To Doyle Albee:

In the article it states, "One year later, after numerous failed attempts to get reimbursement from United ... ."

To me, that would imply this incident took place more than a year ago. It is clear, in this case, that HE is the victim--though I do agree with SN, he really shouldn't have checked it in the first place. That doesn't mean it shouldn't have been taken care of, though, along with the rest of the baggage.

Ha! I remember having a window seat a few years ago and looking out while others were boarding. We weatched a boxmarked "fragile" fall off the luggage cart as he whipped around. Then, it was picked up and tossed on the conveyer belt. Several of us were watching from the window and just shocked. The complete indifference of airline employees is amazing. The stewardesses are generally pretty nice but the ticketing agents, customer service agent, luggage handlers, etc are horrible. Sorry, can't help ya! that's all they want to say; they don't even attempt to look into helping you. Meanwhile, they're nickle and diming you for everything when you fly. *sigh*

This was great! I'm just wondering if you have to be a musician (or writer or blogger) to get satisfaction from companies' customer service departments anymore. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has come out the losing side of a battle with a company and wasn't able to load a music video on YouTube to exact my revenge. What may be the best part of this story is that now I've got the refrain "Because United breaks guitars" running through my head, reminding me of this story throughout the day.

Bravo! You've spoken for the hordes of passengers treated poorly by United. They've come a long way from years ago -- a long way down, that is. :(

What's sad is that, once again, the villain responds only after the victim has to go to great lengths to obtain a measure of justice.

This isn't about airlines, it's about bad PR. The public applauds this victim's success and comes away with the message that, once again, ordinary people who aren't able to take extraordinary steps (like this wonderful video) will be treated with consistent levels of disdain and worse.

Here's an opportunity to see whether anything really changes. If it does, it would mark a tipping point in customer relations.

But I'm not holding my breath.

Go get 'em boys!

Back when I played professionally, we flew plenty -- and we all had stories like Dave's. I carried glue with me on long trips, and I've been in spots where I had to stack hotel furniture on my bass to clamp it while the glue dried.

To airline people who may stumble across this: Do you know how damned hard you have to whack a guitar in a flight case to break it? Accidents happen, but that kind of "handling" is no accident.

I frequently fly United out of their hub at O'Hare-Chicago. I've had the same kind of experience with United Customer Service, especially the baggage people. Horrendous.

The worst incident: I found several items stolen from my checked bag, which could only have been done by United's baggage people. They were unhelpful, unsympathetic, and unfriendly. Shameful.

By contrast, I recently left a leather jacket in the overhead bin on a Southwest flight. Their customer service was MUCH better. They went out of their way to help me, locate my jacket, and ship it to me.

Being a former flight attendant and a regular old passenger and Travel Consultant, Go For It! You'll be doing all past passengers with
baggage problems a BIG favor. If you had to
write and produce a song and video to finally
receive any kind of response, even a negative one, I'm for it. The luggage lizzards of the world may have to drop their unions and become
responsible to the customer. Keep me informed.

I had Premier Executive status with United for many years. Now that my job requires less travel, I no longer hold that status. Not long ago, a United "customer service" agent denied me a simple request because "you just don't fly with us enough." Well... THAT certainly makes me want to come back.

Not sure what's going on at United, but like Dave described in his song, employees seem to either at best not care, or, at worst, be miserable and take it out on the customers. The change in the level of customer service from just a few years ago is remarkable.

Southwest, on the other hand, seems to encourage their employees to enjoy themselves, and they spread that to the passengers. I avoid United at all costs, which is sad, as they used to be my favorite airline.

Glad to know it's not just me.

Doyle Albee
www.metzgerblog.com

Mr. Olson, you must not fly much these days. Most airlines won't let you carry guitars on anymore. But good try attempting to blame the victim. Are you a defense attorney perhaps?

Oh so now United is concerned about their poor customer service. As a customer who has had just one too many bad experiences flying United, I'm thrilled with the video and the fact that it's gone viral via social media. Good for United. Maybe they will finally wake up and realize just how awful their service is and perhaps, if it isn't too much to ask, we'll see improvements. I'm not holding my breath though!

Brilliant video. Absolutely brilliant.

BUT this is the first serious musician I've ever known of who would check their guitar instead of carrying it on board.

Enjoyed every minute of the video, but I don't feel the least bit sorry for him.

Brilliant video. Absolutely brilliant.

BUT this is the first serious musician I've ever known of who would check their guitar instead of carrying it on board.

Enjoyed every minute of the video, but I don't feel the least bit sorry for him.

United's PR strategy here is of the bend-but-don't break variety. They show appreciation for the artistry and the concerns and now jump on the case, responding to the songwriter. This will help the company defuse some of the crisis, but behind the scenes, I'm sure they have real concerns that this viral video will hurt their buisness. The communications objective here is to put this video in the rearview mirror of "forgotten graveyard hits" as soon as possible. Worst case scenario for United is if this singer and his band hit it big and they are required to sing this song at every concert for the next 20 years. Could happen.