Can someone verify that the number is 800 225 8900? That's the number I used (just checked my records) and I don't think (by the unaccented American English) it was someone in India, but I didn't think to ask about that. I was actually in the USA at the time of making the call.

should be just a regular reservations line. Years ago it was for 1Ps but when PMUA when to routing by MP# the specialness of the phone number disappeared.

unfortunately there's no more elite desk. Just another enhancement since March 3 that doesn't make a lot of sense to most of us.

A good rule is the one given earlier, if you get a bad agent or one that seems unwilling or unable to assist, politely end the call and call again. Repeat as necessary. Don't stay on any longer than necessary to reach that point.

Some of the replies from my fellow FTers in this thread made me cringe. I hope you treat them the same way you should handle the bad phone agent. (ignore them and move on to the next reply.)

-David

IME a lot of PMUA agents want to have our backs but are crippled by the systems and rules they're dealing with now. I have had several very good agents today proactively helping me through irrops... but SHARES has meant each had to spend 15+ minutes on things PMUA did in 30 seconds before. It took two agents 20 minutes to issue me a BP for rerouted flights (after 45 on the phone); another took 15 minutes just to change seats.

+1

The system and business processes are just so slow to get anything done.

Even if I get things handled the way I want them, the time it takes is so unreasonable, and so much more than with PMUA. I don't even call UA unless I have an hour to kill on an issue (it usually takes less, but there's no such thing as a 5-minute call to resolve anything anymore).

So even with the most helpful, courteous, and compliant staff in the world, sadly, the customer service is still sub-par.

+1,000,000 It's really best in these cases to politely thank the agent for their time and hang up and call again. It sounds like you got domestic agents who weren't trained to do international flights.

+2

And of course, having such a lousy system drives other CSRs to display lousy attitudes, avoid being helpful, etc. I'm not excusing such attitudes and lack of helpfulness - it was not unheard of at pmUA - but it's more likely to happen when they don't know the complicated fix to a formerly simple problem, are daunted by the time it will take to deal with it, are reaching the end of their shift, etc.

+1

Of course, having defended the agents who helped me out today, I then came across one who could give the baggage agents at IAD a run for their money in terms of bad service. :mad:

At RIC, it seemed like they had only loaded about 1/4 of the plane's bags--funny seeing as how the flight was an hour delayed out of ORD; I guess they rushed it out of ORD. My bag only needed to go 4 gates over, but it didn't make it.

I get in line at the claim office and also get on the phone to the baggage service folks. Agent loudly tells me to "get out of the window" (??) and "step out of line if I am going to be on the phone." HUH?! I'm trying to avoid a possible lengthy wait and at least get the process rolling. She then lectures that it doesn't matter if we call, but that only the local office (her) can enter the claim.

Needless to say, I got my info to the phone agent and stormed out of the airport rather than wait around another hour with such a surly employee. :td:

I am happy to report a positive experience with a UA agent today - someone named "Cathy".

I didn't get her full name, but here's what happened.

1. I had a cancelled ticket with some value above the $150 change fee that I wanted to use. I tried to change it on the web site which wouldn't let me so what I needed to do, so I had to call.

2. I called the "1K line". To my surprise, "Cathy" answered "1K desk, how may I help you?"

3. I already had my new itinerary picked out, with the exact class, time, routing, etc. all figured out, so no complicated decision process on my part to hold up the call.

4. It was quite clear from the call that "Cathy" was professional, experienced, and knew what the heck she was talking about. The only thing that was holding up the reservation process was her computer. She occasionally let it slip that she was having a difficult time wrangling with the computer.

5. After some baiting about SHARES from me, she did tell me that if I ever visited Chicago, she would find a few of the PMUA agents crying over their computers.

6. After I got my tickets sorted out, I asked her to handle another lingering issue with some tickets that I had purchased for my brother-in-law's family vacation. "Cathy" couldn't fix that mess, but she researched the issue, then came back and explained clearly what the issues were, and why the 4 previous agents I had spoken to on the phone previously on the topic couldn't fix the issue. (3 of those 4 were completely clueless and useless)

7. After I hung up the phone, I was quite happy that at least I got someone that cared, and United's customer service wasn't completely dead yet. However, I was also a bit sad that I couldn't get someone like Cathy on the customer service line every time.

100% correct.

Actually, to me the real problem is that if you call three times you will get three different sets of responses.

I am really lucky that I have not had this issue yet, as I never check my itinerary.

Oh, I think it goes a bit beyond "11 vocal members of FT."

I'm hearing negative comments from all sorts of pax standing in line to board, at check-in, onboard, etc., and surely they're not all FTers, unless FT is a much larger community than thought.

But to me, more depressing is my personal experience that service seems to be at best holding steady and at worst sliding back--we should really be seeing improvements by now. Either I'm incredibly unlucky, or there are still some serious issues UA needs to confront.

I agree. I hear it from my fellow travelers, see it all over Facebook, in the news, etc...

I added the (11) to my post with a later edit.

Just trying to be funny, and to keep alive the reference to the so called 'Gang of 11'. :)

My service with UA continues to be 'acceptable'. Definitely room for improvement. But I expect 'acceptable', and am satisifed with what I am receiving.