this, suffice to say that they would likely argue, and some shithead judge would agree, that the "contract" was for transporting the kid and everything else was part of their services for which they cannot be sued--IN AMERICA.

i see part of the problem as this: they did not apologize. rather, they said "we'll look into it."

[3WE]

How about walk the talk?

One other tough thing...the kid is 15... I can see him bolting and doing his own thing more so than cowering from bandits.

And, again, there could be a fair bit of embellishment and spin on the story.

The shitty aspect isn't that a 15 YO slipped through the cracks, it's that the 1-800-0CA-NADA number had zero humans anywhere to call the airport to page Johnny AND that no way will they put him on another airline...stuff like that.

[Not_Karl]

One other tough thing...the kid is 15... I can see him bolting and doing his own thing more so than cowering from bandits.

Zip-tie him somewhere safe, problem solved.

[3WE]

THE WORST YET...TOTAL INJUSTICE QUEST DISASTER!!!!!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/national/ct-jetblue-birthday-cake-incident-20170514-story.html

Don't dare suggest that this was contrived ATL crew, you heartless airline minion.

Edit for reader assistance: This is the birthday cake = kicked off the plane incident.

[Gabriel]

It seems that some FAs need to grow a thicker skin. Not "whoa that's thick!" thick. Just thick enough to resist a very slightly inappropriate word from a customer without tearing apart.

[Evan]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...514-story.html

Don't dare suggest that this was contrived ATL crew, you heartless airline minion.

More pathological adherance-to-policy behavior that isn't being dealt with. It's not just the airlines. There is a power-tripping / self righteous / inflexible / contentious behavior disorder breeding in large corporate customer-facing culture. These companies need to screen better and train customer-facing people to recognize it in themselves and to avoid it, and thus stupid escalations like this.

Without regulations to do so, economic forces may entice them to deal with the problem. Hopefully, these situations will continue to blow up virally and large compensations will continue to be paid out. After enough of that, even the slow-witted airlines might recognize the cost of avoiding the problem and start to invest more in their people on the ground, so to speak.

Notice you don't hear about this happening on airlines like Emirates, who invest a great amount in screening and training their people.

[3WE]

More pathological adherance-to-policy behavior that isn't being dealt with. Nah...it's more everyone (pax AND staff), and an unwillingness to address it.

It's not just the airlines. There is a power-tripping / self righteous / inflexible / contentious behavior disorder breeding in large corporate customer-facing culture. Yes.

These companies need to screen better and train customer-facing people to recognize it in themselves and to avoid it, and thus stupid escalations like this. I will shortly be making a politically incorrect post regarding this...Make no mistake, they train...but I will also go back that it's procedure to the detriment to fundamentals...that is the problem here...no fundamental backing for customer service basics. And to re-re-re-re-re state, it still doesn't mean you have to let the customers abuse your lovely little economical and efficient airline.

Without regulations to do so, economic forces may entice them to deal with the problem. What are you smoking? I want some.

Hopefully, these situations will continue to blow up virally and large compensations will continue to be paid out. After enough of that, even the slow-witted airlines might recognize the cost of avoiding the problem and start to invest more in their people on the ground, so to speak. Indeed, you are smoking some really good stuff...

Notice you don't hear about this happening on airlines like Emirates, who invest a great amount in screening and training their people. Over simplification...Last week I got to witness an interesting display of nut-job passengers vs. worn out gate agents after a 4-hour delay...ON UNITED AIRLINES NO LESS! No one was beaten and forcibly removed, but the United folks could very likely have invoked the letter of the law and caused some folks to miss the flight...Instead, they did follow one rule of customer service and 'let the passengers vent a bit' and then (sort of) address the problem...I won't give them an A+ for performance or consistency, but DID RECOGNIZE that they put up with this crap on a daily basis...and not with the upper management support nor systematic support that I would probably like to have.

(No, my message is not too short...the systematic customer service behavior of this discussion forum stinks )

[3WE]

Today's incident

https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/c727e281-72ce-3499-82f2-e961549ba780/ss_american-airlines-accused-of.html

Does someone need to start a table of airline, brief description and date on these....

Edit: This is a case of being accused of racism.