boat9781

Yesterday, May 14, I went through an ordeal so frustrating that it is making me reconsider my loyalty to the new United. While the issue at hand was relatively trivial, the manner in which I was treated--and the way in which my problem was dealt/not dealt with--by the United staff at the gate was nothing short of horrendous.

While it is true that I was flying on United 905 on a reward ticket, I am both a Premier Gold and an Explorer Card holder, and therefore am eligible for elite upgrades on reward tickets, as per the Chase Cardmember agreement and the United website.

For whatever reason--and even though my UA number was in the PNR--my name was not transferred to the Upgrade Standby List upon checkin. I was not concerned as I called UA and was assured that I'd be added at the airport/gate upon producing my Explorer Card. And so I did.

The Gate Agent was clearly unfamiliar with the policy. I understand that. I offered to direct her to the website where the benefits are listed, or to show her the page on my iPad. She refused stating that "she didn't have time to read things." Okay. So I asked her male colleague as well. Same answer. I then decided my best bet was to call UA. Unbelievably, I immediately reached an agent who was not only well versed in the specific policy, but also exceedingly helpful. He added a notion into my record, and asked me to remain on the phone while the agents read through the comments and added me to the list.

When they still refused to add me to the Upgrade Standby List, the phone agent politely asked to speak to one of the Gate Agents as he was going to walk them through the process. The Gate Agent refused to use my cell phone. The gentleman on the phone then asked me to ask the GAs for a contact number so he could get in touch with the them directly if that was their preference. They refused to provide me a contact number. Eventually, and after much pleading, the Gate Agents called over a Supervisor (whom I believe they called a 'Service Director').

Anyway, this Airport Supervisor told me that it was a reward ticket, and thus not upgrade eligible. I again referred her to the notes in the PNR, the United website, and even asked her to please speak to with the phone agent--who amazingly vowed to stay on the line until I was added. The supervisor refused to speak to the phone agent, and she instead opted to call the 'Helpdesk.' This desk gave her some computer code, which she wrote down and then hung up. She pulled up some 'profile,' which stated I needed a OnePass Plus, not an Explorer Card. She concluded by saying that "this doesn't even make sense, why would we upgrade a reward ticket anyway? This isn't right…" Her tone made it sound like I was a criminal trying to steal something from the company...

At this point the gentleman on the phone was clearly frustrated (he overheard our conversation) and opted to call a Reservations Supervisor to intervene. After a short hold, he and the Reservations Supervisor on the phone were working to try and find a contact number to call to the gate--to speak to the Airport Supe. While they eventually found a contact number and the phone rang at the gate, the Gate Agents did not answer. At that point, they had cleared the Upgrade List, and I was out of luck. The phone supervisor determined my correct priority after speaking with someone else, and determined that I had in effect been skipped over. She tried to force me into F, but it was too late. I was told this case would be 'documented,' but to take my original seat in the back. She also told me to write down the names of the employees at the Gate and give them to her over the phone; not surprisingly, the agents refused and unfortunately their ID cards were not easily visible. As I walked away, the agents snickered to themselves--loud enough for the phone Supervisor to hear and apologize profusely.

Alas, so I missed an upgrade. To me that isn't the biggest deal. But what otherwise happened at the gate in Denver was truly astonishing to me. Although I understand that many PMUA agents are unfamiliar with this new policy, there is no defending the way in which they treated me, the customer. Moreover, there is no reason way at this point in the integration that agents are still unfamiliar with the Explore/Club Card benefits for United's best customers. Now, as to the agents' demeanor, that's another issue entirely. It is my hope that these agents are reminded that the customer is not to be treated as the enemy. And let's not forget the fact that the GAs refused to speak with the Supervisor on the phone--who was only clearly trying to help them help me!

While the Supervisor on the phone urged me to write into Customer Care, I'm hesitant to do so. I don't want an e-cert; I don't want miles. I merely want this issue to be fixed. I want solutions. Yes, the system should be better refined to do this automatically, but the question of who gets added to the Upgrade Standby List shouldn't really be that hard to answer--even if it has to be done so manually out of necessity in certain cases.

Anyway, enough said. What can I do here--if anything? Are my expectations out of line here? Has anyone else run into a similar problem? How do I get in contact with UA?

Thanks!

PTahCha

If you don't write in, they will never know that there's an issue.

Also, FWIW, with a reward ticket, you are the last in line within the Premier Gold bucket. Which means all FFCC, RPU/GPU users, GS, 1K, and Plat, and Gold members with paid fare have to clear first before you can clear. Basically, it's a non-benefit.

chinatraderjmr

You should absolutely write in and make sure you dive the flight AND GATE #. They can easily find the names of who worked this flight. Make sure you ccjeff Smisek. That's how you get them to pay AT&T to you. [email protected]. He won't really see it but one of the "executive assistants" will

mikeef

Please write in. If UA isn't made aware of the incident, nothing will change. Just keep your calm and factual tone.

In these situations, I often write, "I do not want compensation in any way. I just want to make sure that UA knows that I was mistreated by these representatives who did not know the correct policy and refused to speak to their coworkers who did. I hope that you will educate them on customer service and policy..." or something to that effect.

Mike

fanger

Seriously if you don't write in nothing at all will happen. Not that you can be sure something will happen if you do, but it's like the lottery. You can't win if you don't buy a ticket.

DeaconFlyer

Definitely write it. It's inexcusable that many employees refuse to learn the new rules.

But when you do, make your letter much shorter. Bullet points always help.

uwr

You were treated horribly. You should definitely write to UA as advised. You should also consider sending a PM to UA Insider.

The behavior of the GAs is worthy of a severe rebuke. Rudeness and lack of helpfulness are intolerable. Beyond that, not giving their names on request should lead to dismissal.

As I've mentioned before, I think that the vast majority of UA employees do a good job and take pride in their work. Your phone agents are good examples. The company needs to know about the rude and/or incompetent employees who give everyone a bad name and ruin the customer experience.

JetAway

These things won't get fixed if no one writes in and reports them. Venting on FT isn't a substitute for writing UA.

brengaz

...and you already have 1/2 of your letter posted here on FT.

I would check the AA status match thread (although IIRC it's now limited to 1k and GS): may be worth mentioning status match in your letter as a way to let UA know we DO have a choice of airlines.

mherdeg

That's awesome that UA has not updated the internal, pre-merger Continental "profile" to indicate that the OnePass card holder reward upgrade benefit also applies to Explorer Card holders.

(If you have a SHARES terminal handy, you can type in something like "GG CHECKPOINT" to see the "profile" for an internal help document called CHECKPOINT. This is an interesting example because line 53 says that check-in agents are supposed to give you a gate pass if you've got a club membership, and many agents only learn about this when they look up the internal profile, e.g. at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...nt-mayhem.html.)

redwoman

You really should write to UA or the problem will never be addressed. I believe that the key issue was that the GAs refused to look at the policies that you had found, refused to be allowed contact by someone at UA. If i had been in your shoes, I would have taken the fact that when they heard you give up with the UA supe on your mobile phone, and didn't bother to answer their desk phone they deliberately refused to handle your request. It was at that point that they knowlingly refused to do their jobs.

Don't frame it as a complaint that you didn't get upgraded. Frame it as refusal to help you even after you had done most of the legwork yourself. I wrote in once to complain that at the SFO 1st class (!) check-in a bag handler refused to make eye contact with me. I wasn't going to ask him to do something outside of his job description (oh no, heaven forbid) I simply wanted him to alert the one agent working there that I needed help. That's it. And the *&%$ was doing a "talk to the hand" at the 1st class check-in counter. I asked that UA consider re-training for their frontline staff, nothing more, and to my surprise I got a very apologetic email back and 19,000 (odd number but what the hey) RDMs. I don't know if re-training occurred but I haven't seen that bag handler again nor have i had a similar problem.

mherdeg

boat9781: Any follow-up here? This seems problematic.

demkr

You have to write in so that UA can be made aware of the continuing problem of people not being added to the UPG List. The less cases documented, the less they are able to help.

Also, the gate agents do need to be reprimanded for their behavior and actions in this regard. Particularly, the refusal to read the policy.

An e-cert or miles quite frankly are warranted here, because it's a token of appreciation for UA's own policy refusing to be followed by employees.

Whether it's poor training or poor attitude or both-who knows. But if you don't say anything, nothing is going to stop those GA's from doing the same thing to another customer.

boat9781

So yesterday evening I got an incoming call from an 800 number. Turns out it was UA, but not exactly the person I had expect to hear from; it was the excellent reservations agent who had vowed to remain on the phone with me until the GAs added me to the Upgrade List.

He basically told me that what happened at Denver so unacceptable, that he decided to research into the issue further with the help of one of his supervisors. It took them awhile, but they got together an official account of what happened and filed a 'case report' to their line managers.

In their report, they noted the following:

• The GAs refused to identifies themselves.
• I was not added to the Upgrade Standby List, against company policy.
• The GAs refused to talk via telephone to a Reservations Supervisor.

In addition, they also found that:

• The last seat in F was given to a non-rev "buddy pass"
• There was an issue with another non-rev being given too high priority.

The reservation agent said that it is likely they actively refused trying to add me to the upgrade list because the GAs knew that doing so would result in the last F seat going as an Elite Upgrade rather than to the "buddy pass" passenger. Interestingly, this is the fact about my case that got the managers to agree to 'look into it further.'

Also, the agent said that ordinarily I would not have been contacted about this by someone in reservations, but he was so enraged that he wanted to give me an update--even if he would be reprimanded for doing so. He also said that I should expect a phone call from an official representative at UA, but that I should definitely keep the ball rolling even if I don't hear back, by contacting UA through other channels to ensure that my case is elevated to people "actually empowered to do something about this."

Supposedly I cannot contact anyone via phone, so today I'm going to write to Customer Relations/Care. Does any one have another contact at UA?

Thanks!

LordTentacle

Although the GA's were not doing the correct thing
I sincearly hope that the actions of the res agent keeps your loyalty to some degree