flycast

I am in Maui with my family of four. I had four business tx home on the 6th on United to Lax and Toronto. I called to see if they had anything for four from Maui to toronto as flying is hard on one of my travellers and was trying to save one extra flight to Honolulu. After paying 1700$, the agent assured me positively we have business seats all the way home. I then was told to call air Canada for my seat assignment. After two hours, couldn't reach air Canada or united, so my friend tried air Canada from her home and by conference I learned that united sold me a business seat that didn't exist. I lost my flights to Honolulu which I paid for, my business seats and I have no way home from Los Angeles. Finally, after four hours a united agent called me back, promised to help, and five hours later I am still waiting. My day is lost, my business will suffer, my not well companion, whom I did this for will be stressed beyond belief. I can not believe united did this after I explained the medical situation
We will be stranded in LA and no one there could care less!!!
Never again.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

That's tough. Situation must be really bad if you ponied up $1700 and the cost of 4 Hawaiian tickets (probably another $300) to lose a 20 minute flight. UA doesn't have business seats to Los Angeles, only domestic First Class seats, which, ironically, aren't as good as the Business seats (which are only on flights from HNL to IAD, EWR, IAH, and a single flight to SFO).

Was your original flight from Honolulu to LAX? Why didn't the agent just change the leg from HNL-LAX to OGG-LAX and keep the ongoing one? Did you check your itiniery while talking to the agent (online or mobile) and did it show front cabin reservations from LAX to Toronto? Did you at least get coach seats LAX-Toronto?

With all the cancellations in the Midwest and Northeast, not surprising agent took so long to get back to you.

sj22

Some of this is limited by the contractual understanding that United has with travel agents. Your friends can goto the airport early on Monday and the agent/supervisor should be able to rebook them for the next day if you can show them a police report regarding the theft.

I book travel agent tickets frequently and can't even get the 1K desk to touch them.

If i were you, I would call United and rebook/cancel the award completely to a later date and get your miles back. Then find a separate ticket to get back to YYZ.

This rarely happens. If your ticket says it was a business ticket, it is a business ticket. If your ticket says it was a MIXED award, then you may have one economy and one business at the cost of business.

FlyingNone

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This is really troubling to me (as a pre-merger United employee). You simply have to deal with it at an airport and start with a SUPERVISOR. Exceptions can be made under these circumstances, fees waived. Tickets can be changed without such exorbitant penalty (or any penalty at all) for being a victim of crime ! Of course, correct documentation still has to be replaced but.....
I emphasize again, go in person to a ticket counter, allow plenty of time and start with explanation to a supervisor. Sorry this information is at the last minute and lucky for you the weather waiver timing was perfect but seriously, I find it disturbing that some of my coworkers lack in compassion, common sense and the ability to go out of their way to make phone calls, solicit a supervisor for input and compassion. I can't speak for whomever you deal with (supervisor or otherwise) or a guaranteed outcome (like fee waived) but wish you the best of luck with the outcome.

flycast

Thank you. In the end, after spending a total of 8 hours until 1 45 am, I got a United agent to call me back and after an hour and a half, got a supervisor who rebooked the tickets through LAX, up to SFO and then to Toronto. So, I still paid almost $2000 to get home a day late with tickets that are basically what I had in the first place. Air Canada, and the supervisor, say I should take this up with Customer Service upon return. I have really been taken for a ride, rang up a massive cell phone bill, and lost a day of holiday. My seats were all guaranteed business, not the half and half as I know to watch for this after being stung before. It's rather outrageous that i have to now fight for my money back, I mean the increase charged for direct flights which didn't exist. It's really like being scammed. Quite shocking and taking a lot of my time. Now I have to explain to the three companies I work for, why i am not available to them. Thanks for your advice though
Stephanie

witthuus

I was booked on AMS-FRA-EWR-RSW on Jan 6th

Before flight departures AMS-FRA on LH I realized that flight 51 out of FRA to EWR was canceled. I talked to a United agent at AMS airport over the phone and requested to be rebooked on AMS-EWR on UA 878. This flight showed availability at that time and finally went out with an empty seat.

The lady REFUSED to rebook me and told me that she was too busy and I should come and see her at the ticket counter. This was impossible for me as it was in a different terminal. Would I have gone, I would have been a no show on LH by the time I could talk to her and my entire reservation would have been canceled. I told her that I will be stocked in FRA as ALL flights are overbooked - she repeated that she is too busy to help and hang up on me !!

I flew to FRA and as expected - all flights were overbooked. Sitting in FRA waiting for hours and got rebooked to AMS - YES ! I am flying back to AMS to get a flight to IAH today, continuing to RSW

The FRA agent was unable to put me into an AMS hotel - she could only provide a hotel in FRA - so I have to pay the hotel and meals by myself.

I wasted an entire day - arriving about 27 hrs late ! - due to an unwilling agent and wasted money for a hotel and meals. This is an unbelievable customer service attitude and I am very very frustrated.

Usually I am very happy with the customer service UA provides to me being 1K - this time they sucked

pigx5

OP, sorry to hear that and please do report this to UA.

.....welcome to the FRIENDLY SKY.....

PV_Premier

Why didn't you call reservations instead of the local ticket counter????

witthuus

I tried and was on hold for more than 30 minutes - I guess it was a mess there too b/c of the winterstorms up north

Baze

I called the Premier line twice today and got 2 very friendly and helpful ladies that took care of what I needed. Got through each time in less than 3 minutes and finished calls within 2 minutes of them answering. So I would not say all is doom and gloom when calling CS.

jpc763

Up until about a year ago, I very infrequently flew United. I just did not have a lot of need to fly them and other smaller carriers were much easier.

That changed with a job change. I now fly international and United is very convenient given that Denver is a hub. So now I am flying United a lot for both business and family travel. I earned Silver last year and expect to fly 100K miles on United this year. Given that, I am very dissapointed with my recent issue flying United.

The trip was for Thanksgiving. We rented a condo for a week for Thanksgiving. I booked a car well in advance in order to get a good price and booked air with United 9 months in advance.

My family of 5 was flying from Denver to Palm Springs on a non-stop leaving at 7:40 AM on Saturday 11/23. We were to arrive in Palm Springs around 9 AM.

Given the early flight and the fact that the airport is 1:15 from my home, we booked rooms at a hotel Marriott in order to make the trip smooth. We went to bed and woke up at 5 AM to an email from United that they had cancelled our flight. They rebooked us on a connection flight that left on Sunday (not Saturday). That would have cost us a night at the condo and we would have lost our rental car rate. I called United and spent 90 minutes on the phone. No United flights available to ANY Southern California airports on Saturday. They finally booked us on an American flight to LAX. I asked the guy on the phone if United would pay for my one way rental car to drive the 2 hours to Palm Springs from LAX and he said I would have to take it up with Customer Care. Our flight was uneventful and we got the car and ended up in Palm Springs by 7PM and picked up our previous booked rental car.

I submitted my request (via email since they have no phone number) for reimbursement and compensation for our ordeal and after 3 or 4 days I received a response that they would credit each of us 7000 miles for my troubles, nothing else.

I wrote back asking that they reconsider the rental car since I had booked a trip to Palm Springs and I had to use a rental car to get all the way there.

I finally got a response on Sunday that I could either have the 7000 mile OR a $100 voucher but that since I "accepted" a new destination and therefore there was no obligation for them to pay.

I am frankly shocked at how poor the customer service is. I would be happy to cut and paste the whole chain of emails but thought I would first ask.

Has this happened to othes? Are ALL airlines this terrible when it comes to customer service?

Thanks for letting me vent. My expectations are that I have gotten all that I will get from them.

edcho

Usual story about the WX mess (connecting in EWR) but what was interesting was that there is a phone number... I wonder where that goes?

10 News asks United Airlines why it didn't help stranded passengers at Tampa International Airport
http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story...storyid=351527

Akulashark

Last night I was in PIT going to CLE and then home. I got to PIT early and was back-tracking the inbound. I noticed that at some point it took a mechanical and was tracking 40 minutes late.

I was going out of A10, which had one GA and was working the previous flight.

I walked to A4 and found 3 United GAs, their flight was still about 50 minutes out.

I told one of them my predicament and they looked at my flight number and said "it shows ontime." I told her that if you back down the line to see the inbound flight you will see its 40 minutes delayed. She then looked at my original flight number and said "We can't help you here, you need to go to A10". I told her that A10 was actively boarding a flight and could she please look at my options.

"No, you need to deal with this at the gate for your departure."

I walked back to the gate, we were now within the hour prior to the flight and the GA wasn't there.

It took me walking back and forth several times and finally getting a supervisor to show up, but by then an hour had passed and my options were all gone. I flew to CLE. Deplaned, walked across to my gate to hear the boarding door CLICK. Missed by less than 60 seconds, ended up driving home.

Why are the GAs so reluctant to help pax?

tw747

All I have to say: "JEFF, CAN YOU HEAR ME? ARE YOU AWAKE?"

http://www.thestreet.com/story/12221...o&cm_ven=YAHOO

K. AlisonLahiff hit it on the head in this statement:

"And while United no doubt faced a humdinger of a challenge, communication with customers was scant, and that's the real problem. Just tell us what's happening, United. Communicate.
"

tom911

Could it have been the end of the agent's shift?