And there you have it folks! Another company "saviour"......!!!! Probably thinks VJM'ing, picking up open time and helping the company out is a GREAT THING too!!!! Wooohooo PB is helping to save the company (does this sound familiar?)! Here's a newsflash PB...............treat your EMPLOYEES with a little dignity and respect and the rest will fall into place. The reason they're offering this is because things have gotten so CRAPPY lately that they're trying to do a little "damage control" to save some face. What a joke.

Exactly................every time we've helped them out we've been crapped on. Sorry, but many of us have had more than enough..................

With the initiation of this program, is United saying that our service is sub par? If so, was the lack of this program the reason for past sub par customer service? Are there other underlying reasons driving the problem?

Solving problems with band aids only keeps the wound clean. Healing is another story.

But Jeff already says he does that. He says it before every flight. I mean you can't run an airline from some corner office in a skyscraper.

Agree, this program isn't what it appears. It appears to be for the employees. Really though? Six employees out of over 80,000 are going to receive, in total, less than the W2 of a senior FO?

This is for external consumption. It is part of the advertising and marketing plan to attempt to make the flying public feel that something is being done about the universally acknowledged declining quality of the product.

In particular, it is for the MileagePlus members to feel like they have a voice in fixing the problem--that they themselves have identified through their corporate contacts.

Unfortunately, far more MileagePlus members (and their companies) are probably voting with their feet, rather than in this lame and transparently cynical program, and moving their accounts to other airlines.

It also perversely blames the high-value MileagePlus fliers because the subtext of this program is that the poor customer service could be fixed if you'd just give us some feedback. The MileagePlus member looks at this and either thinks UAL management really doesn't know how bad their product is thus making them managerial idiots, or they do know and are shifting the blame to them, which is insulting. If you, management, are so incompetent or detached as to need my feedback to identify your customer service problems, then I'm outta here.

Still waiting for my $125,000.00 retro check, sorry, signing bonus.

I knew a guy (small business owner type) from my commute. We usually took the first flight out to EWR in the morning and over time just recognized each other and said a cordial "Hi" to each other.

Last month I took the first SWA out and noticed this guy sitting in coach. I joking asked him "Made the switch, huh?". He looked at me and said "Sorry, I held out as long as I could. Way too many problems over the past year. I'm switching everything over in my company to SWA." No wonder my SW commute has been filling up over the past few months :(

Interesting anecdote particularly in light of today's news that UAL will be downsizing IAH due to none other than SWA. You can't fool the customer. They know a good product when they see it.

What type of equipment (aircraft) was being used on your "normal" commute?