My second flight in two weeks ORD-LAX cancelled this morning. Problem was a mechanical (rudder), so there apparently wasn't a replacement plane. In fact, on a perfectly sunny day, all ORD-LAX flights from 9am - 1pm have been delayed at least two hours today as well. Three for servicing.
This is a bit tangential to the thread, but the cancellations truly causing problems overall. The things I ran into today were frustrating and must be for those who aren't 1K and don't get to the top of the line.
Cancellations will happen -- fact of life. But what is annoying is the following lack of customer service related items from United. It seems as though a lack of being able to deal effectively with problems is part of the system now, which is not what United was like before.
This inability to deal inevitably trickles down to the front line where I gotta say I'm sick and tired of seeing passengers being treated poorly by crabby agents and flight attendants. Yes...I know the job is hard. My job is hard. I'm not saying it's all their fault, but they do share blame. In my opinion it seems to be the flawed system that seems to beat the United employees down since they have to deal with large number of problems.
No notifications
The 933am flight was cancelled at 11:00 am (2 1/2 hours ago). I still haven't received an update from United regarding this. Last week's notification was received after I landed at LAX.
Got a flight notification from Tripit and FlightTrack on iPhone 2 minutes before the gate attendant announced it. This allowed me to call the premiere line (where the call was answered immediately) and rebook to Orange County in the only confirmable direct flight available.
No auto re-booking
This was probably one of the best things about the previous United IT infrastructure that has been lost. Having no auto rebooking leads to clogged phone lines and huge lines (see below).
Not having it now points out how brilliant it was before. I feel horrible I can't remember the catchy name for it
Lack of proactive info for travelers = cranky agents
In an twist, the next flight to LAX that seemed logical for getting on the standby list was a 1:00 flight at C17. However, this gate was actually previously a cancelled SFO 757 flight. With no notifications visible, customers (quite logically) would come up to the gate and ask what the deal was since the monitors all said the flight was to LAX. I think this is logical when their tickets (and displays) still point them to the gate. This happened at least a dozen times. Yes...12.
But the messed up part was that instead of just telling them, each time she would say absolutely nothing directly to them. Instead, she would get on the PA and make the announcement about the cancellation and that passengers needed to go to customer service. This happened probably a dozen times. Now I can see doing this if a large number of passengers was hanging around, but it was
totally clear that passengers weren't congregating in the gate area...they were simply approaching the gate one by one. It came off as really rude (especially her huffing and puffing). I know it's really rough on the front line...I get that. But taking it out on passengers is part of the problem.
In the same announcement, she kept saying it would be 15 minutes before she could assist LAX passengers. So after 25 minutes she started helping people...and I got in line. I was 6th in line and it took about 15 minutes to get to the point where I was second in line. At which point, she disappeared onto the plane for 5 minutes without saying anything...then came back out and said the flight had been moved to B9. She was being reassigned and could not help any more customers in line...I'd need to go to B9 for help.
I refused to go away. I was firm, but polite, explaining I did exactly what she asked me to do (wait and give her time to clear paperwork, etc). She initially accused me of arguing and being confrontational but I stood my ground and did have time to convince her I was being reasonable and not rude. I simply explained what happened and she warmed up and did try to help. And it meant a great deal to me that she did....that's what customer service is about imho.
Couldn't put me on standby to LAX
Because I got rebooked to SNA, she was unable to put me on the standby list for any LAX flight. This is unlike before, where I've been able to do this in the past between SNA and LAX. Must be a SHARES thing...or something I don't understand. This is after the agent on the phone (who was helpful) told me it would be no problem. This type of conflicting information is annoying....
"Customer Service" Line
See attached photo.
Sorry, but it's not customer service when there are 122 people in line trying to get help. Yes, I counted. That's called customer fisting. Even the Red Carpet club had about 25 people in line. That's why I headed to the gate.
It's my hunch that these lines are caused by an inability to quickly do things that used to be very quick in the past, as well as the lack of things like the auto-rebooking. That would save a tremendous number of enquiries I would think...freeing up agents to do other things.
