Patterico's Pontifications

7/18/2005

United Sucks

Filed under: Morons — Patterico @ 6:29 am



Saturday night, Mrs. P. and the kids (who had been visiting Mrs. P’s family in Kentucky) flew back into town via United. The connection in Chicago was tight, and the first leg was late. Their bags didn’t make the connection, so the airline agreed to deliver the bags to our house. We were told they would come by 6 p.m. last night. Mrs. P. told the agent at the airport that it was okay to leave them at our door, and that we didn’t need to be called when they came.

Last night at 2:00 in the morning, the bags were delivered by a guy who repeatedly pounded on our front door and called several times. (We don’t keep a phone downstairs.) Our daughter woke up crying.

Oh, and on a 4 1/2 hour flight, you get: snack mix, and more snack mix.

13 Responses to “United Sucks”

  1. What makes you think the others are any better? As long as everybody keeps expecting cheap fares you’re going to get cheap service.

    Kevin Murphy (6a7945)

  2. Here’s what gets me – the same airlines that are happy to send your bags on a flight without you when they screw up or want you to volunteer to get bumped will not let you fly without your bags when you want to.

    Case in point – we were flying Delta from Tampa to Jackson Hole through Salt Lake. When we arrived at Salt Lake, a Delta 737 was about to begin boarding for Jackson; our flight was on an Embraer and was about 60 minutes later. We figured we would prefer to get on the jet, arrive a little earlier (9:30 instead of 10:30 PM), pick up the rental car, then retrieve our bags from the later flight. No deal, says Delta, because “We can’t let you fly without your bags.” Bear in mind that these bags had already been through security in Tampa and were in Delta’s custody thereafter.

    The topper is that the later flight was delayed about 40 minutes because the connector to the hose they were using to pump out the lavatory would not release. Of course, they insisted on boarding us on time, so we got to sit in a full, 30 seat plane and enjoy the “eau de disinfectant” as they HAMMERED at the connector. Finally, the apporach in Jackson was as rough as I’ve ever experienced.

    On the other hand, we were able to leave Tampa at around 5:00 EDT and sleep at Colter Bay that night. And on the day of the return trip, we woke up to 15 degrees in Colter Bay, drove to the airport with the Tetons on the right, and arrived in Tampa 5:00, all for about $325 a person.

    eddie haskell (8fd1a1)

  3. That’s why I travel with carry-on luggage only, whenever possible, which it usually is. Tough to do w/small kids in tow, tho.

    BTW, if the bags had been dropped off quietly, as you requested, and something had then gone awry – for ex, if they were stolen – might United have been liable?

    I ask cuz the whole episode sounds as if United has a specific policy in place for this sort of thing. If so, I’d have to wonder why.

    Any United execs reading this who might know?

    ras (f9de13)

  4. Nothing has changed in this industry, except that the new lower-cost startups seem to give better service.

    I have some skis that have spent more time than I have in Miami. I took a ski vacation in Colorado and my flight went through Miami on the way back and my skis decided they liked it there. It took a month of my nagging them to finally get them back, and then United wanted to charge me for storage.

    I guess you should be warned anytime they tag your bags MIA before the flight even starts!

    nerdbert (f1f21a)

  5. Remember the second episode of “Beverly Hillbillies”? In it, the Clampett clan was flying to their new home in California. Granny had thoughtfully planned ahead and they all dined on a picnic basket of fried chicken. After they had polished off the chicken, licked their fingers clean, and put away the basket, the stewardess arrived with their airline meals.

    Guess the Clampetts were just ahead of their time.

    Whitehall (de745f)

  6. I worked for United. Even with all of the bennies, never was there a happier day than when that ended.

    Juliette (a7d1ca)

  7. “The connection in Chicago was tight”

    Says it all. You asked for it you got it.

    And to ras

    I recognise you. You’re the asshole with too many outsized bags using up all the overhead space and slowing up the boarding. LEarn how to schedule your life and check your bags. The other 130 passengers will thank you.

    All said, United it the very worst of the majors.

    jreid (38e64c)

  8. Says it all. You asked for it you got it.

    My wife asked for an hour and instead she got 15 minutes. So she didn’t get what she asked for. Just like I ask for civil and intelligent comments and instead I get yours.

    Patterico (756436)

  9. An hour is not enough. That is scheduling too tight.

    jreid (38e64c)

  10. You’re too right about United.

    But damn, they have the best airline commercials outside the Southwest football season ones …

    Mike (c53eff)

  11. Oh man United does suck. On my last flight to Asia, I had to remind the pursor, that indeed I was a customer and that I am sorry to inconvenience her, but I in fact did not get my meal, and did not appreciate having to argue about it. I also reminded her that I did pay for a ticket to get on the plain and that ticket help to contribute to her employment. I was not the enemy I was the customer. What blows me away about the whole thing, is that I think flight attendants have a job from hell, and I go out of my way to be polite and friendly to them. Instead of being grateful that someone said, “I hope you are having a good day”, I got a zeroed in on as a target for aggression.

    Okay so there management sucks but on the same note a true professional flight attendant can set the tone and I don’t need an argument with someone holding a pot of hot coffee over my lap.

    GK (5046a6)

  12. UNITED SUCKS!!
    After sending several e-mails (copied two below) I was offered a $100 certificate for my next trip! They have got to be kidding. Like I would ever use United again!!!

    I am very disappointed in your customer service and would like to take this opportunity to tell you why. This is regarding a trip I booked for four persons to Hawaii. I called and placed a reservation for four. I had enough miles to use for three tickets. I paid for the fourth. I confirmed with the agent that I was purchasing all four at that time. I had to pay taxes and such on the ones I was using miles for. I gave him my credit card number and he gave me a confirmation number. He said it was complete and I would receive the tickets in the mail. Well I received one ticket in the mail. The one I paid $950 for. So I called again to ask where the other tickets were. I was told that the request was never completed. Some how he managed to get the one I was paying cash for completed but not the other three. ANd now this agent explains to me that they no longer have seats available for miles tickets on that flight. He also informs me that he can’t change the ticket I purchased. So my options are to pay $950 for three more tickets or have the other three people go on a different flight. That does not really sound reasonable to me. He also told me I could save my miles for future use – because of course they are so easy to use!! I spent two hours on the phone during this call. I took three tickets on a different flight with my miles. I was told they would arrive in the mail. Well I waited a couple weeks and they did not arrive so I called AGAIN. The agent explained to me that my reservation was on hold but it was never completed. How did this happen again?? It seems like people are trying to prohibit me from using these miles. They had no problem with the ticket I paid cash for. Well this time I spent almost three hours on the telephone. They had to book me on a completely different flight this time. So again it is still one person on one flight and the other three people on another flight. Not exactly ideal for a family vacation. They explained that I may be able to go to the airport and have them switch the tickets but they could not do it over the phone, even though the original tickets were bought over the phone. Well after spending a total of 8 and a half hours on the telephone I received the tickets. Of course they are not for the flight I had initially wanted, because the first person who helped me did not do his job. Then I got to go to the airport so that all four of us could fly together. This is especially important because we will have to rent cars to and from the airport. We do not live close to the airport. Well I got my kids ready and took them all to the airport. I paid to park and stood waiting for my ticket to be fixed (with my children) for FOUR HOURS!!!! And do you know how the ticket was fixed? The agent called the number that I had called and had them fix it. So why could they not just do it for me? Why did I have to spend four hours in an airport with my children for this?? This is completely and totally ridiculous. Your customer service agents on the telephone were not polite or helpful. Even when it was their fault that things were messed up they insisted they could not fix it. It seems to me that you are trying to make it difficult for customers to redeem miles. It is already hard with blackout dates and limits on each flight. Then to make it worse, people make reservations and you just don’t complete them. That is unbelievable. I am completely dissatisfied with your customer service. Their are other airlines for people to choose, and when you do things like this, it encourages them to do so.

    I booked travel for 4 from Phoenix to Kona roundtrip. I sent a message due to problems we had with booking travel. It was messed up several times. I will copy and paste that at the bottom for your reference. However, I want to share with you what happened on the actual days of travel. It was a NIGHTMARE!!!! Due to all of the problems we had booking the tickets, I took the tickets to my local United counter before the day of travel to make sure that everything was OK and that we were set. I was told that we were. The person acted all helpful and took our tickets and gave us electronic tickets. She sent us on our way telling us we were all set to go. On the day of travel we show up at the airport, thankfully more than 2 hours ahead of time. We try to check in and we are not able to. We are told we do not have tickets. We show them everything we have and explain that we paid for three with miles and one with cash. We stood their while they called people on the telephone and other associates from other counters to come help. 25 minutes before our flight they manage to get 2 of the tickets straight but not the other two. So they tell us that we should pay for 2 tickets to LA where we have a connection. We are told that everything will be set when we get their and we will have no problem with the connecting flight. At this point we have no choice but to buy 2 more tickets. Our flight is about to leave and if we miss it we also miss the connection. So we buy them. Well then when we get to LA everything is not OK. We are sent from one line to the next. We are panicing because we have very little time to make our flight and their are not other open flights that day. We already booked hotels and stuff… This is suppose to be our dream vacation in Hawaii. HA!! Finally, we are told that they have located the reservation, but the tickets we have are not any good. We are told that we have to pay for lost tickets and get new ones. This is CRAZY!! We have tickets and did not lose anything. Well this is 30 minutes before departure and we have no choice. Their goes several hundred dollars more. This is the most expensive and stressful free tickets ever!

    Well then we of course are told that since we paid the lost ticket fee and had them reprint everything, we would not have any problem on departure. Well at this point we did not believe them. So on our last vacation day we had to get up early and make an extra trip to the airport just to make sure our tickets were OK. Then we could leave and come back for our flight that evening. Well it is a good thing that we did. They were not correct. First we are told we have no tickets. Then we are told we go into LA when we are suppose to go into San Fran. Well we spent three and a half hours at the airport getting it straight. What a lovely way to end the perfect vacation.

    I am still VERY angry. This is poor service from start to finish. Not only were our 3 mileage tickets not free, but the hassle was unbelievable. Plus, I paid over $1000 for the fourth ticket. That is $1,000 cash to get poor service. Seems like something is wrong to me.

    L M Drum (58632f)

  13. Their customer service sucks! I called to change a flight and they gave me the roundabout. No one seemed to know what was going on and they would transfer me to someone else. In the end one of the guys just transfered me to the number that I had originally called and so I had to start all over agina. Guess that what happens when you outsource everything

    I hate united (85c408)


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