How NOT to Treat Your Customers (Airline Edition)

“There’s a flight arriving early Saturday morning—do you think that will work?”

I was planning my trip to Taiwan for my cousin’s wedding, and wanted to get her input before I booked my ticket.

“That might be cutting it close,” she replied. “Maybe fly in the day before?”

“Sure,” I said. Having flown to Taiwan dozens of times, I didn’t think there were going to be any issues, but agreed it didn’t hurt to get there earlier.

Her suggestion turned out to be incredibly prescient, because what actually transpired on my ill-fated flight was a masterclass in how not to run an airline—brought to you, unsurprisingly, by United.

The original plan was simple: depart at 11:10 PM, board at 10:20 PM, arrive at 4:05 AM local time. Here’s how things actually unfolded, along with United’s own notifications:

• 10:13 pm – Delayed 30 minutes: “Loading supplies for your in-flight service took longer than expected.”
• 11:05 pm – Delayed another 30 minutes: “Still loading supplies.”
• 11:37 pm – Delayed to 12:30 AM: You guessed it — still loading.
• ~12:00 am – We begin boarding! Surely this is a good sign…
• 12:52 am – Delayed to 1:00 AM: Supplies still in a black hole somewhere.
• 1:21 am – Now 1:30 AM.
• 1:34 am – Now 1:50 AM.
• ~2:00 am – Surprise! The flight is delayed until 9:00 am, and everyone needs to deplane immediately.

At this point, it felt less like a flight delay and more like a cruel joke.

What made it so much worse wasn’t just the delay itself (although a 10-hour delay due to “loading supplies” is absurd) — it was the complete lack of honest communication. For over two hours before we even boarded, the gate agents would make announcements every 15 minutes or so that it would be “just a few more minutes.” It was actually kind of comical because I saw a Premier 1K customer berating the United staff about how they were lying to us for almost 2 hours (he wasn’t wrong).

In any case, many passengers (my brother included) ended up sleeping at the terminal since we didn’t have much time before the flight would take off in the morning. I opted to taxi home for a few hours of sleep in my own bed before heading back up to the airport.

The next morning I struck up a conversation with the passenger standing in line behind me. “The gate agent told me they switched catering companies and that was the cause for the delay,” he said. “I should have just flown Eva Airlines, I don’t know what I was thinking…”

I did finally make it to Taiwan — slightly groggy, mildly bitter, and very thankful I listened to my cousin. But what stuck with me more than the delay itself was how poorly United managed expectations.

Delays happen. People can deal with bad news. What frustrates customers is being strung along with false hope and half-truths. If they had simply told us from the beginning, “Hey, there’s a major issue with catering — this could take hours,” people could have made different choices. Maybe this wasn’t feasible because the airline was busy figuring out how to deliver supplies via pigeon, but alas, one can dream.

In business, as in life, underpromise and overdeliver is a principle for a reason. United, unfortunately, seems committed to doing the exact opposite: overpromise, underdeliver, and repeat every 15 minutes.