Sorry, I have to vent!

I called up Mileage Plus service center the other day and asked if there would be a possibility of an extension of my Premier Exec status. I originally received Premier Exec status as a comp from USAir Chairman's several years ago, and then made it as Prem Exec lite the year after, so I didn't requalify under the alternative program this year and was downgraded to Premier.

Last year I flew 35K+ miles or so but had several trips planned to DEL (one booked, and several not yet booked) in addition, which would have been on UA until UA cancelled their DEL service post-9/11. I also have 8K+ miles to date this year on United and have also had mega-customer relations issues with United last year (too numerous to get into -- horrible experiences on a trip to BKK, horrible experiences with res. on my DEL trip post-9/11 which resulted in me having to rebook on another airline entirely...) which have never been resolved satisfactorily.

So MP Customer Service was very nice about it and said it was out of their control, and I should talk to MP Customer Relations. So I called them, explained the situation, and asked if they would consider extending my status or perhaps putting me on a Premier Exec challenge?

Seems like a reasonable request, right? I honestly did not expect yes as an answer, but thought I'd ask anyway.

The rep at customer relations wouldn't even listen to me. As I was telling her all of the above, she cut me off and said "No sir, we can't extend status if you don't fly the requisite miles, period" I asked about comp based on US status again. She said a new policy was instituted in 7/2001 that comps based on other airlines would be one time only (of course that policy wasn't in place when I got the first comp, or maybe I wouldn't have taken it).

I asked if there was someone I could write to consider it further (or at least allow a challenge) given my proposed trips to DEL and the other issues I've had. She said to me, with characteristic United rudeness, "You can do whatever you want, sir, but your request has been considered and denied."

This is the problem with United.

Again, I have no expectation that they will hand me Premier Exec status for free and was perfectly willing to earn it by myself this year, and I would have accepted a no quite easily.

But you can say the same thing and say it in a professional way -- or you can be totally hostile and completely piss off a perfectly reasonable customer and give them a sense that you just don't care.