United loses a 10 year old in ORD
http://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_webl...idnt-care.html
Here is the headline: United was flying Phoebe as an unaccompanied minor on June 30th, from San Francisco to Chicago, with a transfer to Grand Rapids. No one showed-up in Chicago to help her transfer, so although her plane made it, she missed the connection. Most crucially, United employees consistently refused to take action to help assist or comfort Phoebe or to help her parents locate her despite their cries for help to numerous United employees. :mad: |
Originally Posted by Sprezzatura
(Post 19113405)
http://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_webl...idnt-care.html
Here is the headline: United was flying Phoebe as an unaccompanied minor on June 30th, from San Francisco to Chicago, with a transfer to Grand Rapids. No one showed-up in Chicago to help her transfer, so although her plane made it, she missed the connection. Most crucially, United employees consistently refused to take action to help assist or comfort Phoebe or to help her parents locate her despite their cries for help to numerous United employees. :mad: |
I flew unaccompanied when I was 9 years old and also had to transfer. It went fine. But luckily I was on Cathay Pacific.
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These parents can afford to fly a child to camp halfway across the country but they're too cheap to spring for a disposal cell phone so she can contact them if there is a problem?
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Visit the link and read the letter the parents sent to United.. I didn't bother reading the blog post because it was written by a friend..the letter itself has the info from the parents.
What a horrible ordeal! People pay for this service and there is absolutely no excuse for it to go awry like it did in this situation. United owes them big time. |
Originally Posted by LTBoston
(Post 19113491)
These parents can afford to fly a child to camp halfway across the country but they're too cheap to spring for a disposal cell phone so she can contact them if there is a problem?
I'm curious as to what the kid was actually doing for all these hours though. Can you really wander around ORD as an unaccompanied minor for *hours* without finding someone who'll at least send you to someone who can sort out the whole "where the hell is my unaccompanied minor escort" problem? |
They didn't LOSE her, per se; they just caused a passenger to mis-connect as a result of their generic incompetence / indifference, and then also delayed her bags for a while. That's not news, that's another day at United that ends in "y". Only the age of the traveler is different. On that front, I'm just happy to see that the new United does not discriminate in the service it provides on the basis of age.
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Originally Posted by Jorgen
(Post 19113563)
I'm curious as to what the kid was actually doing for all these hours though. Can you really wander around ORD as an unaccompanied minor for *hours* without finding someone who'll at least send you to someone who can sort out the whole "where the hell is my unaccompanied minor escort" problem?
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I am not surprised...it has been a while since I have had to deal with UAs but both times CO could not account for them on the other end.....the kids and those picking them up knew where they were but CO had no clue and they had no answer beyond "sorry"
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Let's stick to the topic of what happened with this UM and UA and not on the general issue of unaccompanied minors.
iluv2fly Moderator, UA |
What confuses me the most from the bullet points is this:
When Anne and Perry tried to file a complaint, note the system is so bad that they wouldn't let them write it themselves and the United employee refused their request to have it read back to be fact-checked, plus there are other twists worth repeating: And then: We asked if the bags being lost for three days and camp having to make 5 trips to the airport vs. one was something we would be compensated for And this part is laughable (at least about B6 and WN): But perhaps United senior executives ought to at least take a look at what happens at JetBlue, Virgin America, and Southwest. They make mistakes too, it happens, but when they do, I nearly always feel empathy for my situation and that the people are trying to make the situation right. While it will never happen, I would love to hear the information from UAL's side. Always two sides to every story. Children tend to fear reprimand for their actions, so they find something they can blame it on. When I worked for the airlines, I would have an angry parent show up requesting to speak to a supervisor and after listening to the "how could you let my child miss a flight" and "I'm never putting my child on xxx airlines because you (pointing at me) made him/her miss the flight" I would meet the flight that had the child on it, talk to the F/A about the child and come to find out that they were so scared after their initial flight that they didn't want to fly on the next flight, or that the child didn't want to go on this trip because he/she thought it was stupid. As opposed to telling their parent(s), and in return getting reprimanded, it turns into "xxx airlines made me miss my flight!!!". 15+ years in the customer service industry, I have seen, heard, and smelled (bs) it all. If this is true, then shame on UAL for this. But, if there is another story to be heard and the real story comes back on the parent's as opposed to united, shame on the parents. I've seen it both ways. Take every story with a grain of salt until facts are presented, as opposed to a "friend's" one sided sob story. |
Originally Posted by aviatorzz
(Post 19113661)
15+ years in the customer service industry, I have seen, heard, and smelled (bs) it all. If this is true, then shame on UAL for this. But, if there is another story to be heard and the real story comes back on the parent's as opposed to united, shame on the parents. I've seen it both ways. Take every story with a grain of salt until facts are presented, as opposed to a "friend's" one sided sob story. I'd say this sums it up. If true, shame on UA, and they should pay dearly. If not? Shame on the family and kid. |
Originally Posted by hoopics
(Post 19113580)
They didn't LOSE her, per se; they just caused a passenger to mis-connect as a result of their generic incompetence / indifference, and then also delayed her bags for a while.
If she is not in the company of a handler, she is lost. She was old enough to figure out how to find people who could get her back on track, luckily. |
For something like this, I would sue the airline in small claim court in my own town. Let them incur the expenses to send lawyers from headquarters to defend the indefensible before a jury. I would invoke gross negligence and would claim a reimbursement for the cost of the ticket, the cost of the minor accompanying service, and an amount for moral distress and loss of wages, up to the maximum allowed by the small claim court in my jurisdiction. This is fairly simple to do and requires no lawyer.
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Originally Posted by CPMaverick
(Post 19113710)
Yes they DID lose her. The person that was supposed to pick her up off the flight never showed. That the girl stuck around UA personnel was good for her, but they didn't keep her accompanied and that was the whole point...
If she is not in the company of a handler, she is lost. She was old enough to figure out how to find people who could get her back on track, luckily. I thought how the process works is that the FA keeps the UA on the plane with thh paperwork and then gives the paperwork and child over to the 3rd party. The 3rd party takes the UA to the next flight and hands the UA over to a FA along with the paperwork. The question is, where did this process break down? |
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