Says "Flights Of Note" Plan Isn't Noteworthy

United Airlines flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO, tell ANN they are appalled at a new customer service policy announced by United Airlines management last week. The flight attendants say that it does nothing to fix the poor planning, poor scheduling and poor staffing decisions that cause increased cancellations.

The union also maintains the policy does nothing to address what it calls "abysmal" employee morale, minimal ground personnel or inadequate gate access. Instead, according to the union, it signals to employees that management has set travelers up for a long, hot summer of delays, missed business meetings and disrupted family vacations.

As Aero-News reported last week, United executives announced the new policy to handle ground delays and named extraordinary delays, "flights of note." A program has been designed to identify delayed flights with the goal of keeping them to less than three hours, thus avoiding "flights of note" status.

Passengers on "flights of note" suffering over four hours of delay on taxi-out, 90 minutes on taxi-in or on ground diversion delays of over four hours will be eligible for 20% off their next round trip ticket on United and a $10 meal voucher.

"Flights of note? Who are they trying to kid? Trust us when we say flight attendants won't be whistling while they work on hot, minimally staffed, dirty airplanes full of understandably disgruntled passengers," said Greg Davidowitch, president of AFA-CWA at United Airlines. "All United workers will be doing their best this summer. But no matter how hard flight attendants, pilots and other employees work we will never be able to make up for the operation management built like a house of cards."

"Flight attendants know first hand the frustrations of United's customers. We encourage Congress to take action for passenger rights. It's clear that United management either refuses or has no ability to provide even the most basic service; getting from point A to point B," Davidowitch added.

Ouch.

FMI: www.unitedafa.org