United Airlines Remains Out of Touch

Some time ago, I wrote an email to United Airlines detailing my issues with a recent flight experience. I also posted it as an open letter in this blog.

I few things I want to note. Apparently, there are limited ways you can contact United via email.  Or rather, that is to say, none. An email sent to customerrelations@united.com resulted in the following response:

An Open Letter to United Airlines

Dear Mr. Smisek,

During a recent flight from Milwaukee to LA I happened to read your article regarding rewarding rewarding good customer service. Your article called out that United aimed to reward top performers in customer support with a generous, though surely well deserved, $50,000 bonus.  I applaud this approach as I continually see erosion of customer service by companies through the shaving of costs and overuse of procedure rather than asking, expecting and rewarding people to think.

I would like to ask though, how committed are you to this concept? If you are willing to reward folks for superior service, are you also committed to accountability in your co-workers?  Will you discipline them, dock their pay and terminate them when appropriate as well?