Law Suit
 

Anyone here aware of any lawsuits filed against the new United seeking damages for their inability to deliver promised benefits to MileagePlus members? Basic benefits such as chronically missing mileage, failure to issue Elite credentials and upgrades make me believe that we have relied upon false promises as an inducement to do business with this company.

I am seriously considering filing a suit pro se (I am a lawyer) and welcome your thoughts. While I am at it, I may ask for a restraining order against that damn Smisek video with his gelled hairdo telling us how great UA is:D

What a mess this merger is. On 3/17 UA 803 left from IAD-NRT with 6 empty seats in C and 6 1Ks enraged when the GAs said: (1) if the upgrades didn't clear 24 hours in advance, under the new regime, they won't clear at all (same happened, I heard, on UA 881 from ORD-NRT--I was on the continuation of 881 NRT-SIN); and (2) the standby list showing on the screen (and at check-in) was meaningless and shouldn't be showing. Aside from having to fly 24 hours in the back (NRT-SIN two hours late), I haven't even gotten my SWU back.

I wasn't feeling well in Indiana yesterday and made two calls in the middle of the night about getting back to IAD earlier. First told that there were no seats on earlier flights, then I was told that there was a seat on the early flight but I would have to pay $700 for it. I declined and fortunately felt better during the day.

Checking my mileage and reservations tonight, found that a trip to STT next summer for my wife and I had no return. Originally we were flying through ORD to get back to IAD. Then we were told that the flight was cancelled--this email came the day before the earth collapsed (3/2)--and we were on a flight via EWR with about half an hour connection to IAD. I called and asked the agent and she said that it was a legal connection. I asked if my wife and I would be given hotel rooms if (when) the connection didn't work. She said yes, so I didn't press this.

Checking today, the STT-EWR flight was gone. A helpful former CO agent said that they might want us to walk or swim. She found a routing through SJU but was waiting for confirmation. After 45 minutes, she asked for my phone number in case there is a problem. Right after the call ended, I got emails for new itineraries for my wife and myself--through ORD. But this flight doesn't exist anymore (I tried a fake booking for it and it didn't show up for our date in August). The reservations page on united.com gives me our new booking via SJU. But something has gone terribly wrong with the whole airline.

On my return from SIN via SEA, I met a UA reservations agent from one of the hubs (traveling with spouse on vacation) who gave the same evaluation of SHARES as others--calling it "a 45 year old DOS system that is great if you are traveling from Kalamazoo, MI to Detroit."

I never liked CO, but it seems from the CO folks I have run into of late that SMI/J has now ruined two airlines. :(:(

Update: I just got 4 emails from UA with revised itineraries for my wife and myself with returning from STT to IAD through SJU! We are on the same PNR but I got 2 emails for each of us with the same PNR.

Had a chance to spend a few minutes with Smi/J on a flight from Ord to Denver this week. His read is that it's all about the people - the integration issues are no more than speed bumps......

Well the people aren't very happy. At least 20 UA crew and agents (I've been on 7 UA flights in the last two weeks) have begged me to write to UA (especially when I tell them that I do have contacts). Every one of them says: "They don't listen to us."

Can you run an airline without people? My seatmate in Y on SIN-NRT was a GS member (saving money at the end of his fiscal year by buying on Orbitz). He's going to take his annual $250K travel budget (several trans-pacs a month in paid C or F) all to AA. As the Brits say, penny wise and pound foolish.

Presumably SMI/J wasn't in Y. He needs to talk to his "people." I believe (from what I was told) some of them may be looking elsewhere (if anyone else is hiring).

Not a lawsuit per se but from the news video being discussed in this thread..... ;)

My issues
1 still waiting for miles to be posted after a SFo-SYD flight on march 9 (even though SYD-MEL after this flight on 11 march has posted, and flight same day march 9 jfk-sfo has posted)

2.I have done 2 mileage upgrade awards ie MEL-SYD-SFO from C to F on May 27 and LAX-MEL on June 16 from C to F Upgrades available at time I called, were confirmed, booking shows me confirmed in First on lufthansa.com UA.com, Checkmytrip.com but no miles deducted as yet nor copays charged - called us agents svevral times - "Dont worry,its being manually processed" - my worry is in Melbourne I will get that PMCO Continental controller Ellis Baldavia or her PMUA Australian underling (who always keeps her id/name badge turned around so u cant see her name, and has harassed me many many times at MEL about upgrades, flight cancellations from MEL, most recently on March 4,2012) give me grief about my upgrades to F as usual; and force me to cancel my ticket on the spot ,ask for an immediate refund, cancel all my mileage runs on UA in the USA and ask for immediate refunds, and then go to the ACCC an complain about United and its unfair practices and how they affect Australain consumers
3. Upgraded a mileage run flight doing a buy up for $570 from Y to C on ps flight JFK-SFO (since I doubt any PS flight will ever have any R or RN availabiltiy ever again post merger!) Then paid for a mileage accelerator and a EQM accelerator - No receipts on Etik - only for buy up

Post merger takeover by Continental - (yes its continental! This airline no longer resembles PMUA, in my experience with 8 flights last month international,domestic transcontinental and domestic local, onboard has changed drastically unless u get some regular PS staff, online management of bookings is pre-archaic, and what was a good airline has caused untold grief to it customers, its employees and I PRAY also to its shareholders0

Im planning another trip to USA in Nov for a couple of weeks shopping and seeing relatives in Manhattan again in Nov - I am seriously considering AC or Virgin or Delta! Please fix things up Continental!!!!!!!!!!!!:mad:

Wow...talk about having your head in the sand.

People do tend to get into the most trouble when they start believing their own BS, Smesik's "speed bump " statement is a glaring example of that.

This has become such a N.Jersey airline! And are all the ex-Continental staff training up the good PMUA staff in how to do things badly! With pre-archaic software? I really feel badly for the poor PMUA staff - as pax can just take their business elsewhere - but the poor staff are locked into working for the dinosaur

And sorry Continental! Whats with trying to make me fly via that dump LAX instead of SFO when I search for fares to JFK from MEL/SYD? No flights shown on the Continental website on any date via SFO, my fave USA airport!!! - UA.com always showed all options for flights, including via SFO? So you think because u show UPG availability on ur pages (which is usually 0 anyway) ur better than UA.com? Me thinks not! :td::td::td::td:

^^ time for lot's of folks to start shredding these cowboys, I'm planning my switch as soon as I make 1K this year which will be pretty soon!!

I think it was about money. Specifically, I think it was about the fact that there were ongoing significant costs with Apollo that Shares didn't have, and that Shares offered a better (and less costly) platform moving forward.

I do hope the bolded text is an April Fools joke! :eek:

Both systems suck.
They just suck differently.

And no, it was not an April Fool's joke.

Saving gobs of money and having more control over the software's evolution is huge in the long run even if it's painful in the short run.

IAD Checkin
 

Last night I flew IAD - FRA, whenI went to do online checkin, the system would not let me. I've done online checkin for numerous international flights. Then when I got to Dulles, the checkin did not have a reservation for me. Luckily I had a print out of my flight info and was able to be on the flight.

Wha is going on with this once proud airline. I could puke watching the CEO video intro before the safety video.