PTahCha

There's a difference between helping customers and breaking the rules. However, if the GA cannot do their job because the tool they are using does not not allow them to provide customer service, the GA should not be blamed.

It's the SHARES lottery.

craz

Wow although in the end it wasnt what the OP thought it was, it was still not handled at all properly by the agents at SFO.

6/8 of my flights in the past week were CO metal. either the video,pilot, or FA kept mentioning Welcome aborad Continetal or when landing Thanked us for flying CO. I guess put a PMCO person in charge and CO rules will be implemented, in the OPs case trying to make out as if the problem is the passengers fault. Anything except responsibility that UA blew it even if it was caused by a Downgrade of aircraft.

But the OP got it correct when he said 'a new low...' I just can hope that no one evers beats him with their experience

dgcpaphd

Since your post implies that the OP was on a plane that did not have wifi (even though he said he was), this morning UA announced wifi on certain international flights via satellite AND regular wifii already installed on some 319s.

Here is the news release to investors:

http://ir.unitedcontinentalholdings....764&highlight=

Either there are more than two already configured with wifi or the OP lucked out and happened to get one of the two planes fitted with wifi.
-

star_world

It did have WiFi - it was aircraft number 4006 according to the flight status page, which according to this page has been fitted with wifi:

https://sites.google.com/site/united...fleet-tracking

bocastephen

I'm hoping by now someone from UA has reached out to the OP to address this incident and restore their confidence.

iquitos

international flights and print boarding passes anymore. I think it is a system problem. They deny it. On my last trip I called in a secured my seat but could not print a bp I also asked to talk to the IT person who had no clue until I gave her one. I have a mac. You have a mac, she said, they have been having some problems with macs. she promised an informed call back I never got. IMO system is terminal. It doesn't tell you you can't, it just lets you go through the screens and then never closes the transaction with a print bp or that other card that you used to present at the gate. badly messed up. Complained to customer service and they said I was crazy that online check in works fine. These people either lie, make stuff up or don't know. Very sad.

GoAmtrak

Z fares to non-US North America markets may very well map from an x-UP fare basis, just as V-UP maps to A or P fares for domestic. The fare code does not necessarily have to match the underlying basis.

FlyWorld

I never claimed to know why this happened. All I knew was that I was told I was not entitled to a seat in F because I never paid for a seat in F and that I was merely on the wait list for a seat in F and accused of lying about my confirmed seat until I produced the itinerary receipt to prove it.

That is what happened and that is why this turned into such an ordeal.

As I said to Channa earlier, if they said I was pulled out of F because of a downguage and because all 8 pax remaining were gs or 1k on higher fare, there would not be as much to write about.

Even without this added layer, though, how is it that the world's largest airline cannot produce a boarding pass for a paid f 1k flyer that will allow said flyer to get through tsa?

How can this be conceivable???

Incidentally, there was no marketing about the wifi. I discovered it by accident when I turned on my computer and it found the signal.

star_world

A handful of agents who didn't know what they were doing, and/or who just "shut down" and didn't try to fix the situation once they realized they (or their colleagues) were in the wrong. As some have already pointed out, your demeanour / tone may have been a contributing factor, this is something I've noticed very frequently with veteran UA employees - they are highly sensitive to anything that could be construed as criticism.

I don't see how this can be any more than that - you're not going to get a magical answer that you haven't already thought of.

Official launch wasn't until today.

dalston

This is about as crystal clear a case of an Unfair or Deceptive Act or Practice as you can find. If this is what happened here, you should lo complain to the FTC and your state AG about a violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act.

craz

I wasnt blaming You!

I had a 6am ONT-SFO flight yesterday and was hoping to SDC to the *:44am flight so as to sleep in longer and didnt need a 3 1/2+ Club visit. My luck the 8:44 flight was loaded with some G fares. Called 1K and was told I cant SDC w/o paying and that since X = ) (lowest fare in the fare class button) that I would need to pay the difference in fare as well.

As a 1K all I needed was to call @ T -23:59 to the flight I wanted since it was after my tkted flight and if the fare basis I was on was available its a Free change. So I hung up and called back, the 2nd agent said she didnt see any G but if I did then she will call websupport.End result there was G available and I got the 8:44am flight for $0.

Result is we can no longer rely on COdbaUAs agents who seem to be making more stuff up in order justify what they think the issue is.

answer is to Dump Shares as they did Fastair and get a system thats up to 2013 Standards that can handle things the way they should be. Both systems were bad

spin88

As a lawyer, I will hazard an opinion that (1) UA will pay the difference in his fare from his Z to lowest available Y fare, and (2) that is likely to be the only relief he can get if he sues. Some states have 3x damages, but 17200 (CA's unfair business practices statute) does not.

Answer is a DOT complaint (focused as Michmu said he would on the attempt to strong arm a false statement) and to see if UA will cut loose with the fare difference and some "aggravation" compensation, as they should. While he will likely win in small claims court (if you know how to answer the filed rate argument UA makes) its not worth the time/aggrevation.

channa

And that is the key. The system is so bad that we cannot rely on anything they say, because 1) we don't know how to find it; and 2) it's often easier to make something up than to do the right thing.

This doesn't seem to phase me because I'd been a CO Elite for the past decade, and I understand the BS factor is high with such poor systems.

dalston

It's a moot point, as info later in the thread made it clear this wasn't what happened. However, if the x-UP discrepance had ahppened to me after I had searched on United's website for First and not having been warned what had happened then I would want to make United face the consequences as well as trying to do some good for people in similar situations. The FTC's test for unfairness requires that:

"injury must be (1) substantial, (2) not outweighed by offsetting consumer or competitive benefits, and (3) not be one that consumers could have reasonably avoided. With respect to this last element, the Commission comments that the expectation is for the “marketplace to be self-correcting,” but that it recognizes that “certain types of sales techniques may prevent consumers from effectively making their own decisions, and that corrective action may then become necessary."

In the case of a consumer who searched for first and got seat assignments, only to have them taken away because of the fact the fare was an x-UP not disclosed in the sales process, I think this pretty clearly meets all three tests. Regardless of the irrelevance to the OP, United would be well-advised either to change this practice and treat x-UPs as paid first rather than upgrades or to provide a clear disclosure during the booking process. Several of my financial services clients have been raked over the coals in cases where the diclosure was substantially less opaque than it is here.

dgcpaphd

It will do no good to complain. Individual complaints cannot be accepted because of the ADA.

Class action is the only way you will get action and then only if the behavior is ongoing.

See this:

http://oag.ca.gov/consumers/general/airlines
-