United Airlines spins with the best of them

While perusing United Airlines' web site this morning, I noticed this boast at the top of the page: MileagePlus: #1 in award seat availability. Immediately, I realized that United was stretching the truth.

Last May, I wrote a post about award seat availability, so I knew of a certainty that Southwest Airlines had been rated #1 with award seats available on 100% of its flights. You can't get better than that.

Because the headline conveniently ignored Southwest's superior status, I clicked on the link to assess the spin the Chicago-based carrier was putting on the facts.

The airline was, in fact, quoting the same survey I'd written about, but was parsing the results by claiming that it was #1 "Among United States global carriers (United, American Airlines, US Airways and Delta)."

In fairness, United did have impressive seat availability of 87.1%, according to the survey by IdeaWorks. However, so did AirTran (which was acquired by Southwest). More importantly (to United, at any rate) was the fact that AirTran is not a "United States global carrier." By that logic and with those qualifications, United was indeed "#1 in award seat availability."

Certainly, "#1" sounds a lot better than "tied for #2" but claiming to be #1 -- even in a headline -- without qualifying that claim, such as MileagePlus: #1 among global carriers in award seat availability, does more than stretch the truth; it damages credibility.

Are you listening, United?


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