Word out of Chicago is that United Mileage Plus is now introducing new technology that can automatically generate letters of apology and perhaps even award bonus miles when things don’t go your way. As we all remember, United suffered through the Summer of Discontent two years ago, which created a challenge when it came to maintaining good customer relations.

Just about any airline passenger that has endured airport delays would welcome some sort of acknowledgement. We see this as a positive step for United, but caution them that if, because of poor service, we begin receiving a deluge of letters, then maybe it wasn’t such a good idea after all.