I’m not really what you call “anti-establishment”. I hate getting in trouble, and I generally like to believe the best about everyone. Experience, however, has tempered my idealism. High standards frequently result in disappointment, especially when corporations are involved. Health insurance companies (don’t get me started), NPS rangers (still waiting on a court summons from them), universities (again…I could mouth off on this one for quite a while), and–most recently–airlines.

United Airlines, to be specific.

Read her blog for the firsthand account, but basically Steph went on an awesome BASE jumping trip to Lauterbrunnen last month only to have United “misplace” $12,000 worth of gear (including her parachute, which is kind of vital to the whole BASE jumping thing). The climbing community on Twitter has been abuzz the past few days trying to figure out how to get United’s attention (they don’t respond to Twitter messages) on Steph’s behalf.

So…why am I writing about this? Because if it were my gear, I’d be pretty upset. And while to a company like United this is just a paper in the stack, a drop in the bucket…it’s bigger than that to the rest of us. And maybe it won’t do a lick of good for me to post my 2 cents, but it’s worth a try. They’ve lost my business unless they fix the problem they’ve created, and I hope you’ll think twice before boarding a flight with United as well. And spread the word! (This is where my tendency toward idealism and optimism kicks in…I’m hoping we can make at least a little bit of difference in this situation!)

Go check out Steph’s blog about it, complete with awesome photos from the trip!