Business: Would United's CEO Try the "Undercover Boss" Experiment?

Dear Mr. Glenn F. Tilton,

As the chairman and CEO of United, have you attempted what some are doing on the television show “Undercover Boss?”

Have you attempted to use one of your self-check in kiosks?

Have you worked along side the agents behind the counter?

I recently took two friends to LAX on the morning of April 28, 2010 and found a chaotic scene at the Terminal Seven United ticket counter. Though I’m not a frequent flier (once or twice a year), I do understand there is some amount of waiting involved but this scene was clearly out of control.

My question for you and your management team are the following:

Are your software engineers working on improving the self-check-in computer system such that less agent intervention aside from tagging the luggage is required?

On that morning, there was a long line to get to the check-in machines which we understand as many east-coast bound flights leave at that time. But what was frustrating was that upon using the self-check-in device, we quickly reached the point where it asked us to get assistance.

As I looked around at the other passengers, this seemed to be a fairly common occurrence. The passenger on the right kept asking the agent for assistance and eventually bellowed, I’ve been trying to get someone to help me for the last 45 minutes. The same was true of the passengers to our left.

In looking down the bank of kiosks, I can’t be certain, but it seemed only about 1/2 of the people appeared to breeze through the self-check-in process while the other half had to flag down an agent to continue the check-in process beyond receiving receipts for their luggage.

Is management aware of staffing levels at peak periods?

The agents behind the counter were clearly overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of passengers requiring additional assistance. I can’t imagine that the crowd that day was any more than any other day, after all, it was a mid-week flight. Perhaps, for some reason, that shift was particular short-handed. In any event, it was clearly a case of too few agents trying to address too many passengers.

What kind of training is your company giving these agents?

I could overhear many complaints that passengers were given conflicting information about which line to get into and what the charges were for luggage. In my two friends case, their 3 luggage (all under 50 pounds) should have been free since their final destination was a foreign country. But the agent at the counter insisted on charging them $50 for one extra luggage. Upon giving her $60 it took over over 15 minutes to get change back which involved talking to a supervisor who said the luggage fee was only $20 (still incorrect). At that point, weary of the confusion, we got the change and was done with it.

I realize that the airline business is difficult with unpredictable fuel costs, expenses to address terrorism, turnover in staffing and unexpected problems like an Icelandic volcano grounding flights. However, poor customer service is going to hurt your business far more than those external challenges.

Your management team needs to get into the front-line and see what your employees are facing and give them better tools and training so they can get the job done well so passengers will choose United again.

Thank you for considering this feedback on your customer service.

Sincerely,