United chief Smisek resigns amidst federal probe

[flee 5]

United Airlines chief executive Jeff Smisek has resigned, following investigations into the airline's interactions with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ).

 

Smisek’s departure comes as US authorities continue to investigate the PANYNJ, which operates Newark Liberty International airport. United says his departure, as well as those of two other executives, are connected to the internal investigation it mounted as part of the federal probe into the Port Authority.

Both the internal and federal investigations continue, the carrier says.

Full report: https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/united-chief-smisek-resigns-amidst-federal-probe-416523/

[Suzanne Goh 0]

Bye bye SMI/J! - maybe i'll come back now

[Mohd Suhaimi Fariz 2]

Bye bye SMI/J! - maybe i'll come back now

Is it really that bad under Smisek?

[Suzanne Goh 0]

Is it really that bad under Smisek?

 

In my mind he did a few things - changed UAMP, took away Economy Plus for Star Golds's , fumbled their wifi roll out (AA and DL have far greater percentage of planes equipped) , fumbled their transcon product - whereas AA and DL really stepped up with their A321T and Delta One offerings respectively. Made UA look old fashioned and out of touch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and at the same time, I'm pissed off with them because of the DKK ex Denmark fare error they refused to honor but that's another story lah

 

 

All in all, result is I haven't stepped on a UA (whether premerger UA or CO) plane since Jan 22, 2013 because AA simply does things better.

[Chris Tan 0]

Don't forget slashing the baggage allowance for non-UA's Star Silver/Gold flyers, GOH/S

[Suzanne Goh 0]

Don't forget slashing the baggage allowance for non-UA's Star Silver/Gold flyers, GOH/S

 

That also, TAN/K - thanks for the reminder.........

[Craig 0]

Is it really that bad under Smisek?

 

Yes! There are quite a few high value flyers that left UA (I am not a high value flyer, but I left UA for AA too!). They pretty much copied followed DL's lead in MP "enhancements" (revenue based accrual and highly inflated award charts) without DL's operations performance with far too many delays and cancellations.

 

Not to mention TODs (ten of dollars upgrade) and worst of all, choosing SHARES instead of Apollo (which was supposed to migrate to Amadeus later down the road to align with most *A carriers). You have to babysit reservations with SHARES - any schedule changes will mean that you need to call and reconfirm your flight, partner flights dropping off itineraries, mis-pricing partner flights, over aggressive protection (which leads to downline flight auto-cancelation if computer didn't see that you took a different flight) and "DOS-based" UI for agents (that's not for me, but during IRROPS, it's horrible when it takes a few minutes to rebook one passenger onto OAL).

 

 

In my mind he did a few things - changed UAMP, took away Economy Plus for Star Golds's , fumbled their wifi roll out (AA and DL have far greater percentage of planes equipped) , fumbled their transcon product - whereas AA and DL really stepped up with their A321T and Delta One offerings respectively. Made UA look old fashioned and out of touch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and at the same time, I'm pissed off with them because of the DKK ex Denmark fare error they refused to honor but that's another story lah

 

 

All in all, result is I haven't stepped on a UA (whether premerger UA or CO) plane since Jan 22, 2013 because AA simply does things better.

 

I believe access to E+ for *G was during Tilton's era. But yes, UA's transcon product is the worst amongst the US3, bad IFE resolution and most importantly, who says "let's fly premium to New Jersey!"

[JuliusWong 0]

Go to airliners.net. Any thread regarding to UA will turn into Smisek bashing thread.