te36

Having my first MUA into polaris business class seat go through after the doors had closed.
I already had snuggled into my exit row seat and given up. Oh the moments of joy of a lowly 1K in a world of GS.

Especially because i had gambled on a somewhat longer route in hope of getting the upgrade because there was no chance at all to get it on the direct flight.

KarenH

I want to say how helpful UA customer service was. I had a ticket from CNS->SEA to attend a guardianship hearing. Two days before departure date, a lawyer (guardian ad litem) re-scheduled the hearing date because he did not have all required documents. He said it was my fault if I had to pay cancellation fees because I should not have planned so far ahead. Crikey, he has obviously not tried to travel from regional Australia.
I rang UA and cancelled the flight. At that point, I did not know the new hearing date and the agent warned me that I may have to provide documentation to have the fee waived. About a week later I rang, and re-booked. The agent could not have been more helpful. I explained the circumstances (no documentation was requested), and she and the pricing desk, kept the ticket price the same, and waived the re-booking fee. I think the pricing desk was involved because the CNS<->MEL segment was on Jetstar.
The flights went as scheduled. I was able to upgrade to Business class on the return LAX->MEL as a friend gave me a GPU. The 15.5 hour flight was so great. I could not have been more comfortable nor had better service.

I should add that I am a million miler, so Premier gold status, and the Premier phone line.

Thank you United for the excellent customer service.

zrs70

I had a ticket on hold (Canada-PPT) for about $3000 USD one way in J. (Reserved yesterday and help online). I went online to ticket, today using a voucher. An error came up. Then my reservation evaporated.

I called the 1K line. They attempted to recreate the reservation, but the new fare was over $8000 USD. They explained that the price must have gone up. I asked to be connected to united.com support.

I got the best agent one can hope for. She saw the old record. But by this time, the entire history had been erased. No pricing record. No itinerary. Just my name.

I fed her the itinerary and told her the exact price. She said, “Do not worry. I will make this right. I’ll build the record and talk to the rate desk. I will come back to you with the same or better price.”

I asked her if I should forward the original confirmation email of my record and price.

”No need. I trust you.”

I’ve been on hold for a while, but the agent came back on and said, “Your price was a mistake, but I said to the rate desk they must honor it. I had to go to three departments, but you are all set.”

In The 216

Great story and even better news for you! This is a microcosm of my biggest issue with United....inconsistency. My experience is either awesome or terrible. There is very little in between anymore.

flyerbaby19

I've never gotten a confirmation that shows the price. is that new?

ermintrude

HUACA - usually I can tell within say 20 seconds if an agent is competent. IME most 1K agents seem competent....looks like the the OP got a great agent, however I often find agents who will do somewhat similar things

1k-all-the-way

Booked an SFO-Europe non-stop then discovered two days later that my outbound was on the wrong date. My error. Called 1k desk, agent just switched it for free. She said, "Looks like the new dates is $7 less but how about we call it even? " No problem!

In The 216

ExplorerWannabe

At least, I don't think it was a whopper but I figured I'd share it here because people seem to be sharing their favorite stories and FAB seems like the kind of pilot who might have been my captain.

We had a good 3.5-4 foot snowfall a few days before Christmas about 11-12 years ago which was enough to disrupt even Colorado airports. Of course, I was due to fly out the morning after the snowfall but I knew I wasn't going to be leaving that morning after hearing the news reports about airport closures. I called in to United to find out what I should plan on so I could then call my mother and let her know when I'd be getting home in Honolulu. The first agent I spoke to said I needed to call US Air because the ticket was sold to me as a codeshare even though it was United metal. I called US Air only to get the runaround about it being United metal so I called back to the MP desk. The second UA agent I spoke to listened patiently as I recounted both conversations and told him quite calmly, "I just want to know what day I can plan on getting home so I can let my family know when to pick me up."

The agent asked me to hold on as he called US Air and they proceeded to discuss the situation with the US Air agent calling in his supervisor so the UA MP agent called in HIS supervisor. At this point, they must have overloaded the conference call as my connection dropped but they must have continued the discussion because when I called back, the agent I spoke to (I don't remember if it was the second guy or not) said they had me squared away and they were sorry but I wouldn't be able to get out that day. The amazing part was he had me on the exact same itinerary the next day. I had to ask him to repeat himself as I was sure I was hearing things. I'm sure the fact it was the first time I'd ever paid for a first class ticket helped but they indeed had me booked to depart the next day so I only missed one day at home -- but it gets better.

The next day I got to Colorado Springs Airport to find an utter madhouse and a lot of very angry customers who apparently had spent the night at the terminal. We couldn't even board much less depart COS due to a gate delay at DEN. Some people couldn't or wouldn't wait and directed the GA to have their bags taken off the plane as they were going to rent a car and drive out. We finally departed COS about 90 minutes later with the GA telling folks they didn't have any further information on DEN but since it was a gate delay she was sure our connections were delayed departures as well.

No such luck ... after landing and taxiing forever, we deplaned in DEN and the first thing I heard in the jetway was an announcement for final boarding for the flight to HNL. I sprinted as best I could down Terminal B (about 30 gates) and as I neared the gate saw the GA look at me and ask, "Honolulu?" I nodded and she motioned me to hurry through the door as she hadn't yet closed it. I got on the plane, loaded my carry-on and parka in the overhead then took my seat. As I did so, I overheard the purser whispering to another FA about how they knew there were 7 passengers who'd checked in physically but were probably stuck in security but we had to pull back from the gate to make room for another plane. They were very sympathetic to the passengers and upset about having to leave them behind but orders were orders.

The captain got on the intercom and laid out the situation, explaining how far back in line we were for take-off and asking everyone to please be patient and keep their seat belts buckled while we taxied out. He gave us another situation update about 15-20 minutes later and then 15-30 more minutes later told everyone that ground control had directed every plane on the taxiway to turn around and use the other end of the runway. He explained what that entailed with all the planes having to move around to the other end of the runway. He also encouraged us to write to the FAA or our Congressmen as he said he couldn't figure out why ground control had directed the direction change, that the weather reports didn't warrant it and he hadn't seen anything like it in all his years of flying. In any event, he asked us to please be patient as the airport was still dealing with the aftermath of the storm.

After another 15-30 minutes of taxiing, the captain came on the intercom again and said he had good news and bad news. The bad news was that our flight was transoceanic and as such had to carry a certain amount of excess fuel in case of emergency but that we'd burned up all of the margin with all the time spent taxiing so we'd have to return to the gate to top off again. The good news was two-fold. First, he'd been promised we would be first in line when we completed the refueling and second, the 7 passengers who we'd left behind when we were ordered out of the gate would be able to board while we were getting the additional fuel. We were and they did so all was well that ended well despite being about an hour and a half to two hours late when we finally rotated but that one trip was both one of my best experiences with customer service at any airline and one of the most refreshing, honest air crews I've ever had.

ExplorerWannabe

My prior post was logged in another thread but moved here as I hadn't even seen this one -- go figure, dozens of pages of threads complaining but you have to know about a specific positive experience thread ... Anyway, that post was about a positive experience many years ago but I had great experience on one trip this year too, both in dealing with a MP CSR and with FAs.

It started with my flight for a long-awaited vacation in Thailand when I couldn't find my passport at check-in. I called United MP to check on my options as I drove home to look for it. After the first traffic tie-up (due to the first snowfall of the season that morning), I realized I wasn't going to get back to the airport in time to check my bags so I called United back and explain the situation, saying I know I could drive up to Denver and make my 12:05 flight if they would let me join the itinerary midstream like that. The agent called in her supervisor and after a LOT of work rebooked my ticket to fly in and out of Denver. I thanked them as I drove up and indeed made the flight there without any problems.

The book end positive experience with with the FAs on the return flight from NRT back to DEN. This one was paid Polaris Business but I had a tough time getting to sleep. I finally did and when I woke up, the purser asked if I still wanted the breakfast I had requested. I affirmed it they promptly pulled out the linens and my omelette which I downed in a flash. As I was finishing, the captain put the seat belt lights on and announced our approach to DEN. The FAs obviously knew we were very close to DEN but still offered me breakfast at a time when it would have been very easy to apologize but say the galley had been closed to prepare for landing.

I wrote in after landing in BKK to thank UA for the help with my itinerary and got this in response:

The return flight from BKK put me over the top for Gold so I was still just a lowly Silver flying Coach (on the way over) when she helped me out -- which says even more for UA and the MP desk.

Two Bee

5 weeks ago my wife received a phone call from her family in Northern Thailand that her father was very ill & in the hospital, and she should get over there asap. Changed our already booked flights from May, 2018 to leave in 3 days to BKK. I had 3 m/r's booked to who knows where, during the time we were to be gone. When we returned, and about 10 days ago, I applied for a refund of 2 X $300.00 & 3 X $200.00, with tons of supporting medical documents. About an hour ago, I received 5 e-mails stating that my refunds were ALL being credited back to my Visa Card.

As a whole, UAL and their employees,have ALWAYS done right by me, and my family, and I truly appreciate it. I complain like most on here about the fact that some at the top can't come clean when they screw up, but none of their shenanigan's has ever personally had any negative affect on us.

I really don't know if having close to 3 million BIS's had any bearing on their decision, but in any case, they definitely reciprocated for the loyalty that I have given them for the past 20 plus years! ^

(Also, thanks Wine Country for your personal e-mail, steering me to the correct thread, when I didn't know how to apply for the refunds!) ^ ^

warrenw

I'm 100% for bag first out at outstations. They take my priority tag and 1K handle seriously I guess

halls120

I've mentioned this before on other threads, but when each of my parents died suddenly, UA was incredibly helpful, allowing me to change other existing reservations to IAD-SFO flights without a change fee. No hassle, just compassion. Yes, there are a few bad apples in UA's workforce, but IME they are few and far between.

Two Bee

Very sorry to hear about your parents. It's not easy, I know! When my previous wife (1K also) of 46 years of marriage passed away several years ago, many of my friends at UAL sent condolence cards, and were true friends.

With all the nit-picking on here at times, what really matters in the long-run, is what is most important in one's life, and tragedy can happen instantly, and without warning.

Yes! UAL, and their people have really been very good to me, and I truly appreciate it!

We can all sort of get drawn into the drama on FT at times, which is a good thing, as it keeps our minds occupied on other thoughts, which helps us forget memories that are very hard to reminisce about, especially for me at the holidays.

WineCountryUA

Will close this thread as https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...es-2018-a.html has been started

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator