Originally Posted by
koopas
Interesting how the email from United makes no reference to the IT glitch that caused the whole fiasco. Another observation is the language "You requested the ticketing...", never recognizing that UA actually ticketed in error. Quite the passive agressive communication, IMO. No apologies for the confusion, etc.
DOT complaint filed.
I think the letter is another over-lawyered PR fiasco. I'm guessing counsel told them not to apologize and to "blame the customer," because I can't think of any other reason why you would word the cancellation letter in this manner.
Unless you're somehow afraid of liability, why not just be frank and honest? There was a programming mistake that enabled you to redeem 4-mile award tickets -- even though the correct price was displayed on the booking page and a reasonable person would know you can't get an award ticket for 4 miles. Due to the nature of the internet, we were overwhelmed by folks taking advantage of this mistake (and yes, we made a mistake), and it's not right to our stakeholders to pay the x million of dollars it would cost to honor these tickets. We think the money is best spent elsewhere, and we don't think the folks who took advantage of our programming mistake truly deserve these tickets. And, under law, we don't think we're under any legal obligation to provide them (give the example of Amazon listing TVs for a penny) . We're sorry for any inconvenience this has caused you. We are working with our IT Dept to make sure this doesn't happen again. You deserve the most reliable reservations website in the industry.
That would be honest. And appreciated. Blaming the customer is neither honest nor appreciated. Another bad move by a company that has been making a lot of bad moves lately.