As usual, on Mondays I check what is going on in the travel industry. Lately there are always stories about passports, but there is also information about improvements or difficulties with cruise lines, resorts, or airlines. The one that caught my eye today was the customer service issues at United Air Lines. The articles gave examples of disastrous experiences of travelers on United and discussed the reasons for the difficulties. The airline industry is rated lower than other businesses in terms of customer service because there are some inherent difficulties, but United is having more problems than most. The reasons are obvious.

United Airlines emerged from Bankruptcy in early 2006. During restructuring they eliminated about a quarter of their workforce. The remaining employees do more for less money because of contract changes. In addition the phone reservations and customer-service jobs were outsourced to call centers in India, the Philippines, and Poland. It also eliminated 200 U.S. finance jobs, including 30 in refunds and these were also outsourced overseas. To deal with their developing customer service issues, they created the new position of Vice President for Customer Experience and named Barbara Higgins, formerly of Walt Disney Co. to the job. They will have to meet selection, training, and quality control challenges if they are to reverse the reputation they have been developing.