Originally Posted by
cmk1493
1. You obviously do not work in the merger integration field or you would have a better appreciation of how these system cutovers work. What appears as a major issue for you probably ranks below about 5,000 other items on the cutover plan. The vast majority of seat assignments were unaffected.
2. I am not sure why you are trying to turn this into a moral issue by claiming you played by the rules, etc. This is a system cutover issue and nothing more. A very small amount of people will be impacted in a negative way, 99% of the UA population flying within 10 days of the transition will have no idea that the migration even took place.
3. Absolutely no evidence exists at all that this was a 'poorly executed system conversion'. You would be shocked to see what happens during poorly planned and poorly executed integrations (employees don't get paid, companies are prevented from shipping products, facilities lock people out, etc). A small percentage of issues with seat assignments does not constitute a 'poorly executed system conversion' for a HUGE airline.
Apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?
There's a difference between acknowledging the technical challenge of an integration and successfully addressing the challenge. In a customer service business, success means providing good service. Perfection is not the standard and I think that most everyone expected to encounter some bugs. But the widespread loss of seat assignments on international itineraries is not an understandable "bug."
Compounding this failure is United's inability to address these unforced errors. As for my own buggered-up TATL itinerary, the website lacked functionality to correct the misassignments. It simply would not let me select seats. Nor was the phone line of any more use. I was on hold for over 2 1/2 hours last night before giving up. Finally, I was able to reach a CSR this morning. He was helpful, but could not restore my original seat assignments. Nevertheless, I have acceptable seats. At last. However, these seat assignments are not reflected in the online seat map, so I have my doubts that this matter is resolved.
How much aggravation and lost time among its elite customers is acceptable to United? I would hope the answer is "close to zero." By that standard, the integration has been a failure. Speaking for myself, I am more frustrated in the difficulty in correcting the problem than the problem itself.
Marc