StevenSeagalFan

They can give you a fake name, I recently called my health insurance company and spoke to a supervisor who gave me her name, I swear to god: "Romney Ryan."

valor155

Unacceptable behavior. I've had good experiences on the 1K line so far. Helpful and generally pleasant.

The best recourse is to shake it off and call back.

UA can of course do better. But it's not a priority IMO so far from what I've read. As I wrote above, my experiences have been pretty good so far.

MatthewLAX

True, but agents have still been instructed to answer 1K calls as "1K desk" even though there is no longer a dedicated desk.

FlyWorld

Just because they say "1K Desk" when they pick up the phone for a 1K, that doesn't mean it's a "1K Desk." It was, indeed, abolished as part of the takeover. Now, when a 1K calls to ask for help, he or she no longer gets the same set of specially trained agents that used to be dedicated to serving that class of customer.

MatthewLAX

That's what I said--it was abolished--yet agents are still supposed to recognize 1Ks by answering "1K desk". It seems the ex-Cons have trouble doing this.

FlyWorld

Perhaps that's because they are not really ex-Cons but, in fact, still Cons.

changey2

My last couple experiences calling the line weren't too bad tho

jbresee

My last experience with the 1k line was tough.

My son was flying on one of my award tickets from DEN to Munich. The Denver outbound left 1.5 hours late because the cleaning crew and rampers weren't available to turn the plane.

I ended up with a very rude United representative who spoke in a very thick Indian accent and she told me that United ALWAYS holds the international flights, and that they ALWAYS have a cart to transport International passengers from one gate to another. I fly every single week, my experience has not aligned with her representation. She wouldn't allow me to speak and kept interrupting me, and then transferred me to non-premier desk.

I used to have great luck with the 1k desk, but it's been pretty variable lately. Did they outsource that function?

Often1

All that you get now is a more senior and empowered agent. You can get to that by calling any UA # and entering your MP#. Thus if you call the standard line and enter your MP# and are 1K, you jump the queue and theoretically speak with someone "better". If you are nobody and call Premier, you go to the nobody queue.

Sorry for the thick Indian accent. It's what happens when people grow up and or live in India. But, it doesn't reflect on competence or value.

jbresee

My comment about the accent was more a question - did they outsource the phone support?

I could care less about a persons accent, but rather about if they are able and willing to help me when I'm stuck. This person clearly didn't understand how UAL operates, was unwilling to help, and was quite rude. Those are the attributes by which I judge her performance. Did UAL outsource their phone support for 1ks? The experience has become wildly variable. And yes, I did input my MM# on the call.

bocastephen

Generally speaking you still get an educated and enabled agent when they answer the phone with one of the following:

"Premier Desk"
"1K Premier Desk"
"Global Services"
or address you by name when they answer the call

If the agent doesn't use one of the salutations above, you hit the general agent pool and your best bet is to HUCA - if you ask a general agent if they are the 1K desk or to transfer you to the 1K or Premier desk, you'll usually get a "I AM THE .... desk" with a terse tone (ie how dare you question me) - in which case, HUCA.

I am probably wrong, but I thought UA closed the India call center so any "accented" agents are likely domestic - but again, if you don't like how the call is going, HUCA.

For years, even going back to the CO days, I could tell instantly how the call was going to go by how the agent answered the phone based on their demeanor, tone and accent and by instantly applying HUCA, I was able to find an agent (after a few tries) who took care of my question and left me with a great impression.

Nikongirl

I wondered the same. Had to call last week and also spoke with a man with an Indian accent. The service was fine, as it always is for me, but It was unusual for me to hear on UA.

halls120

It does if all the speaker does is respond to your questions with answers from a script and can't really answer your questions or solve your problems. By definition that employee has little value, and all the competence in the world won't overcome an inability to provide assistance that comes from policies imposed by a management team that doesn't understand customer service.

I never had to HUCA before 2012.

dank0014

I had an agent last week on the "1K desk" when I called in regarding needing to do a SDC with a routing I wanted. I agree with others that the accent isn't what determines their ability to help, but to toss it in, he had a heavy accent and he was confident that I was wrong in that UA doesn't fly into EWR, only JFK and LGA....yea. HUCA was used instantly.

It's things like that though that make me wonder who in the right mind is picking these agents to work for UA, and more importantly, how poor their training may be to not know certain routes - I'm not saying they should know all routes, but some key locations, and heck, their hubs, would be great.

On a positive note though, he did answer the phone 1K desk

denuaflier

UA has a significant employees of Indian decent in Houston call center.