LeonS

I wanted to share my experience with UA 2 weeks ago and see what other people think. My apologies for the length of the post.

Short Version:

1) Flight SFO - ORD - LHR - Ireland booked on fully-flexible Business Class ticket. $8687 paid. 24 hours before STD I was in possession of boarding passes with my confirmed seats on them.

2) When trying to board second airplane in Chicago, I am told that my seat has been given to another passenger of a previous flight that had been canceled. I am told that I was chosen because I was "at the end of the priority list".

3) Options offered:
a) wait over 24 hours to fly Business class (nothing is said about my onward connection to Ireland) and receive no compensation;
b) fly in Economy and receive fare difference + small amount in vouchers to fly United again. Time given to decide: 5 minutes

4) No advance notice given. No alternatives. No apologies.

5) Since I needed to be at work the following day, I accepted the downgrade to Economy.

6) A volunteer in Business class left the aircraft 45 minutes thereafter. The seat is assigned to me.

7) Most unpleasant boarding and flying experience I've experienced in my life. I was even threatened by the Chicago manager to be taken off the plane.





About 2 months ago I booked a UA ticket to fly from SFO to Ireland for a week for work. The itinerary to fly in was SFO - ORD - LHR - Ireland (3 flights). The ticket was a full-fare Business Class, and ORD-LHR was booked in UA BusinessFirst cabin. I got very little sleep the night before this, and hence I was really excited to try the BusinessFirst cabin to rest and be off to a good start of a long week at work in Ireland. And yet this proved to be the worst experience I've ever had with an airline so far.


I landed in ORD (from SFO) shortly after 3pm. After checking the boarding gate and status of my next flight on the screens, I headed to the United lounge, where I waited until around 6.15pm.

At 6.20pm, (40 minutes before takeoff) when I attempted to board the plane at gate C21, I was pulled aside by a United employee. He identified himself as the UA manager. The manager explained that the previous ORD-LHR flight was canceled, and that my BusinessFirst seat had been given taken away to accommodate a passenger of that previous flight. The manager offered just two options:

• Take the same flight but on Economy Class, receive the fare class difference and a small amount in travel certificates to be used on United.
• To fly on Business Class, I would have to wait over 24 hours (!) and fly to London at 9pm the following day. I was not even told what would happen to my onward connection to Ireland. The manager said that waiting for this later flight would be voluntary and as such I would not receive any compensation.

No other options were proposed. According to the agents at the gate, it was too late to reroute me via a different airport. If only they had contacted me right after I landed in Chicago, I assume this would have been an entirely different story. But that did not happen: no one from United reached out to me either by telephone or by e-mail to prevent me.

This all was said to me barely 40 minutes before takeoff. Shortly after I was explained the above “options” to reach my destination, an announcement was made to point out that “passengers not boarding within 4 minutes would lose their seat”. I felt extremely pressured.

I ask myself:

• How is it possible that no one tried to call me as soon as I landed in Chicago to explain the situation and try to find an acceptable solution? When I checked the screens at 3pm I already noticed that the previous flight had already been canceled; hence it should have been possible to anticipate the turn of events. I would have gladly accepted to transfer anywhere else on the East Coast, Canada or Europe to reach my destination in Business Class in a timely manner.
• I am similarly surprised that no one notified me of the change at the United lounge, where I waited over 2 hours.
• When I asked why my seat was given away, the UA manager first said that I was “randomly selected”. When the subject was brought up some minutes later, his version changed: I was then told that “passengers with higher fare classes were given priority” over me and that I was “at the bottom of the priority list”. Since my ticket was a full-fare Business class ticket that cost $8687, I was quite surprised. Furthermore, leaving a passenger stranded in a transit airport in the middle of their trip (second flight out of three) does not seem like the most sensible decision.

In the end, since losing an entire day of work was not an option, I accepted to fly in Economy Class. Upon boarding, I explained to the purser and cabin crew the situation and my unhappiness with the seat. In the meantime, the UA manager kept coming back and forth to the plane: seats were still being rearranged. During one of his visits I asked for his name for future reference.

Soon after, a passenger in BusinessFirst left the airplane; I asked one member of the crew whether she thought it would be possible to retake the BusinessFirst seat. She advised me to walk to the front of the plane and ask the purser, who in turn advised me to talk to the UA manager. He showed up at the plane shortly after and before I even had the chance to ask him about the seemingly free seat he took me out of the plane; to my outmost shock and dismay, he threatened to take me off the plane! I was speechless. I will not forget this moment in my entire life.

He then even played the good cop / bad cop game. He said he “wanted me to be on the plane”, but that “they” (pointing to where the purser and commander were) did not. I felt utterly humiliated. At that point I just asked whether I could take the vacant BusinessFirst seat, which the UA manager finally accepted.



This was a dreadful, 1-hour boarding process full of tension and stress that I wish it never had happened. I did finally travel on a BusinessFirst seat indeed; it could have an eventless flight that would have otherwise been a good memorable experience; however, I did not get to enjoy any part of it. I won’t forget the feeling of humiliation.

A flight cancelation due to weather is no one’s fault indeed, but I am terribly disappointed of how horribly the situation was handled. I cannot understand how my seat was given away in spite of a confirmed reservation, early check-in, a very high fare class and a 3-leg itinerary. Equally hard to apprehend is the lack of alternatives proposed. If instead of waiting until right before boarding I had been contacted as soon as I landed in Chicago, there might have been acceptable alternatives for me; at the very least, it would have given me much more time to calmly process the information and options instead of pushing me to make a decision within minutes before departure.

But above all, being threatened by the UA manager to take me off the plane instants before departure was the utmost regrettable experience that I have ever experienced on any air carrier.


I wrote to UA Customer Service the day after the flight to explain what was probably the worst airline experience I have had in my entire life so far, and all they said was "We are sorry you were not happy with your last experience, we look forward to having you onboard again". Again, I am speechless. I expected at least an acknowledgement that the situation was handled horribly and that it shouldn't have happened that way. But nothing of the sort.


I am now UA Gold, which in theory should the culminating point of some sort of a trust relation between UA and me. However, I really don't know how I feel about United any longer.


What do you guys think?