Well I've got to admit - I never saw that one coming - a snap general election!
We seem to be asked to vote on something important every year at the moment and I find myself asking, what are we trying to prove here? (I'm sure we had a general election in May 2015!).
I
s this just political point scoring? The 'in out referendum' was all about trying to resolve conflict within the Conservative party - look at the outcome....... The current
disarray.....
Does Theresa May think that a fresh General Election result will really give her the majority and mandate that she needs to push through Brexit reforms - or is she just taking advantage of Labour's current drastic position in the polls to secure power for a further 4 years?
Either way, it's bad for business - it's a well known fact that people don't like uncertainty and delay booking their holidays until important votes like this are decided. (Look at the effect the last 2 referendums had on business...) Sometimes, you can't help but think that you are just a pawn in someone else's game!
As far as PR disasters go - United Airlines' recent overbooking debacle is right up there with Gerald Ratner!
The images of a 69 year old doctor being manhandled off the aircraft to make way for United Airlines Staff, probably caused the biggest stir about a travel related incident on social media, since Facebook began.
I've got to say, anybody watching those images couldn't fail to be shocked by the totally unreasonable use of force.
If you have been in the travel business for any length of time, you will have come across the overbooking scenario before - nearly every airline does it - and it is normally resolved amicably by offering passengers compensation and a later flight home. Obviously there is some kind of monetary limit or criteria applied before they start choosing passengers at random - and that policy has to change. Never mind that a fare paying customer was being asked to leave the flight to make way for Airline staff. That only added insult to injury.
We all know that it could have been any one of us trying to get home - to get back to work, to see a loved one. That is why it caused such a stir - people were not only outraged by the treatment of the passenger, but also had considerable empathy for him.
The real disaster for United was the way in which it was handled. OK hindsight is a great thing, but they totally underestimated the reaction - initially the CEO made a statement backing up his staff and saying that the passenger had been 'belligerent' - then later used corporate speak in a half-hearted apology stating that he was sorry that some passengers had to be 're-accommodated'. The subsequent social media storm was unbelievable. United's share price plummeted, the CEO was forced to make an all out apology, but quite frankly, it was too little, too late. The brand was tarnished, the damage was done.
I have a lot of sympathy for the guys up here at United Airlines, who are an important supplier and have been operating out of Scotland for the best part of 20 years. Let's hope it's a temporary set back and the brand and the company can recover and learn from this unfortunate incident.
