mx2

Just got through in 2h 50min ^

Flyz

Well, something is seriously screwed up with the Premier line. After being cut off from the first agent and put back on hold, after another 15 minutes I got another one. He said, "You're heading to Las Vegas." "No," I said. "I have your confirmation number here," he said, and read me off a number that was nothing like mine. "This is not my number," I said. Then suddenly I was in the middle of another conversation where an agent was explaining that there was no compensation because of weather. Then suddenly I was listening in on a conversation between an agent and a customer. In these last ones, no one could hear me.

Has anyone had this happen? This is seriously messed up.

k_o_m

Gold currently on hold for 3:40 and counting... trying the United.com number on a different phone.

hobo13

So you believe that putting sending 1K's to a busy signal while funneling GM's into a hold queue is acceptable?

Look, we all know that weather makes a mess of airlines. Nobody is denying that. My issue is with how CO decides to treat everyone equally. (Or worse, treat GM's better.) In a time of crisis, it's well known that you have to ration resources -- a company has to pick and choose who it is going to serve, because it can't serve them all. Most airlines would choose to serve their best customers..... CO claims they treat everyone equally (which isn't possible), and then inadvertently caters to the GMs.

It's similar to how CO refuses to prioritize meals in F by status -- I've been told they want to treat everyone up-front equally, but when you've only got 6 steak dinners and 18 hamburgers to allocate among 24 F pax, it's naive to think you can make everyone happy.

fiddlestickies

Premier line is down again.

appenz

Got through to a representative in 50 minutes via premier priority desk (as platinum) and in about the same time local Mexican United line. However since talking to the agent for 10 minutes, on hold for another 30 minutes while finding a supervisor, and another 20 minutes with the supervisor trying to find a flight that gets me back within 3 days (!).

geoggirl

I am not trying Premier, just any human who will help. Quick trip to Green Bay for the game is turning into a nightmare.

Since Friday, I have spent 9 1/2 hours rescheduling my flight into GRB, tracking down my lost luggage and now trying to reschedule flight home as everything goes through ORD. The physical line in ORD was 3 1/2 hours on Friday...when I was done, the line had tripled in length. There were four agents to service a few hundred people.

Classic moments :45 minute wait only to be told by the agent she was not trained on how to reschedule mileage flights and then transferred again...gave up after the 3 hour mark, being told they are closed, getting calls disconnected at 90 minutes, and then being asked by the luggage people why it took me so long to report my lost luggage (this was when I finally got through at 3:30am after trying all day).

hughw

Let's not resurrect the CO vs UA fight, but for the record, I don't ever remember as a CO Plat being on hold for more than 5-10 minutes. enuf said.

Yes....would have, could have. But we have no idea what resources UA as deployed during this storm. For all we know, Jeff is answering phones. Situations like this are a triple whammy.....there are many more callers than usual, their problems and rerouting solutions are typically much more complicated than usual, and there are less aircraft and seats to solve the problems. So despite, UA's best efforts, if in fact they are making a more than reasonable effort stuff happens and sometimes it's necessary to just sit it out until things quiet down. Analogy, a major highway is closed by the storm despite heroic efforts by a highway department to keep it open.....is it fair to say that they should be better prepared for a major storm?

WhyPayRent

Right. Because they just disconnect the line after saying they are experiencing higher than normal call volumes due to the weather and try again later.

appenz

Update: Managed to rebook my flight in about 2 hours via premier priority desk, while the staff was reasonably nice it took some negotiation to get to the right result.

They have me stuck internationally for two days and don't want to pay for hotel (even though weather is great here they claim this falls under weather as a crew member was stuck east due to weather - does that count?). They also didn't want to refund a United flight that I missed due to the 2 day delay, but after some negotiation relented.

LiliYUL

My YUL-CLE flight tomorrow morning was cancelled (first leg of YUL-AUS). Gold, been on hold for 3.5 hours now...
Might be a silly question, but I've never actually had a flight cancelled before. OCI gives me a search option for flights today, tomorrow and tuesday. Only one flight available, leaves tuesday, overnight connection in CLE, arrives AUS Wed am. Should I assume this is the only routing available to me, or will an agent be able to arrange something that isn't offered online?
thanks!

crenshaw

Not just the call center....it appears passengers on cancelled itineraries are not being re-booked. Just cancelled. Kaput. You're SOL.

cerealmarketer

The 1K MileagePlus Service Center is picking up immediately.

[elite, unpublished no. edited by Moderator per FT Rules]

They can't help with reservations though. But she claimed she could 'try to get you through' if it was urgent.

rockrich

My flight SJU SFO cancelled. No rebook attempt. After 3 h hold I was offered rebook in one week from original date. Deplorable service.

halls120

A friend of ours was in AEX trying to get back to MCI on Friday. Early Thursday, she went to UA.com to OLCI, and found out her flight to IAH was still on, but her flight to MCI was cancelled, and when she called to talk to a live person, they told her she'd have to overnight in IAH and they would try to get her out on Saturday. She called us Friday morning to see if we had any ideas. I immediately logged on to UA.com, and saw that her original flight had been cancelled, but that there were 3 IAH-DEN-MCI flights with seats available. I told to get to AEX now and show the CSR that it was indeed possible to get her home to MCI without overnighting in Houston. So she got there, the CSR tried to brush her off, and she was adamant about wanting to know why she couldn't be booked on any of the Friday options I gave her. Finally, a supervisor came out, took her paperwork to the back, and came out with a BP for a direct IAH-MCI flight.

UA's systems suck, to put it plainly.