UA San Francisco - ridiculous and unprofessional attitude to a 1K member

[fayre88]

This is the terrible experience I had in the San Francisco airport this December.

Me and my partner were booked on a 5:05 pm flight from SFO to London. We were booked economy class, but I requested to use my global upgrades, and was confirmed to be upgraded to Business Class.

An accident on the road delayed us and we arrived at the airport at 4:06 pm. We immediately went to the 'Premier' desk, where your employee [name redacted here and below by Moderator] (seemingly unhappy that she has to work on the holidays) said it was too late to check in as past the 1 hour cut off. I said it was just 2 min after that and asked to check if they could make an exception considering the circumstances (accident, I'm a 1K member). She called the gate and they said no. She was off the phone at 4:11 pm -- 6 min past the cut off time. She was harsh delivering the bad news and I did not feel she tried hard. She said the problem was they now could not transport my luggage to the gate now, and could not fly it on the next flight either and the luggage 'technically' has to travel with the passenger.

I asked if they could rebook me, she started checking. There were seats on the Lufthansa flight at 9:45 pm the same night but she said she could not get me on those because 'her bosses wanted her to keep me in the United network'.

While she was checking, I heard an announcement on the speaker phone that our 5:05 flight would be delayed. I immediately asked her if that is so, she said she did not have such information. I asked her to check again and she refused, almost shouted at me that 'if this was so, her system would have updated immediately'.

She was unable to offer a solution within the next two days, she told me I should call the 1K helpdesk and let them handle it. This was at 4:20 pm.

I called 1K helpdesk and they were fast figuring out a solution. They offered to rebook me on the Lufthansa flight the same night if I paid the business class ticket fee. I asked how much that would be and the lady told me $6000, for BOTH passengers. I was travelling with my pregnant girlfriend, so I did not want any complications, and gave her my credit card details, agreeing to pay $6K.

I got off the phone at 4:29 PM. Then I looked at the flight information - my 5:05 flight was confiemd to be delayed and the departure time was 7:05 pm. Suddenly I was within the 1 hour cut-off again.

I went back to [the UA Agent], she apologized for misleading me. I asked if she could get me now on the plane and she said this was not possible as they had sold my ticket to someone else! Let me get this straight - United could not make an exception for a 1K member when it was a matter of 5 minutes, but when the plane is delayed 2 hours they are very fast selling my ticket! I bet [she] knew that the first time I asked her to check for delay.

I was frustrated with having to pay an additional $6K when United should have rebooked me on the Lufthansa flight. You are all Star Alliance, aren't you? Plus, I was confirmed to be upgraded to Business class and Lufthansa had same class seats available. I asked to talk to a manager. She said the manager on duty [name redacted] was busy, but would definitely come to meet to prior to boarding and have a short chat.

A few hours later, when we were boarding, we stood up front with the Lufthansa crew; we told them we were waiting for [a manager]. A Lufthansa crew member smiled at us and said: 'Don't bother waiting, I know who he is, you are never going to hear from him!'. Sadly, he was right, despite his promise, he never showed up!

Faced with such unprofessional behavior, I called the 1K desk onboard the plane. The lady I talked to said she would log a complaint against my account. I never received a follow up of any kind.

Finally, to top things, when I arrived at my destination and checked my statement, it appeared 1K desk had charged me $11K instead of $6K. This is completely out of control. I am about to cancel the card and charge back all the charges you have made as unauthorized.

And this is how a company of the size of United deals with its best customers. 1K means that United is our second home!? I have never ever seen such attitude, on any other airline.

It is either the staff I happened to talk to had a bad day, or this company does not compensate them well enough and they are looking to take it out on the passengers who happen to be travelling during the holidays and not working.

[cfischer]

you were late and they didn't break the rules for you. I'd say this is mostly your fault to start with. Not UAs best behavior that's for sure, but there is always the other part of the story as well. Check-in time is based on original departure time and they will give away the seats if you don't show up.

[edcho]

Welcome to FT!

Just FYI -- it's against FT rules to use employee names without their permission!

Sorry to hear your experience I suggest that you write to UA about it.

[UnitedFlyGuy]

Real quick - Per FT rules you should remove the employee names.

EDIT: Just having read through it, it seems it wasn't UAs best performance. Late is late but once it was delayed she should have helped you. A series of unfortunate events that ultimately ended in a rough travel experience.

[SFOPhD]

I sympathize that it's frustrating given the traffic accident that made you late. Unfortunately, rules are rules. I always try to add a lot of buffer for getting to the airport in case of circumstances out of my control.

Would it have been nice if they made an exception? Sure.
Can I blame them for following clearly stated rules? No.

[WineCountryUA]

Sorry to hear of the bad experience you had but you arrived late (because of the accident but that does not change the situation), it happens and the best you can do is leave additional buffer time in the future

Originally Posted by fayre88

....Then I looked at the flight information - my 5:05 flight was confirmed to be delayed and the departure time was 7:05 pm. Suddenly I was within the 1 hour cut-off again......

No, you were not. Once you miss the cutoff, you reservation is automatically cancelled and it releases space for standbys, upgraders (probably other 1Ks, ...) it is automatic and very difficult to reverse unless there is still open space.

You sound very upset and if you were that way at the counter it probably did not help the situation. (I realize that may sound harsh but once things get heated, agents are more likely to follow the rules and not to go out of their way.)

[emcampbe]

My comments from what I'm reading:

- you arrived at the desk past the cut off time. Leaving aside for the moment that the employee checking you in was "harsh" in delivering the news, she was still correct - if you miss the cut off, you can't check in - traffic or not.

- Baggage on international flights can not knowingly travel on a different flight than the passenger, and this is not a UA thing. It is what it is - again, you were past the cut off, so not really UAs problem

- You being late to check in was your fault - UA is absolutely not required, and really shouldn't, book you on a different airline, even a partner - they still have to pay for that seat. If it is their fault, then yes, you have a case. You don't here.

- You were booked in economy and upgraded to business - so even if they did rebook you on LH, would have done so in economy. You did not pay for business class, but were upgraded - there is a difference. You are absolutely entitled to your GPU back, however.

- Creating a chargeback for all of the charges is firstly fraudulent, and at the cost you were supposed to be charged, $6000 according to you, UA will almost surely respond. Anyway, before initiating a chargeback, your credit card agreement certainly requires you try to deal with the merchant first. You're not gonna win with the $6000, especially since you authorized the charge, and the service was provided. If you were charged over the amount you agreed to pay, then absolutely, you should fight for that back.

Agree, not UAs finest hour, perhaps, but certainly not yours, either. Admit that you hold a lot of the responsibility here, talk to UA about the amount they charged your card, and then move on.

[bubbashow]

Originally Posted by WineCountryUA

Sorry to hear of the bad experience you had but you arrived late (because of the accident but that does not change the situation), it happens and the best you can do is leave additional buffer time in the future
No, you were not. Once you miss the cutoff, you reservation is automatically cancelled and it releases space for standbys, upgraders (probably other 1Ks, ...) it is automatic and very difficult to reverse unless there is still open space.

You sound very upset and if you were that way at the counter it probably did not help the situation. (I realize that may sound harsh but once things get heated, agents are more likely to follow the rules and not to go out of their way.)

If only everyone on FT listened to the very wise last paragraph above, there would be significantly fewer posts on Flyertalk. dykwia gets most people nowhere with seasoned agents

[juniorsu]

A few things:
1. Welcome to Flyertalk! Sorry to hear about your bad experience.

2. This isn't a United website (you seem to be addressing United, which isn't here)

3. Flyertalk does not allow employee full names to be posted

4. Rules are rules regarding being two mins past the cut-off; yes the agent could have been more helpful, but that would be going above and beyond

5. Since you upgraded with a GPU, your revenue ticket itself does not carry across to Lufthansa as business - it would go over as economy, though theoretically you could have used a last minute paper GPU to upgrade (timing would have made this impossible though), hence why they would not put you in business on Lufthansa by carrying over your upgrade

6. Technically even with the delay, you were not within the 1 hour window because that's based on (original) scheduled departure time - this doesn't move with delays. The reason for this is flights that are delayed may still leave on time (or earlier than posted) - delay postings are for airline to cover themselves.

7. You should definitely question the overcharge to your card...though I'm not sure how you can prove what the agreed to amount was (since it was over the phone)

[raehl311]

Once you miss the cutoff the seats are gone, so it's not necessarily possible to put you back.

Also, even if a flight is delayed, that doesn't mean there's any way to get your bags on the flight. I once "missed" a flight only to see that it departed 4 hours late - I was irked until I realized those 4 hours had been spent on a runway trying to take off, then going back to deice, then trying to take off, then going back to deice.... no way to get on that plane!



Dispute the charge on your card down to the $6k though; one-way in business even at full fare shouldn't be that much.

[IAH-OIL-TRASH]

Traffic or no traffic, they're not going told planes for passengers arriving late to the airport. I've missed connections going international with the plane sitting there and the jetway attached. It's not just the person who you're talking to (or the person they call) that makes the decision, so really cannot get mad at her because she can't get you on the plane. She cannot call and say "Stop the plane! They're here!". Once you miss the check-in time, They also will not hold the seats in case something goes wrong and it's delayed. Theywill give the seat to someone who is waiting. I know it's no consolation, but at least you made someone happy.

Since it was not UA's fault that you were late, they actually have no obligation to put you on another carrier. If you had a refundable ticket, they could endorse it over to Lufthansa. If you had a non-refundable ticket and were using a GPU, you're probably on the hook for the money, although you can probably get the GPU re-deposited.

Just have to get to the airport on time, but stuff happens and you gotta roll with it.

[mcgahat]

1. Welcome to FT.
2. As other said, you were late so you are at the mercy of the airline.
3. UA shares revenue with LH so no reason they could not put you in Y on that LH flight IMO. Would it really have cost them anything?
4. No reason UA could not have had someone higher up talk to you. Just good customer service.
5. You might be more ticked at the fact that you dropped 6K withouth giving it as much thought as you would have liked. Been there done that.
6. The gate agents friend/co-worker flying standby probably enjoyed your seat.

[STS-134]

I would have just gone on the flight with carry-ons only, and had the bag(s) overnighted to my final destination. Would have cost a lot less than $6k.

[nuspieds]

Two stories from me, both from many moons ago, before the Sep. 11th attacks, when one was able to dash to the airport at the last minute and still make the flight.

1) I was doing LAX-SFO weekly and I'd always show up at about 1/2 hour before scheduled departure. I was doing that "forever" without any issues. Then, one day, guess what? "Sorry, sir, flight is closed..." Yes, I protested, but what were the rules at the time? "Arrive at least 45 mins before."

What ended up happening that particular day was that another flight from another carrier was cancelled and they rebooked them on United's flight. So, that day, United strictly enforced the rules and they ended up selling my seat, twice.

Good for them! Rules are rules, and I knew them, so I could only blame myself.

Lesson learned.


2) I was doing LAX-PHX weekly and one day, while on the way to return the rental car, the longest train in the world, seemed to be passing and so traffic came to a dead stop. That damn train took forever before it finally finished crossing the streets.

I eventually got to the check-in counter, with about 15 mins before departure and guess what? She wouldn't let me check in. She claimed that I would not have enough time to go through security and then make it to gate. I was furious! First that damn train and now this!

I checked the security lanes and they were fine. I know I would have made it had she checked me in. But, again, rules are rules, and I knew them.

Lesson learned.

But what did I really learn from episode #2? From that point on, I always checked in online and printed my own boarding passes! So, when these situations occur, with boarding pass in hand, at least the only issue stopping you from reaching your gate at the last minute is the security checkpoint.

[Mike Jacoubowsky]

Some of this is easily explained.

The seat in business was "given away" to someone on the waitlist. That is normal procedure. The fact that the plane was delayed (at the gate) wouldn't affect the procedure for processing people on the waitlist would it? And the OP was a no-show at that point, so it makes sense for the seat to go away. Had it been a paid-for seat, it might have been different, don't know when those are given away.

Regarding rules and cut-off times, 1 hour min is pretty kind, 1K or not. When it was looking like things were going south, might not have been a bad idea to call United and see if they could protect you on another flight.

On the departure status change, the agents really can't read the minds of those making the changes. From our side of the counter, it seems like the agent should have reliable, real-time information at hand, yet how many times have you had new information sent via text that isn't reflected at the gate for several minutes? The left hand doesn't always know what the right is doing, and it likely frustrates the employee as much as you (of course, she did tell you that her screen would have updated "instantly"). And when you're asking for an exception to be made during a changing situation... that's going to be stressful.

Did you ask if you could have gotten onto the plane in Y? I'd think that option would have been available.

I was frustrated with having to pay an additional $6K when United should have rebooked me on the Lufthansa flight. You are all Star Alliance, aren't you? Plus, I was confirmed to be upgraded to Business class and Lufthansa had same class seats available. I asked to talk to a manager. XXXX said the manager on duty - Jeffrey - was busy, but would definitely come to meet to prior to boarding and have a short chat.

Perhaps you're a recent 1K? The GPU system requires a paper upgrade to LH, and it's not all one big happy family where LH is going to give UA a great deal on a seat in C because they have a displaced passenger who was going to use a GPU for an upgrade. You were asking United to pay LH something far in excess of the value United places on a seat made available for GPU.

A few hours later, when we were boarding, we stood up front with the Lufthansa crew; we told them we were waiting for [name redacted by Moderator as in original quote]. A Lufthansa crew member smiled at us and said: 'Don't bother waiting, I know who [he] is, you are never going to hear from him!'. Sadly, he was right, despite his promise, [he] never showed up!

The LH crew was berating United? That's pretty unprofessional. And a bit odd that they'd have such familiarity with [him]. Maybe they thought you were making a joke about Jeff S?