UnitedFlyGuy

LOL.

What a dick. I applaud the lady for not helping him at all. A first class ticket doesn't give you the right to be a complete ..........

"I'm giving this to the CEO." Ok.

fastair

I agree with this but was replying to someone who said taping is legal without including the fact that it is only legal some places, not all. I wouln't want someone to see a post that said taping is legal and assum that the statement is true in all cases, but rather that they need to know the idiivdual state laws in chich they are in.

halls120

I disagree. Had I been in her situation, I would have but on my best customer service smile, and every time he asked a question, I would have said "sir, I have asked for a supervisor to come forward and help resolve your problem." Had she done that, it would have exposed him for what he was, and this video would have never made the splash it has. Standing there with a scowl on the CSRs face made it easier to the customer to be a jerk.

IME, when dealing with anyone who is angry/arrogant/a55holish is to kill them with kindness. It has always worked for me.

boycruz

Kinda bothered by the bloggers statement on his website as below
Kinda self entiltled.


Well, here's hoping that the words "I don't believe you" never comes out of her mouth again when addressing a customer. This situation is a prime example of how the United States airline industry has forgotten the adage "customer is always right." Whether or not the customer is really right is insignificant. The fact of the matter is, the customer is the one that pays for the service. Without the customer's money, there would be no business, hence there would be no job.

United Airlines has also offered some compensation for the incident.

fastair

Not in defence of the agent's actions (or the customer's either) but finding out what a flight WAS booked to at a previous time is not possble by a UA CSR. One can tell what it is currently booked to, but after departure, as reservations are cncld and people are rebooked, knowing what the booking levels at departure is not within our abilities. Many things change as soon as the flight departs. It may be possible that someone at WHQ could find that out, I'm not sure. Her reply was that it went out full. Be it standby passengers that occupied the person's seat, or maybe it was overbooked, is not known to us (the viewers) at this time.

If there is a problem at a gate, it would seem logical for an experienced travelr, such as the blogger claims to be, to try and resolve it at the gate with the people who arefamilliar with the details of the flight. Every day, I get dozens of questions from passengers about flights tat I am not working. I can answer some of them, but many of them are operational questions that don't have answers that can be found without working the trip itself. I'm curious as to why the OP gave up so easily at the gate and decided to make an example of someone who had no experince with his exact situation.

highflier1979

I find him very questionable, and that taints my perception of the whole exchange.

zrs70

What time did the traveller get to the gate?
What was said before the recording?
The traveller seemed to hve more than one boarding card. Were there others involved?

fastair

Also, it is possible, but incredibly (very incredibly) rare to overbook1st class on a narrow body plane. The person was able to change to the earlier flight, s I kind of doubt that his cabin was oversold. Again, it's possible, but very very very unlikely. He has exact times of whenhe arrived at the airport, security... Most people don't keep a record of times as they happen UNLESS they realize they are most likely already too late, and then thy start the doccumenting after the fact (as he did with his camera...he din't doccument the actuual cause or the incident for which he decided to make a big deal about, h taped the aftermath.)

I'm not familliar with IAH arport enough to know if his times are realistic. Those times are not realstic for my airport, but each airport is different, so I can't claim his times to be made up, but can sure question their authenticity.

apodo77

Since he was in control of the taping we have no clue what was or not said prior to the recording

Very possible she said exactly that.

1111

+1
+1
+1... prior to the cut we see, anyway.
I don't really want to know in the literal sense, but I think it's likely she was plenty responsive before he started filming -- and maybe even after he started, up until where he may have edited the clip to start.
We have no idea how long it really took for the supervisor to arrive, and how many times she may have said that on camera before she just couldn't keep it up anymore. I don't think that's a core requirement for the job she does.
"... we have certain groups..."
Unless, maybe... the whole thing is a set-up in the first place, and they're not really trying to make their flight, they're trying to create something for their blog? Thanks reality TV, you've really improved our culture.
In order to credibly expose them when they're truly wrong, we need to keep people from crying Wolf.

apodo77

Exactly. Also I would be real curious to see what the actual times he was at the gate. Are we just to take him at his word? He didn't provide any proof.

Per flighaware the flight departed 12 minutes late at 4:20. Is the departure when the doors are closed or when the flight takes off?

I have been flying for 10 years and never been on a flight where the doors are closed and plane pushes back 23 minutes to departure. 10 minutes on occasion but never 20+.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/U...108Z/KIAH/KLAS

Hungry Dingo

From what I can gather, the ticket agent was in the middle of a feverish game of PONG, an early 2 dimensional video game, that can only be displayed on the antiquated UNITED computers. She was thisclose to getting high score when DYKWIA came up to the counter.

sxf24

I've never seen a flight close the doors early (in relation to the original scheduled departure time) when there are passengers who have checked in, but are not yet on board.

Besides, I thought with SHARES it was impossible to dispatch a flight on-time unless you had 17 agents working the flight and boarding started 54 minutes and 12 seconds prior to departure.

goalie

Wrong!

The proper way to deal with the situation is to acknowledge the customer, explain to/tell them that you will be calling your supervisor over to assist them and then ask if they could step aside until the supervisor arrives so you can assist other customers. That's how it's taught and how it should be (n.b. should be) done and with that, it puts a positive spin on the customer service rep as if done the way you state, you have what was recorded

Yes, not a pretty picture and not painting any apologies nor assigning any blame to either party as there are always 3 sides to every story, your side, my side and the truth , but if the customer service rep had acted as I noted above, this situation could have been completely avoided

Yes but only after what I said above.

KarlJ

Respectfully, that may not be the case... you have to consider the "chess" mindset of the customer who has pre-determined any possible counter-moves. The guy was actively instigating an escalation (IMO, of course)