channa

True, but the impact of requiring the Helpdesk ripples through other, easier transactions.

My other half had to do an agent checkin (visa check, not kioskable). There was nobody in front of her in line. 4 agents helping were helping 4 people, and she still waited 20 minutes.

HumbleBee

What status does he/she have? If dirt, 20 min is nice. As a 1K, unacceptable (duh).

I was simply disupting Often1 conclusion that having 7hr wait times at the CS desk compels every check in to take 8 hours. Presumably his statement was based on assuming OP couldve utilized the regular check-in, which is incorrect as he was airside and Checkin agents are always less helpful.

dsquared37

From what I gather nobody is due compensation in your eyes.

Where do you read OP was at checkin?


OP should have been routed to another carrier rather than forced to wait 24 hours. And i love your arbitrary 2 hour delay position.

channa

1K at the 1K checkin at SFO.

The point is that there was zero movement across four (4) agents for 20 minutes. That means each of the four (4) agent transactions was taking 20+ minutes each

Lengthy transactions like this are not uncommon with SHARES.

Colin

I would have immediately gone to the hotel of my choosing, got a room under my credit card, dealt with rebooking from a speakerphone, worried about hotel reimbursement via customer service after the trip.

schley

I question anyone's sanity for taking a path of most resistance and not using what many would say is common sense. If it did in fact take 7 hours I'm sure there are many aspects of your life that aren't in order either. There were numerous other things that you could and should have thought of. If the line was 7 hours long there must have been 500 plus people in it. If you are counting time since you landed till you got a resolution then perhaps 3-4 hours from when you landed till you got in line.

I don't know, but I share all others view that common sense should have told you to act differently and be more assertive. Sorry.

zombietooth

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hobo13

You say that so confidently -- have you been to the T6 'CO' club? I was told that 'they don't do rebookings. They send send to CS.'

Welcome to COdbaUA.

Actually..... no. I've had three experiences this year that took me and my family 1+ hour to get rebooked -- that was just our time with the agent, while she either fiddled with SHARES or waited on hold for her support desk.

So, let's see, if one group takes 1 hour.... and there are 2 agents working the counter. Let's see, with 14 parties ahead of you, my nifty calculator says that 7 hours is not unreasonable!

skyemema

OP - sorry for the wait in line, welcome to FT and I hope you post again someday. We are not all negative and condeming and hate UA!! Although I am not sure why the flight was cancelled, I would send a letter regardless. Hope the rest of your trip is uneventful.

BigE

I had a similar 1 yard/hour experience after a cancelled flight out of Geneva due to operations. It takes them forever with the new system. It is frustrating to watch alternative flight options go by as they as struggle to rebook the passengers ahead of you.

In my case, they didn't even send me a cancellation email (even though the flight to GVA was cancelled, so they presumably knew what was coming long in advance) or try to rebook me.

I emailed 1kvoice 9 days ago about this and did not (yet) get a response.

skyemema

IAH was closed for 2 days with last hurricane, can't remember name but was after Katrina, maybe IKE? At any rate, we lived thru it.

chasbondy

The first lesson I learned when I started travelling was to always carry those prepaid phone cards with me, and now in addition to that, I put the customer service number of the airline I'm flying on my cell phone and magicJack contacts lists

channa

One hour for a rebook is not entirely uncommon. We had another poster here a few weeks ago mention using 45 minutes of agent time to rebook a flight. I think he switched to an alternate airport which complicated the matter for SHARES. With PMUA's system, it would have been a 1-minute job.



That was under CO. And IIRC, phone lines were jammed, and non-status flyers could not get through.

The operation was a lot less complex under CO. Remember that rebooking along the same route is easier than changing connecting point or number of cities with the SHARES interface. In the more complex, combined UA-CO route network, not everything revolves around Houston, and there are many more ways to make a trip work. You see a lot more reroutes than changes now than ever before.

zrs70

Even though it was a UA ticket, sounds like it was a code-share flight. Doesn't the operating carrier have an obligation here?

EDITED: I take it back. The OP miswrote. Flight 8165 is the YVR-LAX flight, not the LAX-PVG flight. I saw the flight number and assumed it was an Air China code-share, or China Air, or whatever the *A China airline is!

SEA1K4EVR

Usually I hate the way the word "kettle" is used around here and I always when I read it. But after reading that a person would wait 7 hours in a line in the middle of the day when so many other options were available (phone, other customer service centers, Club, ticket counter).. I think this could be the first time I'm tempted to apply it.