I had two flights this week (res made well before 3/3) completely disappear from the reservation system...both had been successfully upgraded with regionals. After spending over six hours on the phone with the nicest but most useless agents I have ever talked to (and I am giving them the benefit of the doubt that it was the transition to Shares that prevented them from helping me) I was forced to go to LAX w/o confirmation of a reservation, three hours early...it took two senior UA CSRs and a CO assistant nearly two hours to find me in the system...only to find that my seat had been given away and the flight was now oversold! Fortunately, I knew one of the UA agents (for over 30 years) and he took it upon himself to put me on a DL flight...in F no less...but it took three levels of approvals before it happened. As I left the desk to run to the DL flight, my UA "angel" whispered to me that the new system just does not allow them to do what they were able to in the past and that the new UA is "not" about customer service...and please write to corporate since they will listen to the customer!

My return from BOS was also a problem...my upgrade disappeared and the replacement E+ aisle seat (put in the system by the agents at LAX) was given away and even though I had my boarding pass with the correct seat, I was given the option of a E- center seat in the second to last row or not to fly...it was a miserable flight and even the BOB was sold out by the time the cart got to us!

I am not holding my breath that either flight will show up in my account...the moral of the story is that for at least the time being, we can not trust UA and its systems...and trust lost is something that is hard to earn back! The other thing I learned is that DL F product is quite good...much better than UA or CO and they seemed really happy to have me as a customer...I may be using them more often!


It will never be Harvard since Jeff is an alum Seriously, the merger is already being looked at under the microscope...it is already being studied and taught at Wharton (per Mrs.1KPath who is a visiting prof there)...they are looking at the cultural differences of two organizations being merged and how these differences have an impact on the success of a merger...so far the academics are giving it a C- with the reasoning that the more "established" entity is having the culture of the "lesser" entity placed on it...resulting in the "disenfranchisement" and " "disillusion"of a greater number of employees and customers and the potential "diminution" of the more established branding. (Note...these are their "words", not mine!)