weirdlyndon

ditto - and the website and app have been absolutely useless. Found out yesterday my LAX-LAS for tomorrow was cancelled. No mention in my res online and when I tried to change the flights online it wanted to charge me fare difference plus change fee. No autorebookings have been taking place from what I've noticed.

Pushing the hour mark on hold for the 1K desk...

BearX220

Um... is it "over-entitled" to expect a call answered within two or three hours on hold? To expect not just cancellations, but rebooking? Is the following ever acceptable?

It's not acceptable. Yes, there's bad weather -- nobody expects perfection. But this is third world. This is collapse. UA has made a conscious decision to fold during serious irrops. Like not bothering to try for better than 80% OT, because it's too expensive, they're not bothering to be even minimally responsive amid serious weather -- because bringing spike-demand resources online is apparently also too expensive.

You could rationalize this epic fail if everyone else were in the same boat. But...

United Airlines is not even in the game. This is what a company in a tailspin trying to shed another $2 billion in costs looks like.

Smisek's not answering phones himself. He's in a bubble somewhere being told everything's great.

Shameful. Incompetent and shameful.

dabears1020

My boyfriend (a lowly silver), sat on hold for SIX HOURS last night before being disconnected. That is absolutely appalling and completely unacceptable. I get that weather happens, but when it does, you STAFF UP. I'm seriously livid. We had to sit there watching flights fill up for days out as United doesn't give us the tools to work this out on our own. Totally ridiculous.

villox

I don't fault people for calling for things that they cannot do online. People have all sorts of reasons for travel, and they've earned the right to use their instruments. If they didn't call now, someone else could snap up that space and they could be SOL.

I had to call because I had changed an award trip using partners so much that it just seemed so screwed up all around. I canceled it, but it says it required "special handling" in order to get the miles refunded so I could rebook it from scratch. The trip is not until September, but I knew there were exactly 2 seats left on Thai for one leg, and this is my honeymoon, so I didn't want it screwed up.

The fact that UA systems cannot handle this excess call volume is the fault of UA, not those calling for whatever reason they need.

BearX220

They can't. They cashiered all those people. Welcome to the Comcast of the sky. You'll take what little service we give you, and you'll like it.

dabears1020

What a joke. He's faxing status match papers to Alaska as we speak.

suzanneaustin

I had to call back to the 1K line several times just now, but when I finally got through, I was on hold less than 5 minutes.

nwff

It's at times like these that I recall the wonderful 2012 quote:

"Our chief executive characterises us as 'an IT company with wings'," says Continental managing director for IT Services Bill Miller.

username

I said SOME Such as:

palefire

Depending on where you live, it may be faster and more pleasant to go to the airport and queue to see an agent in person. A friend of mine just did this re his travel tomorrow, though now he has the dreaded "! A modification has been made to your itinerary" out-of-sync message on his reservation, so he may have to go back to the airport to get another agent to properly re-ticket him....

awc4

I was on hold for about an hour and finally got an agent, who basically told me something similar where my PDX-SFO-IAD flight today would be pushed back to Wednesday due to a cancellation of the PDX-SFO segment (really? I realize that there's no weather issues here and there are many reasons why this could happen, but still).

I tried for various options, even mentioned that I could do YVR/SEA/PDX/BLI to any DC or NYC airport and she told met that I would need to pay a difference in fare for changing either the origin or the destination (I know she's right, but still, it's frustrating). She said that her options were limited and I would be better off going to the airport to see if they can handle an even exchange, as she was able to get me on a direct flight on Wednesday.

At this point, I basically gave up and booked an award ticket with a different carrier and got the flights I needed and hope to just get a refund for my UA ticket when I go to the airport later tonight.

IRROPS is one of the reasons I have elite status. It adds insult to injury when you tell me things like "I've never spoken to so many million milers in my 26 years of working for the airline. Thanks for being a million miler" I'm thankful that you were able to get me on a direct flight 3 days from now and I know that there's a weather event where a lot of the system is out, but that doesn't really make me feel great about the interaction after being on hold for an hour. I don't even want to know what the interaction is for someone with no status.

Boraxo

Is that prefix 756 number or a different one? Because the former one simply connects to the reservations line where we've all been waiting for service.

crenshaw

answered on 1K line after 45 minute wait in the queue.....

amolkold

Got through in <8 minutes as Platinum. This after a total of at least 7 hours on hold/disconnected the past day.

cesco.g

Was on hold at the GS line for over half an hour, then gave up, as I found an agent at the airport who was very helpful!