Dear Mr. Smisek - It is about the Starbucks Coffee....

Dear Readers -

Thank you all for your support and growing interest in what I write for this blog.  As of yesterday, this blog has been read over 30,000 times.  Please keep sharing and get the word out.  It has been nice seeing analysts and those in the media calling for a change in management at United.  I will again ask all of you that have shares to please make sure to vote "Against" the re-election of the Board Members, including Jeff Smisek, and vote "Against" approving the executive compensation plan.

Your Proxy notices will be arriving in the next week either my mail or e-mail. I urge you all to cast your vote on line or by phone.  If you request the Proxy that allows you to vote at the annual meeting, you must be in attendance or you forfeit your chance to vote.  Even if you vote on-line or by phone in advance of the meeting, that does not keep you from being able to attend the meeting in Chicago.  Rally together your flying partners and friends who own shares and urge them to be there.  There has never been a better time to make a very public stand that will put pressure on this Board of Directors.

I hope you enjoy this new post.  Thank you so very much for keeping the Skies Friendly!

                                                                                                                                  

On Thursday of this last week, April 24, United Continental Holdings, Inc. released their earnings statement for the first quarter ending March 31, 2014.  They reported a loss of $609 million which includes one-time and special charges.  Much of the blame for the poor showing was placed on the severe winter weather that gripped the Midwest, Northeast and Atlantic states.  United canceled over 35,000 flights in February, all but 5,000 of those flights were with regional carriers operating under the United Express name.

I was not going to listen to the webcast on Thursday morning.  After I read the earnings release, I figured that the excuses that would be offered in the webcast would be the same excuses I heard at the meeting I had with United management the week before.  I did listen though, and I am so very glad I did.  How do the young people put it now? - oh, I know, Jeff and his "Team" got schooled.

It was only the day before that Delta, American and Southwest all reported record earnings for what is a normally slow quarter for the airlines.  They too were affected by the winter weather, yet they somehow managed to keep it together.  Jeff told us that United was more at risk because of airport closures in Chicago, Cleveland, Newark and Washington D.C..  Come on Jeff, Delta has hubs in Minneapolis, Detroit and New York, but they were able to plan and respond in a better fashion. 

Revenue is where Jeff and his "Team" really felt the pressure.  Placing all the blame on the cancellations, United's year over year passenger revenue number went down 2.3%.  Yield and PRASM numbers went down 2%.  There was no real change in capacity, so what all this tells us is that United does not have a good product to sell.  United could not get their revenues up because there was no demand to push an increase.  United flew 455,000 few passengers than they did in the first quarter of 2013.  All of this supports what so many of us have been saying, Jeff and his "Team" are managing to chase customers away.

I took a look at Delta's performance, despite having 17,000 cancellations during the quarter, they managed to show a year over year revenue increase of 5%.  They increased capacity by 2% (customers defecting from United were going to need seats), yet managed to get their PRASM rate up 3%.  Average Load factor was up to almost 83%.  Revenue Passenger Miles, this is the number of miles flown per paying passenger, went up 4%.  

Comparing the two carriers - here is how key unit revenue and expense numbers measures look:

                                         United          Delta                % Difference     

      (1)  PRASM (cents)          12.91          14.24           (9.34%) unfavorable  

      (2)  Yield (cents)            15.92          17.21           (7.50%) unfavorable

      (3)  CASM (cents)            15.81         15.39            2.73%   unfavorable

      (1) - PRASM = Passenger Revenue per Available Seat Mile.

      (2) - Yield = Passenger Revenue per actual Revenue Passenger Miles flow.

      (3) -  CASM = Operatings Costs per Available Seat Mile.

Delta and United are almost the same size, serve almost the same numbers of cities and target the same customer base.  These numbers should be much closer.  

I also took a look at the pre-merger operations for the combined United/Continental carriers, in the first quarter of 2010, against their performance now, and here is what I found:                                        

                                         1Q/2014       1Q/2010                 % Difference        

      (1)  PRASM (cents)          12.91            12.47              3.53%  (.9% annualized)  

      (2)  Yield (cents)            15.92            13.50             17.93% (4.2% annualized)

      (3)  CASM (cents)            15.81            12.37             27.81% (6.3% annualized)

It can be argued that a big part of the increase in costs is due to the long overdue raises to many of the many employees as Joint and Tentative Collective Bargaining Agreements were put into place.  However, declining demand for the product has kept United from seeing the revenue growth that Delta and other carriers are realizing.  

As Jeff and his "Team" said in the webcast, "this quarter is definitely not where we should be."  Jeff went further by saying that there are still "structural issues (tied to the merger) that my Team has to work out."  I noticed that Jeff never took responsibility for himself, it was always his "Team."  I had to laugh when one analyst asked the "Team" - "what excuse will you have for us next time?"  Yeah Jeff, you got schooled.

As I listened to this webcast I felt so vindicated that everything that I have been trying to say was being confirmed by analysts and others out there that do have a voice.  As a shareholder I was certainly disappointed to see what happened to the stock price after this webcast.  The day before the announcement, UAL stock shot up after the glowing announcements put out by Delta, American and Southwest.  Everyone thought that United too would report that actual numbers were better than what was expected.  Those numbers were worse.  At the opening of trading on Thursday, UAL stock dropped almost 6% right away.  As I was listening to the web cast open in one "window" on my computer, I was tracking the trading in UAL stock in the other.  In that one hour, UAL stock dropped another 5% points and by the end of the conference call, the stock was 12% down from the day before.  On Friday, UAL stock went down another 9%. 

Right away on Facebook and different sites, people were posting quotes from analysts weighing in that day.  I listened to both CNBC and Bloomberg news, and those commentators were all in disbelief that Jeff and his "Team" thought they could put all the blame on the weather.  One CNBC analyst even commented at how fragmented the operation still seems to be, to quote, "its been three years, they should be operating as one airline by now."  Jeff and his "Team" had nowhere to hide on Thursday.

When questioned by analysts about revenues, James Compton Vice Chairman, and the number 2 man, conceded there was work to do.  He said they were going to improve yield management.  That one kind of took me by surprise, Continental was supposed to have been the darling in this area and what about SHARES, aren't the same algorithms that were programmed in Apollo being used by the SHARES system?  I think there is something here.   Apollo was a leader in computer reservations systems for the airline and travel industry.  Automated yield management played a big part in how the system controlled inventories and fares.  It could track demand and make adjustments right away to optimize the amount someone was willing to pay for their seat at the time of booking.  The Apollo system engineers had years of experience in fine tuning demand and supply trends and having the system control inventory to optimize revenue.  Mr. Compton says they have gone back to reduce the number of available seats for lower advance purchase fares, and are taking a look at pricing through the Denver, Houston and Tokyo hubs.  Is SHARES telling them to do that, or do they have to make the determination on their own?  If what I suspect is right, SHARES is not as sophisticated as Apollo to effectively monitor and measure demand and respond accordingly.  United will never be a revenue leader if they cannot manage fares and inventory in tandem and more efficiently. 

So what is going so wrong at United? 

Jeff - it's about the Starbucks coffee, not so much about the actual coffee served, but it is about what that change represented.  Right after the merger you promptly got yourself on the safety videos and arrogantly promised that United customers were going to like the changes that were coming.  One of those first changes was to discontinue serving Starbucks coffee and then replace it with some swill that was no better than a generic brand one would find at a grocery store.  Jeff, with just that little change you were telling your United loyalists that you did not care about the details; therefore, you did not compare about the customer.  The old United got it right, show the customers that you care enough about them to serve a premium, well-known coffee.  United was telling us customers that they cared about our morning cup of coffee.  It was a nice touch.  You all may have thought it was too expensive and that no one really cared, but the backlash you received said differently.  You responded by promising us a better cup of coffee, but it still not as good as Starbucks.  

The next change we were going to like was to the Mileage Plus system and the elite award levels.  Elite customers were now going to be Premier Silver, Premier Gold (formerly Premier Executive) or Premier Platinum (formerly 1-K).  Global Service would still be Global Services - you can't afford to piss them off.  With those changes though it was going to be more difficult to redeem mileage awards and secure an upgrade.  I don't even know or understand the new rules to get an upgrade, I just pay the first class fare, which I guess is what you want me to do.  The changes were necessary because, to quote another member of your "Team," John Rainey, "some customers had become over-entitled."  This was another change that we were supposed to like, but it became a change that you said was necessary because us customers from both United and Continental had become "over-entitled."

In 2010, I was a "Pass Plus" member with "1-K" status spending about $35,000 per year with United on travel just for myself.  Suddenly I had become over-entitled.  Well, Jeff my spending on United dropped to just under $5,000 in 2011.  I wanted to fly, but what you were doing with United was making my stomach turn, I just could not justify spending that kind of money anymore.  You had changed the routes, fleet and crew so much, there were no flights I wanted to take unless I had to.  At pre-merger United, the 3-cabin 777's and 767's that were flown cross county and between hubs had a purpose.  If you were going to fly in the first class cabin internationally, they wanted the customer to have that experience on all segment of their trip.  Those flights not only helped with positioning and getting more use out of the planes, but more importantly they were there to tell the premium customer that United cared enough to make their whole journey as nice as possible.  Those flights were full, customers sought them over the other flights to the same destination, and they were timed perfectly so that passengers could easily connect to their international flight out of Dulles, Chicago, San Francisco or Los Angeles.    They knew at pre-merger United that the demand for seats on those planes paid for those trips, and the margins they got from premium customers sitting in United First or Connoisseur class made those flights profitable.  I loved the 777 trans con flights and I always paid to sit up front, now that is all gone.  More often than not now, any trip I book domestically is going to be on a 737.  You are now telling your premium customer that if you want to go to Europe from Los Angeles, they are going to have to endure a cross country flight in a 737 to meet their connecting flight at Dulles or Newark.  You tell us it is a better utilization of the fleet.  I am sorry Jeff that you could not see the full picture and reasoning for putting those planes in the domestic schedule.  This is another change where you are telling us that you really do not care about our experience.

Most importantly, I still say the biggest problem and reason for customer defections is your failure to fully integrate your operations and get your people working together.  Many of the analysts weighing in on Thursday and Friday concurred.  You purposely segregate employee groups to do what is needed to reign in costs.  You don't care how demoralizing it is to those employees and you are blind to the fact that this divisiveness is felt and seen by the customers every day.  It makes us very uncomfortable.  This affects elite customers from both United and Continental.

Using a loophole in the Collective Bargaining Agreements, as older aircraft are retired, you layoff well-trained, experienced hard-working flight attendants on the United side, and then hire new, unpolished and inexperienced flight attendants to staff the new planes being put into service on the Continental side.  The only reason for doing so is because you are trying to break the resolve of United's Flight Attendants who only want to do the best for their customer and their airline.  You need more productivity out of them and you are determined to force it out of them rather than negotiate.  All of this divisiveness Jeff is noticed by the customers and they do not want to deal with it.  You are losing customers because you will not negotiate fairly with the employees.  

Two years ago, on the beverage napkins, you said, "Planes Change, but values don't - at United your priorities will always be ours."  As a customer my priority Jeff is to have the same respect from this United that I received from the pre-merger United.  That is not going to happen as long as you continue to treat the front-line employees as a line-item on the Income Statement that needs to come down.  How can you tell the customers that you care about them and their needs, when you cannot even do the same for those on the front-line keeping this airline flying.

So, yes Jeff, you are losing customers because of the coffee, the tulip, and the unfair treatment of employees.  You are also losing elite customers because any customer can buy elite status privileges when they book their ticket.  There is no longer a need to fly a minimum number of miles.  The United Club (formerly the Red Carpet and President's clubs) is no longer restricted to those of us who maintain annual memberships.  Any customer, for the right price, gets access to the club.  Now these clubs are no longer a refuge for the road warriors seeking some place to relax between connecting flights, or get some work done before their flight.  Again, another detail where you show you do not care about the elite flyers from both airlines.

Before the merger, United and Continental were good airlines; however, your arrogance is bringing them both down  There are 9 million passengers that used to fly United or Continental that are now flying on Delta or other newcomers like Virgin America and JetBlue, where they do care about some of the details, and the customers feel respected once again.  It is the little details that show your customers that you care about their lives and their experience while flying United.  When you stop placing importance in those details, you are telling your customer that you do not care.  

Paying an outside consulting company millions of dollars to retrain employees in customer service is not going to fix things or bring customers back.  A relatively new employee with only 2 years of experience cannot go around and start telling other employees about "route structure" to those employees who have been on the front-line for 45 to 50 years.  Bring back the Starbucks coffee, bring back the tulip, bring back the Friendships and Proud Birds, stop treating the employees as commodities and get back to respecting your elite flyers and their loyalty.  If you and your Board of Directors don't get this, then it is time for you all to step down.  I am going to do all I can to reach out to as many shareholders as possible to convince them that change is needed.  You got schooled this week Jeff and it was humiliating not only to you and your "yes" men; it was humiliating to shareholders, and it was humiliating to the customers that have remained loyal all this time.

My day at World Headquarters...

My apologies for the delay in posting this report; I know many of you are anxious to hear about what happened at my meeting with Senior Management at World Headquarters this last Wednesday.  It was really difficult to take a day away from the office to go to Chicago, but I could not pass up this opportunity to be able to discuss my concerns, as a shareholder, customer and supporter of the front-line employees, about what is happening to United Airlines.  The last few days have been a struggle not only to find the time to sit down and write this, but to be honest, it was difficult for me to figure out how to tell you all that I did not come away from the meeting having succeeded in directing any change, or with any optimism that things are going to get better in the near term. 

The meeting was held in a conference room on the 10th floor at World Headquarters in downtown Chicago.  In addition to myself, in attendance at the meeting were:

Brett Hart –    Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary

James Compton - Vice Chairman and Chief Revenue Officer

P. Douglas McKeen - Senior Vice President Labor Relations

John Gebo - Senior Vice President Financial Planning and Analysis

Jonathan Ireland - Managing Director for Investor Relations

I had met Messrs. Gebo and McKeen before this meeting.  I have had the chance to sit down with Mr. Gebo on other occasions to talk at length about what is going on at United.  He has always been fair and candid with me, and I was glad he was there.  Mr. Compton is the only executive in attendance that had come over from Continental. 

Instead of starting out with a dry recap of what transpired in the nearly two hour meeting, it is best just to come right out with the “take away.”  For as much as I was hoping to make a difference, I knew there was little chance that what I had to say was going to influence any of the decision makers in attendance.  I did leave the meeting feeling confident that the facts I used as the basis for my arguments could not be disputed.  The meeting was relaxed and cordial, and I did not feel intimidated into re-thinking my position.  They appeared to respect what I had to say and I felt good right after the meeting; however, the next day as I had a chance to review some information I had been given at the meeting, and after taking some time to talk to a friend at LAX, it was apparent that much of what was discussed was still just a lot of “lip service.”  I got caught up in the moment and in my desire to show them I appreciated their time and commitment, I withdrew my shareholder proposal.  I failed in my attempt to make a difference.

Executives at United are certain they are on the right course.  In any area where the airline is under-performing, the blame can be placed squarely on merger-related “hiccups” or weather.  Customers should also expect to find more automation and outsourcing as they are the better business decisions.  The most significant revelation I got from this meeting is confirmation that a Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement (“JCBA”) for the Flight Attendants is going to have to mirror the tentative agreements in place now for the sCO/sCM Flight Attendants.  Until then, layoffs will continue on the sUA side as older equipment is retired, or demand drops off forcing more capacity reductions.

Looking Ahead

Even though I withdrew my proposal, shareholders will still have at least two opportunities to cast their vote of “no confidence” in the leadership team.  The first is the election of the Board of Directors – shareholders can vote “For,” “Against” or “Abstain” for each nominee, one of which will be Mr. Smisek as Chairman of the Board.   It does not take a majority vote “Against” to convey the message that shareholders are waning in their support for Mr. Smisek.  More often than not there is a lack of interest by shareholders; therefore, management exercises their right to vote “For” each nominee by proxy for the non-voting shareholder.  If there is a big increase in shareholders actually taking the time to vote “Against” the nominees; that can send a pretty loud message to the Board members who keep Mr. Smisek employed. 

The second is to vote on an Advisory Resolution approving the compensation for Mr. Smisek and his Executive Management team.  This is only an Advisory Resolution, meaning that the Board is only required to take into consideration the desire of the shareholders.  Even if there is a majority vote “Against” this resolution, the Board can still approve the compensation for the name executives as laid out in the Proxy Statement.   However, like in the election for Board members, if there is a big jump in the number shareholders actually voting, it is another “no confidence” signal that is very public and casts a bad light on Mr. Smisek and his team.

For the Flight Attendants, consider re-setting some of the objectives laid out for your Joint Negotiations Committee.  Management is not changing its course, so it is more important now than ever that all United Flight Attendants come together as soon as possible.  From what I learned from Mr. McKeen, once there is a JCBA in place, those who have already crossed over will get their seniority back, and when staffing needs require it, furloughed Flight Attendants will be called back to work.  As long as the three Flight Attendant groups stay divided, management will always have the stronger hand.  I wonder how effectively Mr. Risoli can manage when he can no longer hold the threat of furlough over his employees.

What I was happy to hear on this trip is that nearly 90% of sCO Customer Service workers voted to join their peers on the sUA side and become part of the IAM.  This means that all of United’s Customer Service employees are now governed under one JCBA.  This was a blow to the managers who lobbied hard to convince them to vote against joining the union.  Now with all of the front-line employees unionized these Continental managers find themselves treading in unfriendly waters. 

My last take-away from this meeting took me by surprise and left me a bit embarrassed.  After the meeting, Mr. Hart’s assistant had arranged for me to take a tour of the Operations Center.  It was a fascinating and impressive experience, but what I realized is that even though the customers may not see these professionals who work in dispatch, man the crew and hotel desks, watch the weather and airport operations, and keep their eyes and ears open to any security risks – these employees are as much on the front-line as those employees we see at the airports.  The merger was intended to consolidate these departments; thereby reducing a significant portion of the fixed costs for the airline. We do not hear much about it, but there are a lot of good people who have already lost their jobs.  Now when I voice my support for the front-line, I will keep in mind those in the Operations Center and those in support positions at WHQ.  They too are at risk as myopic managers make poor decisions.

To repeat what I said before – Proxy Notices will be coming out any day now.  If you want to make sure you get a chance to vote, consider buying some shares if do not hold any now, and if you do own shares, follow-up with your Brokerage account manager to let them know you want to vote.  When I withdrew my proposal it was conditioned upon more of the shareholders being given the opportunity to ask questions or express their views at the Shareholders Meeting.  I was assured that would happen.  I am planning at being at that meeting, and I ask that you consider taking time out of your busy schedules to be there.  Change will not happen if no one questions the actions of these managers. 

Never forget that you are more than a co-worker, - YOU – are United Airlines!

Meeting Recap

The meeting was relaxed and each manager had prepared in advance to address each of the five points that I brought up in my Shareholder Proposal.  Much of what they discussed was taken from the presentations that were made at the last Investor’s Conference held back in November of 2013.  This conference is a meeting with those fund managers and institutions that hold 95% of UAL stock, as well as Wall Street and Media Analysts that follow UAL.

1. Merger Costs.  In my proposal I had stated that merger and integration related costs had far exceeded original projections, and had exceeded what had been reported by Delta Air Lines in connection with their joining up with Northwest Airlines.  On the last 10-K filed by United Continental Holdings, the total for what was reported as “Merger and Integration Related Costs” was $2.025 billion.  Shareholders were originally told that these costs would be around $l.2 billion, and when I checked again, the total reported by Delta on their 10-K’s as “Merger and Integration Related” was just over $1.5 billion. 

Mr. Ireland explained that this area can be subjective in its reporting.  His interpretation is that Delta reported other costs separately that really should be considered as “merger related.”  When you add in those other costs, Delta’s true integration costs are closer to the $2.0 billion that UAL has spent.  They feel that the costs are in line and justified.  What I need to take time to do is look at the 10-K’s for both companies to see if there are other one-time charges that are reported separately, but might be considered “merger related.” 

2.  Operational Performance.  This is where I brought up that expense growth was outpacing revenue growth, when measured on a unit basis (PRASM, Yield and CASM).  I also brought up that revenue growth rate at Delta was outpacing United, in fact almost twice the rate. 

This is when I received my first lesson in “Stage Length Adjustments.”  Because United is more of a long-haul carrier, it follows that their nominal unit revenue statistics (PRASM and Yield) will be lower that those reported by a carrier who’s “Average Stage Length” is lower.  In a nutshell, Delta flies more of the shorter, higher revenue producing city pairs than does United.  To more accurately compare the performance of the two carriers; those nominal statistics reported have to be adjusted to account for the difference in the “Average Stage Length.”  They displayed a graphic that they used at the Investor Conference that United’s “Stage Length Adjusted” unit revenue statistics are the highest in the industry. 

Mr. Compton and Mr. Gebo both conceded that United was lagging terms of growing revenue and had work to better those numbers.  The problem in 2011 was that is was the first year of the merger and that there were integration issues that were a distraction.  In 2012, that problem was the conversion to the SHARES system and the outages that were experienced, and in 2013 the blame is on the bad winter weather.   However, they wanted to assure me they are on track to better those numbers.  They continue to find more ancillary revenue opportunities.  In fact, a big part of the decision to go over to the SHARES system is that its programming is flexible enough to add an infinite number of “impulse items” that can be purchased when a customer is making a reservation or checking in for their flight. 

When discussing On-Time performance, they repeated the same excuses, merger hiccups, the SHARES outages and bad winter weather.  They also said that most of the delays were coming from United Express flights which are out of their control, and that previous tracking was based upon “padded” flight schedules.  It is easy to be on-time if you add on thirty minutes in the schedule.  While this “padding” can improve On-Time performance, it doesn’t work because it increases the block time for which in-flight employees are paid, keeps planes on the ground longer so they are used less, and it doesn’t paint a true picture of the airline’s performance.   They did say that there is work to be done here and they are on track to get that number back up to where it was before the merger.

3.  Stock Price Performance and Return to Shareholders.  My proposal pointed out that Delta shares have gone up nearly 170% in the last three years, while UAL shares have gone up 81%.  It is hard to argue against an 81% return and management certainly does not agree with the opinion any run up in UAL shares is momentum driven.  They think that the performance of the stock tracks with the performance of the company.  I think they are a little nervous though about what will happen this Thursday, April 24, when first quarter 2014 earnings are reported.   

4.  Market Share and Customer Satisfaction.  Mr. Ireland pointed out that management is not where they want to be, but they see that the J.D. Power rankings are improving, and that United’s own internal polling shows big improvements.  I asked where they got the data for the internal reporting and they said it came from the surveys customers are asked to fill out after every flight.  I told them that I had not received a survey request since the merger which they said was some kind of glitch and they would see that it is corrected.  They also talked about the commitment in retraining over 43,000 employees involved in customer service. 

There was no real discussion offered by them about the exodus of passengers to other carriers, by my estimate at least 9 million in the last 3 years.  They did concede that they are not where they want to be in this measure and that that merger hiccups have disappointed long-time customers.  Based on what they did, or rather did not offer here, I am more certain that capacity cuts have been more driven by the drop in demand that they would care to admit.  They want shareholders to believe that it is a focus on “capacity discipline” in order to drive up revenue and cut costs. 

5.  Labor Agreements.  This is where Mr. McKeen came into the presentation and discussion.  His first point is that JCBA’s have been reached for all of the employee workgroups except the Flight Attendants.  He repeated what had been said before - that sUA Flight Attendants have had numerous opportunities to keep their jobs and cross over to sCO.  Older planes on the sUA side were being taken out of service and delivery of new planes was coming from orders previously placed by Continental, and those new planes are considered sCO metal.  He said it the AFA that wanted the restrictions that prohibited employees from the named divisions from working on the other’s metal until a Joint Agreement was in place. 

Mr. McKeen was also forthcoming in that management is expecting a Joint Agreement that mirrors the Tentative Agreements in place for sCO and sCM flight attendants. The pay scales are higher for sCO and sCM flight attendants, but the more restrictive work rules on the sUA side are expensive and inefficient, so much so that it makes sense they do what they can to get more sUA employees to cross-over.  Further, he put the delay on reaching a Joint Agreement squarely on Marcus Valentino and Greg Davidowitch and their “butting heads” with each other, and in some sense jockeying to see who was going to come out the leader.

I asked Mr. McKeen and Mr. Compton if they truly realized how demoralizing and divisive this has all been.  I told them that from my own experiences and in my talks with other customers, there remains an uncomfortable atmosphere in the airports fueled by the efforts of management to keep some employees divided.  Executives brought over from Continental, especially Mr. Smisek, have not garnered any level of respect from pre-merger United employees.  Long-time loyal United customers have not been happy with all of the changes and the numbers prove a lot of them have defected to other carriers. 

My sincerest thanks to all of you for your support and well wishes – it meant a lot to me; and Thank You for keeping the Skies Friendly!

Mr. Anderson goes to WHQ....

Dear Readers - my apologies for the delay in posting my report about what happened at the meeting on Wednesday.  This is a particularly busy time for me at work, and taking that day to go to Chicago meant focusing on my day job when I got home.  

I have also been wrestling with how to report what happened.  I was unable to change any minds or get them to see that they may be on the wrong track.  Was it a failure on my part that I could not make this opportunity work?  I don't know.  I left the meeting feeling that they were taking me seriously, but yet I still feel somewhat played by them.  I have my report 90% complete, I just need some time to edit and to think about moving forward and working "within the system" so to speak. 

I want to remind those of you that own UAL shares, please do not wait this opportunity to let the Board of Directors know how you feel.  My proposal my not make it on the agenda, but you will definitely have the opportunity to vote "For" or "Against" each Director, including Mr. Smisek.  The Proxy Statement and notices are going to be coming out any day now and if you are not a shareholder of record once those notices go out, you will not have the opportunity to vote.  

Voting is every easy and can be done on-line.  You can vote in advance and still attend the Shareholder's meeting.  If you decide that you want to be able to vote at the meeting, then you must be at the meeting.  Once you make that decision to get your Proxy released to you so that you can cast your vote at the meeting, you cannot change your mind.  If you miss the meeting, then you miss the chance to vote. 

I will get my report from the meeting up soon.  Thanks again for all your support and Thank You for keeping the Skies Friendly...