BlissWorld

On a recent flight from IAD-LAX on the 777, a lucky passenger was glowing over her seat in United Business. Then, when she boarded (I was right behind her), the BP reader rejected her BP. The agent handed her a new bp and said to her "we mistakenly put you in the wrong cabin, so now you are back in coach and here's your bp" The pax looked embarrased and outraged and started arguing. The gate agent simply told her that she paid for an economy ticket. The pax responded that she was upgraded at her previous destination. The GA responded that the previous destination's agent had no authority upgrading her without an upgrade instrument . The pax then said she would pay full fare (yeaaa right....). I don't know what happened afterwards because I went into the aircraft after that. I am pretty sure she went back to coach as C had checked in full.

What would you do if you were in her shoes?

p.s. UA now serves a new type of gold snack mix with sesame stix

lucky9876coins

Doesn't sound right for a second. One major problem at UA is the lack of accountability. If one agent does something wrong which makes you readjust your expectations, some agents have no problems saying "they messed up, here's your real seat." They should instead be reporting the bad agent and honoring the mistake, IMO. If C was full they should give her a CR1 or something.

Of course it would help to know the circumstances of why she received an upgrade. Maybe an agent had offered it as compensation to her for something.

SEA1K4EVR

I would have been angry also if I was her. A United agent gave her an upgrade for whatever reason, and once given to her doesn't she have the right to expect it to be honored? It isn't as if the woman hacked into UA's computer system and upgraded herself. An employee, an agent of United, who has apparent authority to do such things gave it to her.

I realize this sort of thing happens all the time because UA puts the onus on the GA's working the particular flight and they could somehow get in trouble for honoring, GASP, something an agent at another airport promised (probably in most all cases due to some disservice the pax received). IMO, this is not how it should be done. The system needs to be changed.

TA

I have to agree that this is not a good way to do things.

In a previous thread, I commented that if a phone agent mistakenly gave you an upgrade on your reservation because of some inconvenience/schedule change, and the computer took it away later, then you had no grounds to complain. This case is different, where you have now begun the itinerary, and the person is being put on the spot.

The original upgrade should have been done properly, or the person should be allowed to travel as the BP says. It is not "nice" to yank it away in real time.

But then, we also don't have the full story, so it may not be what we thought.

dcmike

If I had been upgraded somehow at my previous destination by a UA GA, I would be majorly POed. It doesn't seem right that one UA GA at one location can do it and then the other can simply jerk it away.

MatthewLAX

I agree. Unless the passenger received a CR-1: !

BongoVIP

Yeah....I had witnessed a similar thing happening on the same flight IAD-LAX on the evening 777. The "lady" was upgraded from Y to F (on a three cabin) out of MDT (I think, definitely an express station). The GA's downgraded her to C and she had a major fit. The GA (then eventually the supv) told her, the previous station should not have upgraded you to F (as a double cabin upgrade), you were WL for the upgrade to C and honestly, with your status, you would have not even been upgraded to C because she was 20 something on the UG list. She became very upset.

She then continued to throw a fit, and saying DYKWIA, I am a 1P and I am calling my lawyer, you are discriminating, snapped/barked at a few pax in line at the counter, etc.

The supv told her you have 2 choices, 1) take the C class seat that you would not have gotten in the first place because you would be so far down the list, or 2) you can continue to have your tirade, and watch the plane leave without you on it.

I was shocked he didn't call the police to have her removed.

It was quite the show.

dcmike

Sorry, I have to rant about this a bit more.

So much of customer service is managing expectations. This woman had been told she was sitting in C by a UA employee and she thought she was entitled to that C seat. To take it away in just a public and humiliating way is just bad service and bad for the company.

This is why I don't particularly mind delays IF there are frequent announcement explaining what the heck is going on - you set expectations. If you just keep silent, people get angry and upset.

These basic lessons seem to be going by the wayside more and more.

jhayes_1780

While I do agree that the blame someone else (at the previous destination) should have involved some follow up. I disagree that UA should have dispaced another passenger to keep her in C (or F).

I would change my opinion if the passenger was given the upgrade as compensation for some sort of issue.

But along the line of the OP's quote of the GA: you paid for Y, your gettin Y (although there is a nicer way to say it).

Cargojon

Perhaps the lady had been upgraded for some VDB circumstance that the 2nd GA was unaware of. I would be mad too.

By the way, MDT is not exclusively and express station. They have mainline service to ORD (at least for now....)

bschaff1

This is extremely poor handling on United's part and both agents should be held accountable. When I am dealing with any company such as UPS, Hilton, or numerous others and run into problems, I tell them I don't care who said or did what wrong, I am dealing with a company, not individuals, and it is their own internal problem to sort out. This could have been handled by at least compensating the customer with a CR-1 for their troubles because of a United screw up, not played the blame game with other employees.

BongoVIP

then it wasn't MDT. Secondly, in this case, it wasn't a VDB issue or irregular ops nothing. Just an express station clearing someone on a discounted Y-fare into NF (since it had availability) on a 3-cabin plane and NC had zero because people were WL (like she was in the first place) for the upgrade.

PTahCha

That's exactly what I was thinking. Before fully understanding the requirements of a CR-1, an agent applied the cert to PHL-ORD but not ORD-LAX on 777, and there was no record of how the agent supported the upgrade. The agent at ORD made an "one-time exception" and upgraded us anyways, but not without fuming for 20 minutes about it.

jfhscott

Initially, I cannot completely agree that the passenger is too terribly aggrived. At worst, she was given a gift, without her doing anything (VDB, paying, etc.), and UA thereafter reduced it. to express it like a lawyer, she did not have an agreement, as there was no consideration; rather there was a gratuitous promise.

BUT, this situation (assuming it occurred as discussed) was poorly handled. I learned when I was five or so to honor my promises and UA likely should have done the same. And I do not think that the GA should have thrown a colleague under the bus. Rather, it would have been best to honor the colleague's promise and handle the error internally. I will bet you lunch that, afterwards, the GA did not do anything internal to address the colleague's error, which would be more appropriate than downgrading a passenger.

I had a similar situation 6 years ago. I was VDB's from a Y seat from TPA-IAD. I got a free flight coupon and a double upgrade (to "F") on a 3 class plane they ran the next day (I think they were regualrly running 3 class planed on that route then). The next day, when I went to check in, I was downgraded, being told by the check in agent that the double upgrade was "illegal".

(1) I am not familiar with any airline or employee being legally sanctioned for double upgrading. The check in agent had no business assigning her downgrade the imprimitur of law. This characterization (if believed) did provide cover for a colleague's screw up.

(2) Unlike the aggreived passenger described above, however, I had given up something of value in consideration for the double upgrade, and I fully expected to receive it.

(3) You can't fight city hall, or in this instance, UAL.

jetsetter

Once the pax is given something by a UA agent, it should not be taken away. I don't really buy either this whole theory completely that the gate agent at the IADLAX segment would get in trouble for honoring something another station did. I don't think the gate agents job is to audit evry ticket and circumstance and PNR. There job is to get the flight out, and service the customers at that station not to act like some kind of auditting authority. I'm sure on occasion gate agents might have gotten in trouble for something like this, but I don't think it is extremely common especially if the upgrade wasn't initiated by said hub gate agent.

One time I was stuck overnight in a small midwest station due to snow returning to my home city. I was on a Priceline ticket, and a Premier Executive. At a hub previously on the trip, I got the agents to take out the dummy 999999 MP# and add my number to the record.

The small midwest city would not provide a hotel voucher, but they gave me 2 segment upgrades, and then rebooked me in first class for the next day not requiring any instruments. On one of these segments, I was in first class on a 3 cabin plane on my Priceline ticket not using an instrument.

I viewed the upgrade as a lucky break, a gesture of goodwill, and relating to me having to pay my own hotel bill. I would have been very upset if the hub gate agents had taken away the upgrade because of some sort of bureucratic rule or company policy about double upgrades or Priceline tickets.

Keep in mind too, your average person doesn't really understand what a double upgrade is, and probably honestly doesn't even know what is allowed or not. Your average person barely knows their mileage plus number and their status and what that all means.

Another time I got a free upgrade on an IAD-BOS segment related to a VDB and a reroute. Res found the upgrade, and took it away because I was traveling on a DBCFREE ticket which is technically not upgradeable. I complained that they took away what was given to me, and they ended up giving me a CR1. So UA lost more in the end, they gave me a CR1, rather than letting me keep my lousy 400 mile flight upgrade IAD-BOS. Again res downgraded the flight because of a dogmatic procedure of following rules over all else. It took a res agent, a res service director, and me about 45 minutes to resolve it, most of which time I spent on hold. So let's say they not only had to give up a CR1, but it tied up 2 employees for about 1 hour....all because some person had this belief, almost like a religion, to adhere to corporate policies about not honoring an upgrade on a DBCFREE.

I've always been one to think of rules as guidelines, and even in my employment situations, I've never been one to dogmatically adhere to corporate policy over common sense or good customer service. I realize not all people are like me, but since I do it this way, I have a hard time understanding the mindset of someone who follows corporate policies as if it is a religion they deeply believe in.

Of course, I, or a UA agent, could get in trouble for not always following a corporate rule to the T, but its a risk I've been willing to take.

I think in the ops and the follow up story, the pax was just unlucky. If these upgraded pax had a different gate agent, they probably would have let their upgrade slide. But the pax were just at the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong person and lost their upgrade. Victims of chance and circumstance.