StefanVonWochen

Hello all

I am travelling from SFO to EWR in September in United First Class - I booked the flight in March and reserved 2 seats in the second row. Yesterday the flight was amended - same departure time but a different plane and my seat reservations came back as "---" - blank seats...

I rang United to see if we could get our seats back and they were really quite rude to me. They very bluntly said "Sir you pay for the flight not a seat" and that only row 4 was left with 2 adjacent seats, and that it would have even been possible that we could have been seated in different rows from each other.

Is this really how United talks to customers and treats passengers in US First (Euro Business) class?

I'm not that bothered about the message conveyed, just the way in which I was spoken to.

Often1

united.com is always polite to me and great at assigning / reassigning seats.

SEA1K4EVR

Not always, but often.

channa

I would have let it be til Monday. They often mess with flights on the weekends, and restore seats by Sunday or Monday.

As for the comment, CO had repeatedly said in public and to its staff many negative comments blaming its customers for things -- things like customers not wanting to pay the costs of air travel, and how it's the customers' fault that amenities had to be cut.

It would logically follow if that blaming the customer is set by management, it could manifest itself in front-line customer hostility.

BearX220

When a company's leaders send the message that customers are to be regarded as adversaries, you can't blame the ground troops for relaying that attitude.

LilAbner

There may be more to this story than is being posted. The Op lost his seats and called. The agent was not able to give him back his previous seats and it's my guess the OP wasn't too cool with that answer and then the "RUDE" bomb get's dropped!

DallasEsq

The ground troops deal with a lot of completely unreasonable customers. It's unfortunate when their frustration gets taken out on perfectly-behaved flyers, but their job really is difficult. They have to deal with impatient customers while at the same time try to resolve issues with technology they are not adequately trained to use.

StefanVonWochen

Actually I wasn't rude at all - I was very polite and half way through me saying why I was calling, she interrupted me with a sigh and with a rather unfriendly tone of voice said "Sir........." etc etc

goodeats21

Until united.com changes them without reason 48 hours before the flight...

malgudi

And ... you know this how?

Thunderroad

Sadly, you're both right on the mark.

LilAbner

Note the word MAY. While it cannot be assumed that every person that gets their seats taken from them is happy with that fact, it can be assumed that having your pre-assigned location disappear would get one somewhat upset. Not saying the OP was "RILED", but I personally don't buy the fact that many agents that gets these calls are "RUDE" either.

Quite frankly, it seems to be the status quo to believe that every time a poster doesn't get their meal choice, seat assignment, an upgrade, a flight that has a delay, or a full can of soda, the employee is "RUDE", and the UA bashers run to the posters defense.

Unless I see it with my own eyes or hear it with my own ears I tend to be somewhat restrained in my judgement of any and all UA employee's and their demeanor as a result of one persons determination that any conversation rises to a level of "RUDENESS"!

Quite frankly, things are broken as of late, and we all need to keep one eye open day & night on our itineraries, but loosing a seat or two is not the agents fault and I know before I call that I am NEVER going to get my seats back once some other dude/dudess is sitting in them. I know that fact before I call, and that's why I would select 2 different seats close together and hope for a switch on the plane.

Perhaps the agent was short with the OP, but this does not rise to the height's of making a big deal out of it, and asking, "Are United agents ALWAYS this abrupt"? One agent being short with a caller is not ALWAYS!

UrbaneGent

Beautifully said channa - I must say, reading your posts, you are very on-the-ball and consistent.

Kind Sir, the response you got is appalling to say the least. As a first class passenger, you should take your business where it would be more appreciated. My seats were changed by the system and it's very unnerving, so I can imagine your frustration.

sg1979

The last three times I called UA they were abrupt or rude or clueless. I don't think the OP is complaining about the answer but rather the delivery and curt answer vs an explanation.

I rang to change an award ticket and wanted economy plus seating. Took me three calls to sort out, and I hung up on the first who after I asked to book a ticket "this" Saturday, his response was that there are four Saturdays in a month and he can't help me "plan my trip". I told him I can pull up the date but that he didn't need to be snarky, then he called me rude for calling up and not having my information for him.

The third guy was slow as molasses on the phone but I got a kick out of him telling me he couldn't assign my seat since it was on AC not UA but that if I called them up directly I could put in my special seating request for an aisle, window, smoking or non smoking. He was serious.

Babu

While as a rule you may be right, I am going to side with the OP here. Why? He has been very polite and restrained in his rendition of the story here. He appears to be a calm and reasonable individual (based on his limited posts on this thread). All too often we see erratic and imflamatory posts bashing UA...he did none of this.

On the other hand, I have seen rude and cold agents at EWR all too often when the customer did nothing to receive such treatment from the airline. I am starting to believe channa and think their training causes this behavior? Since I have switched to AA, I"ve seen 1% of the nastiness during my travels from the airlines employess. Yes, customers are sometimes rude too, but IME, it's UA agents that are guilty of this moreso (without provocation).

There are some OUTSTANDING UA employees (both PMUA and PMCO), but more and more difficult to come across.