United Apologizes to Twitter CEO for Delays, Luggage

Posted by: Justin Bachman on January 27, 2010

What happens when you strand the CEO of Twitter without his luggage at the World Economic Forum in Davos? Nothing too horrendous, beyond the expected tweets, but United Airlines (UAUA) would likely have preferred to avoid such a scenario. “About to do my Davos panel in jeans and tennies,” Twitter CEO Evan Williams posted early Wednesday. He was stuck in Frankfurt Tuesday en route to Zurich due to heavy snow that marred operations this week at one of Europe’s largest air hubs. Williams finally made it to Davos (Bloomberg News photo at right) but his bags did not accompany him. “Sorry for the inconvenience,” United’s “official twitterer” replied in the second of two mea culpa tweets to Williams. “Love opportunity to personally apologize when you’re available.”

United is offering passengers booked to Germany from Jan. 26-28 the chance to change flights without fees. The airline learned about the power of viral complaints in 2009 when a musician, Dave Carroll, posted a music video on YouTube about his difficulties with the airline after his guitar was broken. The video, and enormous worldwide media coverage, prompted United to reverse its decision to deny Carroll’s $3,500 claim.