Positive Experiences with UA

Old Aug 5, 2019, 1:23 pm
  #151  
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Originally Posted by Kleinnaf
You are very fortunate to have gotten the change fee waived and allowed a downfare. I tried the same thing last week on when I noticed PN available and gave up after 2 hucas. Would've saved a bunch.
appreciate the DP will try harder next time
I see these situations as "thank you, I appreciate it" but not as a situation to chase multi[le agents and waste their time.

Change fee waivers are nice when they happen but asking an agent to violate policy seems a bit too much for me.

Fine to ask if the change fee can be waived in this situation but on a "No" and learning it is not policy, time to move on.
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Old Aug 5, 2019, 1:55 pm
  #152  
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Yes, I did mean changing and not chasing!

For what it’s worth, when I have to change with Delta and there’s more than one ticket, they often will charge only one change fee. Delta agents also, when asked, will lower a change fee to $100
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Old Aug 7, 2019, 12:19 pm
  #153  
 
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I felt that UA did a really good job handling a delay of last night's red-eye SFO-YYZ.

Flight was scheduled to leave at11pm. Captain came off the plane around 10:20 and announced to the boarding area that upon inspection of the plane, they found that there had been a bird hit and the plane would have to be taken out of service and they were looking for another plane to take us. (Most of the sentiment around the gate area was "poor bird")

Within 20 minutes, they had found another plane for us, and directed us to the new gate. New departure time was now midnight. United brought carts of snacks and water to the new gate for the delay (remember, we are only talking a 1 hour delay here).

And through this UA sent very descriptive texts about the delay (even mentioning the "engine issue caused by a bird strike".)

Bravo to United for handling this really well.
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Old Aug 7, 2019, 3:38 pm
  #154  
 
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Originally Posted by Toronto1970
I felt that UA did a really good job handling a delay of last night's red-eye SFO-YYZ.

Flight was scheduled to leave at11pm. Captain came off the plane around 10:20 and announced to the boarding area that upon inspection of the plane, they found that there had been a bird hit and the plane would have to be taken out of service and they were looking for another plane to take us. (Most of the sentiment around the gate area was "poor bird")

Within 20 minutes, they had found another plane for us, and directed us to the new gate. New departure time was now midnight. United brought carts of snacks and water to the new gate for the delay (remember, we are only talking a 1 hour delay here).

And through this UA sent very descriptive texts about the delay (even mentioning the "engine issue caused by a bird strike".)

Bravo to United for handling this really well.
Other than maybe the snacks, I would chalk this up to pure luck that (1) there was another plane available that could be used instead and (2) it made sense from an overall system standpoint to repurpose that plane for this flight and not some other (such as luck that there were no other flights with broken planes with higher system priority).

Other than those elements of good fortune, this same exact scenario with United identically following exactly the same protocols and procedures would have ended up in a UNITED IS HORRIBLE I'M WRITING MY SENATOR threads.
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Old Aug 8, 2019, 12:53 am
  #155  
 
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Recently noticed a ~$300 price drop in a ticket I recently booked 4 days ago. Called and got an ETC in my mailbox for the entire difference, without the supposed $50 administrative fee. Quite nice!
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Old Aug 10, 2019, 12:18 am
  #156  
 
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Recently got diverted from IAH to AUS due to weather. By the time I eventually got to IAH my connection was long gone and I was flying to a destination only served once a day. Called united, got put on the following day's flight. They saw I was previously upgraded in PZ on the flight I missed and opened up PZ on the following days flight so I could have a confirmed upgrade. That was a nice gesture given I had a 24 hr delay in Houston.
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Old Aug 10, 2019, 11:13 pm
  #157  
 
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Originally Posted by aussieinsf
Recently got diverted from IAH to AUS due to weather. By the time I eventually got to IAH my connection was long gone and I was flying to a destination only served once a day. Called united, got put on the following day's flight. They saw I was previously upgraded in PZ on the flight I missed and opened up PZ on the following days flight so I could have a confirmed upgrade. That was a nice gesture given I had a 24 hr delay in Houston.
Actually if you had already checked in and the delay in making the flight was United's fault then if there is a seat in First/Polaris you are supposed to be automatically protected. I have had this experience quite a few times on United - I sometimes have to ask but every time they have verified I was checked in and then had the rate desk open the space. There was only one instance where this did not hold and it was because there were no seats so my GPU was returned. I learned on FT that this was the policy. Glad you kept the upgrade on the replacement flight.
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Old Aug 11, 2019, 10:47 am
  #158  
 
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Weird one for me, and thanks to 2 agents made my day/week/vacation GREAT!

EYW-EWR cancels.

Call in, agent has nothing for 3 days (1 flight per day, and 2 days previous all cnx, so booked). Says hold on. Click click click. Can you see the "silver airways" desk. Yep! "Please go over and ask the agent if i can get you on the EYW-TPA flight that is taking off in 25 min!!!" I do it, agent at silver is awesome, get booked. (Charges me $90 for 3 bags!!!) Says they will have staff pull bags.

Land in TPA. TPA-EWR cnx. Call in, can get me home in 2 days. Agent says "wait, i see an IAD flight, going under gate control in 10 min, woudl that work?" SURE!!!

I get on that flight (total of 3).

Land in IAD....call in to baggage, tell them send it to ABE. Drive home.....

Next day, bags are no where to be found (BOLT). Get agent on phone, has agent in ABE contact me. This agent was AWESOME!!! She personally follows up with the stations. ALL 3 BAGS make it in...(even though BOLT/United tracker doesnt follow them). They go EYW-TPA-MCO-IAD-ORD-ABE!!! All 3 make it in 2 days. Seriously, I would NEVER have thought i stood a single chance of seeing those again!!!

Long story short, 1 great agent got me home, 1 great agent got my bags home...
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Old Aug 11, 2019, 2:01 pm
  #159  
 
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Not me but the lady sitting next to me. She had a tight connection in Denver and left her bag with charging cords, some cash and a credit card on her inbound flight. She asked the flight attendant during boarding if there was anything he could do. 20 minutes later he handed her, her missing item. The captain on our flight worked with the flight attendant and tracked it down for her. Very cool. The passenger was very polite. The crew was very professional. And United pulled through.
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Old Aug 11, 2019, 3:04 pm
  #160  
 
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Originally Posted by Rock214
Not me but the lady sitting next to me. She had a tight connection in Denver and left her bag with charging cords, some cash and a credit card on her inbound flight. She asked the flight attendant during boarding if there was anything he could do. 20 minutes later he handed her, her missing item. The captain on our flight worked with the flight attendant and tracked it down for her. Very cool. The passenger was very polite. The crew was very professional. And United pulled through.
Quite amazing, awesome!
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Old Sep 2, 2019, 10:40 pm
  #161  
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This I Why I LOVE United

Plain and simple, I screwed up and forgot to purchase my fare locked Polaris fares to Santiago. I purchased the fare lock with my Amex Platinum so the cost would have been absorbed via the $200 annual airline credit because I wanted to wait for refund confirmation for my original EZE itinerary. Well over the long holiday weekend, I spent it in Boston and just flew back this morning. Thinking that it was Sunday and NOT Monday, I totally forgot that my fare lock expired today. I got the email from United saying that my held reservation had been cancelled. I checked the original itinerary online and it was not available at the same price.

I called United reservation and after explaining what had just happened, the agent typed around and after about 15 minutes on hold she did a "re fare" her words not mine, and brought my original fare and itinerary back. She completed the booking for me and even got me the same seat assignments. The Polaris fare for 3 would have been $3K+ more expensive if the agent did not help.

Oh and BTW, there was no long wait to speak to someone. I got connected after hitting 2.

I can live with the nasty egg white sandwiches for breakfast in FC, if United comes through like this everywhere else. This isn't the first time that United came through for me.

Oh and BTW, one of the segments went from P to D so now I don't have to do a mileage run to SMF or SFO for 10 EQM

Last edited by seat38a; Sep 3, 2019 at 12:41 am
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Old Sep 3, 2019, 5:03 am
  #162  
 
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Originally Posted by seat38a
Plain and simple, I screwed up and forgot to purchase my fare locked Polaris fares to Santiago. I purchased the fare lock with my Amex Platinum so the cost would have been absorbed via the $200 annual airline credit because I wanted to wait for refund confirmation for my original EZE itinerary. Well over the long holiday weekend, I spent it in Boston and just flew back this morning. Thinking that it was Sunday and NOT Monday, I totally forgot that my fare lock expired today. I got the email from United saying that my held reservation had been cancelled. I checked the original itinerary online and it was not available at the same price.

I called United reservation and after explaining what had just happened, the agent typed around and after about 15 minutes on hold she did a "re fare" her words not mine, and brought my original fare and itinerary back. She completed the booking for me and even got me the same seat assignments. The Polaris fare for 3 would have been $3K+ more expensive if the agent did not help.

Oh and BTW, there was no long wait to speak to someone. I got connected after hitting 2.

I can live with the nasty egg white sandwiches for breakfast in FC, if United comes through like this everywhere else. This isn't the first time that United came through for me.

Oh and BTW, one of the segments went from P to D so now I don't have to do a mileage run to SMF or SFO for 10 EQM
Love reading stories like this. Most of my interactions with UA I am dealing with wonderful people. When they help me recover from my screw-ups I am very grateful (such as SDC to day before not day after). Most people make an honest mistake every now and to have my airline of choice help me fix it is why they will continue to be my airline of choice. I will never be a 3MM traveler but suspect I will get to 2MM during my flying years.
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Old Sep 3, 2019, 1:48 pm
  #163  
 
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I've had 2 trips in a row without a delay or cancellation - 7 flights in total. First time for back-to-back all-on-time trips so far this year.
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Old Sep 3, 2019, 3:38 pm
  #164  
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Had a great flight LAX-SFO last night with Captain Keith Hughes. Little things during boarding made me go up and tell him I appreciated his interaction with passengers, and we ended up chatting for quite a while.

Most of the time I never see my pilots, so it's nice when one makes an appearance, talks to passengers, etc. He reminded me of Denny Flanagan.
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Old Sep 3, 2019, 3:52 pm
  #165  
 
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Being 1K certainly has its perks!

Original plan: paid PEK-SHA on CA, and award ticket PVG-AKL on NZ with some 4 hrs 35 mins connection in Shanghai.

SEPARATE tickets!

Issue: plane delayed PEK-SHA by some 2 hrs 30 mins.

Take taxi SHA-PVG. Try to check-in PVG-AKL during Taxi ride but it fails due to not being able to prove onward ticket from New Zealand.
Get to PVG T-45 mins of PVG-AKL departure. Check-in counters closed at T-60 mins.

Call to UA 1K line.
They manage to rebook me on PVG-BKK-AKL on TG the next day: no additional cost or miles!

Thank you UA!

----

Also: changed another flight's dates. Agent says: "Oh, I see you already changed this flight once before, and incurred the $450 change-fee. I will waive this new change-fee for you this time!"

Thank you UA!
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