Newsstand - "Passenger Rights" As Practiced By UAL (A Sad Sad Story)




MisterNice
May 1, 00, 9:53 pm
This appeared in a local Maui weekly free-but-fairly-good newspaper last week. It was put into electronic form only yesterday.

............finally the flight was rescheduled for 9:30 that evening – 32 hours after the scheduled departure the day earlier. And it finally took off with its weary passengers who received Travel Credit Exchange coupons worth cash towards their next flight for their long ordeal – as much as $500.

Hartmut Bungert, a Captain on Lufthansa German Airlines commented, “This is the most mishandled experience I’ve ever seen in my flying career. And I’m particularly distressed as our flying partner is United.”

His wife, Astrid, a school teacher in Frankfurt agreed, “In Germany, we have the impression that Americans have a high level of service. That was all destroyed by this experience.”

Dr. Don Schmidt and Dr. Anne Barnard of Charlotte, NC. Both medical doctors had patients to see and operations to perform. “I’m hoping we can get replacements to take our place at the hospital,” says Schmidt. Dr. Don Schmidt, a medical doctor from Charlottesville, NC was traveling with Dr. Anne Barnard who is an internist at the same hospital as Schmidt commented, “We’re going to have to find somebody to replace us, as many of our appointments and operations will have to be covered by somebody else.”

Many travelers were flying long distances to get home. “To Germany we have to fly another 17 hours. To add 32 more hours of waiting time to this experience is too much to bear,” said another passenger traveling to Frankfurt.............

Ok, to read the not-so-nice full story go to: http://www.mauiweekly.com/2000/04-27/NEWSSTORY1.htm


Angry Drunken Dwarf
May 2, 00, 8:04 am
At least they weren't stuck on the runway...

MileageAddict
May 2, 00, 9:02 am
Would they rather have been stranded at Detroit?

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Tango
May 2, 00, 9:19 am
Fly the unfriendly sky's with Untied Airlines.

AC*SE
May 2, 00, 10:10 am
I guess the obvious question is, "Why didn't they ferry out a spare aircraft?" or even wet lease one, for that matter. Given the number of shuttle flights that are routinely cancelled, surely there was an aircraft that could have been rotated spare for 12 hours.

Jon Toner
May 2, 00, 11:25 am
In addition to the $500 voucher, I believe they got an extra package of mustard pretzels too.


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"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."

thesilb
May 2, 00, 6:59 pm
I posted a topic in the United section a few months ago ["UA: Not Following 'Our United Commitment'] detailing exactly the same type of ordeal.

United is simply not following their own posted "Customer Bill of Rights." Its a shame. My letters, faxes and email to UA have ALL gone unanswered by them.

Brian
May 3, 00, 1:54 pm
You know, if you run an airline, and have hundreds of flights a day, sometimes things happen. Bad things. This was one of them. It shouldn't have happened, but it did,a nd at a bad time (holiday weekend) in a bad place (Maui) with bad options for making it right (get the right part, fix the airplane, fly them home).

I think UA is sadly imperfect at times, but then again, I am too, so we make a good match. I don't believe in using a specific incident to support a general thesis.

As a consumer, I vote with my wallet. That is far more effective than telling big corporations to do things my way. I like UA better than the alternatives, so that is how I vote financially.

deltadave
May 3, 00, 6:41 pm
Though I still fly United some, my overall experiences with them over the past 6 or 7 years tend to support this "isolated thesis". Maybe that's why my handle is "deltadave" and why most of my travel dollars go to Delta (an airline that has not only served me consistently and fairly over the years, but when there is a problem makes it right). And, I don't know if anybody else has noticed, but I think Delta's customer service has improved even more over the last year or so.

seeyou
May 4, 00, 5:48 pm
Most travellers have a trip from hell story.This UA incident is in keeping with UA's story of incompetence or whatever you may call it.
Even though it was Easter week,the late night HNL flights had some seats open to LAX.Just UA is so trying to make the profit numbers at their customers expense.

Needless to say after 30 years flying UA ,I'am now a happy AA Plat. best wishes to youall UA flyers.



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