RobOnLI

How would UA know to provide over & above service like this without knowing it's your anniversary? Did you say something somewhere along the way...possibly to both pursers? Curious.

-RM

milepig

There's probably a thread for this somewhere, but I couldn't locate one.

This is sort of a "too good to be true" story.

TK First/UA Polaris IST/MXP/ORD Neither TK or UA was able to check us in for the second leg despite many attempts including TK supervisors at IST, trying UA via the UA app, calling, etc. Both airlines said "no can do." TK said UA controlled the MXP-ORD leg and UA said TK did. The connection was tight to begin with a hour, then we were a bit late on arrival then we got a bused gate which slowed us down. No agent to greet us, so we hoofed it as fast as we could and reached the UA gate with 5 minutes to spare and not having checked in!! I thought we're toast. The staff looked up and said "Milepig?" And went on to say they'd called TK who told them we weren't on the flight. Um, how did we get to MXP then? (I suspect they called the TK ground staff at MXP who said they couldn't find us)

Expecting to hear "sorry". 3-4 gate staff worked like mad, while the conversation was in Italian I could hear snatches like "tomorrow" and "Geneva??" and "Frankfurt" and "economy". Finally, the whirr of the BP machine and 4 BPs spit out, they offloaded 2 stamdby PAX, 2 BPs or the pax they unupgraded back to Economy, and finally two for us, in our original seats! They even got our bags on board.

I never expected this to turn out so well, but I'm not complaining!! Still mystified that TK couldn't check us into UA at IST. Moral is never to book a connection that short even though UA sold it as a legal connection.

VRFast

Happy to hear that it worked out. On my last flight from Europe I couldn't check in for the UA leg either since the first leg was on LH. However, when our LH flight landed in MUC I checked my UA app and it had our BPs. Wonder why TK was unable to make this happen? I assume you checked in for the TK flight?

milepig

I've never had this trouble with LH. I must confess that I didn't check the app at MXP since we were busy running to the gate.

findark

Normal procedure is for UA checkin to be available once the TK coupon is lifted (i.e. on the ground in IST as soon as you board). However, my experience is with better integrated carriers.

milepig

Hmm. Would have been nice if the Agents I spoke with had been properly trained to tell me that. Or better yet, put it in the app "checkin for the UA leg will be available after you board your previous flight"

PanAmWT

Mod: Not sure this is the right place, please move as you see fit

A letter to United Airlines GS Customer Service:

I took my first international travel in almost three years this month, returned to SFO from TPE yesterday. I was surprisingly pleased that the Global Entry machines no longer use fingerprints, which I always had problems with, a quick photo gave me the receipt to sail through passport control. Happily and with a foggy head after a long sleepless flight, I exited the restricted area, leaving my passport on the Global Entry kiosk.
After arriving home and realized what happened, I looked up lost and found information at SFO:

https://www.flysfo.com/lost-and-found
Guests who lose personal items at SFO must check with different lost and found departments depending on where the item was last seen.

Airplane
For items left onboard an aircraft,
Please contact your airline.
Bus to Long-term Parking Lot or Rental Car Center
For items left onboard the bus to the Long-term Parking Lot or the Rental Car Center, please contact the SFO Shuttle Bus Company at 415.915.9760.
Public Areas
For items lost in public areas such as the Airport terminals, garages, or AirTrain, please contact the San Francisco Police Department Lost and Found.
Terminal 1, Arrivals Level, near Domestic Garage Core C Tunnel
Hours: Daily, 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Phone: 650.821.7014
Email: [email protected]
If your call is not answered, please leave a detailed message with your name, contact information, a description of the item, and information about when and where you left the item.
Security Checkpoints
For items left at security checkpoints, please contact Covenant Aviation Security.
Hours: Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Phone: 650.457.2670
Email: [email protected]

None of the above seems to include the Custom and border control area, although Public Area said “airport terminals”. I went back to the SFO international terminal G arrival lobby, asked the information desk just outside the exit door of the restricted custom area. The young lady there said I need to go to the police lost and found in Terminal 1. Everything they picked up are sent there. I called the police station phone listed on the web and was told the L&F office is near Terminal 1 baggage claim. So, I went to Terminal 1 on the other end of the airport and asked the information desk in the baggage area. I was handed a piece of paper that said the police L&F is in terminal 2. I called the phone listed on line again, a voice message said the L&F is in terminal 1. The gentleman at the information desk said I should disregard the voice message from the police office phone. So, I went to Terminal 2, following a long list of directions, going out of the building into courtyard 2 and kept walking until I reached Terminal 1 outside of door 16. The long detour was because of a major construction project of Terminal 1. The police officer in the L&F office told me that they have nothing to do with the custom and border control area. He said that I should go back to the international terminal Custom area and try to force open the big exit doors that marked “Restricted Area, do not enter”. I wanted to kick myself because that was my first stop when I returned to airport, when I asked the information desk just outside that restricted door.

So, I went back to the other end of the airport and went to Terminal G arrival lobby again. It happened that some flights just arrived so a lot of passengers who cleared the custom were coming out. I waited for a chance to go into it, but was fortunately stopped by a EVA air baggage service agent who walked out the door and told me that I would be arrested and handcuffed if I try to enter. After telling him my story, he said I should not try to enter the restricted area; but should get UA to help me. He then called a UA number but there was no answer. He then decided to help me by going back inside the restricted area. About 15 minutes later he came out and said they were all busy and could not help me. Just call UA. There was no UA representative because no UA international flight in the early evening. I then decided to go back to Terminal 3 Global Services lobby. The first GS agent shook her head and said no we cannot go in there. Another agent said that you can go get baggage claim office and ask for the office director to help you. So, I went downstairs to UA baggage counter in Terminal 3.

A gentleman sitting on the counter said no, we cannot help you. You should go to Lost and Found. I said I have been to Police station Lost and Found; and told him what I have been through. He insisted that I was at the wrong place and should go to Lost and Found. I told him a GS lobby agent told me to see the director of UA baggage office. At this time a lady sitting on the other end of the counter came over and heard my story. Without saying much, she began to call someone and talked to another one and then waited to be connected to yet another UA number. She then told me that I can go back to international terminal to look for a certain UA baggage representative who works inside the custom restricted area. I guess this is a way for me to recover my passport that night instead of the normal way, which means I would have to wait (or come back the next day), until the UA person at international terminal custom control area turned the passport to the UA baggage office at terminal 3.

Before I said thank you and wondered what would be the best way to find this UA person inside the control area, she looked at my tired, jet lagged face and paused, then said wait here, let me see if I can take you there. She then called someone saying the baggage area is pretty quiet now and she can go to help me. I followed her to walk – more like to jog - all the way back to International Terminal to an area that I am not familiar with. The door said restricted area and occasionally passengers came out with their bags. I waited outside for about 10 minutes, then she came out with my passport.

What Ms. B has done was just extraordinary. I did tell her that I am a global services member but I am not sure that was the reason she went to the international terminal custom area to retrieve my passport. She clearly felt my frustration and exhaustion, and wanted to do her best to help me.

Sincerely,

economyplusfan

I’ve gotta say, UA has really upped its game in the past several years. I’m especially impressed with the user interface on its web site and app and the products offered there. Want to change your ticket? Easy. Fees to do so? None. Want to use your flight credits? Easy. Want to change your seat? Easy. And so on. And I keep on getting pleasantly surprised. Yesterday I was in the boarding line, already had my boarding pass, and checked the seat map one last time to see if the open seat beside me had been filled when UA cleared the standby list. It had. There were still two open seats beside each other in the exit row, so I went in to the app to see if I could still change my seat to one of those. I could, and did. But my electronic boarding pass didn’t update. Oh oh, I thought. But when I got to the boarding station a new BP printed out right away and onto the plane I went, with empty seat beside me for the entire flight. Sure, there is room for improvement, like PlusPoints upgrades clearing more often and sooner, and seat comfort (I find I endure flights rather than take flights, as in “I endured a flight to Toronto last week”), but credit due where credit is due.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Similar to UA flights preceded by HA flights. HA can check bags through to UA, but can't issue BPs. Once checked in w/ HA though, UA BPs show up in app.

lincolnjkc

This isn't as overwhelmingly positive as some of my experiences but a "nice" but on my birthday flight IAD-ATL back in May my iPod Touch [squarely in Camp Android for everything but music] slipped out of a pocket without noticing until my wife and I were at the hotel a few hours later and I went to charge it. Filled out the missing on board report and when it hadn't shown up in a couple days assumed I'd never see it again -- this was also the week Apple announced they were killing the last of the iPod line so we detoured to buy the last one between Atlanta and Dallas (Mississippi FWIW). I initially had hope because most of my small electronics have a label on the back with name, email, and phone -- but alas.

Anyway I had completely forgotten about it until a couple weeks ago when I got a "We Found Your Item" -- nearly 6 months to the day -- email. I was suspicious -- did they actually find my item or just some random red Apple device? What had happened to it in 6 months? Folded in half? Run over by a tug? And I wasn't particularly excited about paying $30 for 2-day shipping (ground would have been fine...) but curiosity got the better of me, "stupid tax" was paid and FedEx delivered a very well packed padded envelope -- and after peeling back the 10 layers of bubble wrap it was indeed my iPod Touch in basically the same condition I last saw it half a year ago... So to however many UA folks it passed through in that time -- thanks for looking after it

If the carriers support interline checkin and sends an EIFACT/Teletype message to UA this should be automatic for pretty much any airline with a few exceptions I'm aware of (a) if there's a stopover/break in journey, and (b) if the second airline has restricted advance checkin for some reason (e.g. during the height of COVID this was pretty typical for many international destinations as documentation needed to be manually verified before UA would accept the passenger). A little odd that HA can't print UA BPs but successfully signals checkin to UA seems a bit of a half implementation but...

twohundredfifty

I recently "accidentally" made UA silver (spent quite some $$$ on a few domestic work trips, wasn't chasing status). Anyway, I needed to change a return ticket to the US due to a family situation and managed to get through to CS with no wait times twice during the Thanksgiving break, had a ticket reissue fee waived, and my situation understood and taken care of quickly. It made a stressful situation less so, for which I am appreciative.

Boraxo

Recently tried to book a ticket for my son from a ticket that was part of a cancelled Group booking. I was certain this would be a nightmare and one of the reasons I avoid such booking when at all possible. I had also been told that the credit had to be used for travel by 12/31 (which seemed a little short from a 3/2022 ticket)

As expect the first agent was unable to do anything, but transferred me to a fantastic agent at the Group desk. She was able to split my son off the group record and issue a FFC for the full amount, with a 12/2023 expiration date. Made me feel really good about UA.

To me this was a win, and worth waiting 20 minutes on hold (esp after seeing horror stories about other airlines). Another reason I will never fly Frontier, as there is no way that a chatbot would even understand the question, much less take action.

luv2fly1st

For all the flak that United received for destroying a guitar some time back, I thought I would add this to the general discussion.
Yesterday I transported a 100 year old antique musical instrument from YOW to SNA via ORD.
It was in a 3/8" plywood box (54" x 17" x 18") with re-enforced 2 x 2 pillars on the corners and a 2 x 2 cross brace in the middle.
Inside, the instrument was wrapped in bubble wrap and had Styrofoam sheets (from Home Depot) on the top, bottom, and edges to immobilize it.
Happy to say that United delivered it SAFELY and promptly to the oversize counter at SNA within 20 minutes of landing.
THANK YOU UNITED BAGGAGE HANDLERS in Ottawa, Chicago, and Orange County.
YOU DID A GREAT JOB!
Best of all, United did not even charge me a $200 oversize fee and allowed me to check it in as luggage! Item weighed 40 lbs.

Imstevek

Just a quick note to say a very big THANK YOU to 1k CSA Suzie & BOS agent Jane, and the entire BOS staff for helping locate and return a lost iPad on a SFO-BOS flight. I didn't realize it was gone until the next day, and located it in the Find My feature. Called the 1k line and Suzie & Jane worked back and forth through several calls to locate the pinging, and get it to a location where I could retrieve later that day. Also should be noted the cleaning crew did find the device and turned it into the gate staff at BOS.

A lot of times here, the good work of the many gets overwhelmed by the noise caused by a few. Happy Monday!

IADdelayed

UA989 IAD-FRA 8/14 (77W)

Flight delayed 3.5 hours due to maintenance issue. Over the course of multiple rolling delays, Captain came out to gate area, grabbed the GA's microphone, and kept pax updated on exactly what the issue was, what the plan was to get the flight out, what his best guess is on when we could expect to depart, and - most importantly - expressed his desire and optimism to get the flight out ("I don't believe in pessimism...we'll keep our fingers crossed and put good energy out...") He indicated that based on his 33 years of flying, 25 of those in the left seat, he was quite optimistic he'd get the flight out. Major kudos to him for going the extra mile there, as the GA's [lack of] announcements left a lot to be desired. Pax were getting restless and upset over the lack of communication, and the Captain coming out in person to give updates calmed things down a lot. It's amazing the effect such a simple act can have.

After a frame swap and cleaning, we finally boarded. FA working my side of the Polaris cabin came by with a smile, warm greeting and PDB. Asked for slippers and mattress pad whenever she had a chance. She came back a few minutes later to let me know they (cleaning crew?) forgot to load them from previous frame onto this one, and sincerely apologized. I said no problem, and honestly understood given the circumstances. She clearly let the Captain know of the oversight, because I watched him come out of the cockpit and stand by the front galley on his cell phone for several minutes. Next thing ya know, here come a couple guys with the slippers and mattress pads. Yay! (This all happened while economy was still boarding, so did not delay the flight further)

Service was excellent throughout the flight, and the FA came by to chat a couple times, always smiling and in a good mood. It was actually a pleasure to interact with her. This crew seemed to gel really well together, and were clearly focused on providing an excellent customer experience, and it showed. I honestly have nothing but compliments for this crew, and wish I could have them on all my IAD-FRA flights. While I have a couple of gripes from that day I wrote in about, NONE of them had to do with the crew operating the flight. I made sure to get the Captain and FA's first names to send in well deserved kudos. (Of course, UA didn't send a survey this time...guess they didn't want to hear complaints about the 3.5 hour delay?) Either way, the Captain and FA will get their kudos via the 'feedback' route.

Also want to mention that I've read on these forums where some folks were wondering whether the crew is hoping to time out or cancel in delay situations so they won't have to work the flight. Well, according to the FA (I asked), this crew was IAD-based. And yet I've never seen a crew so enthusiastic to get a flight out. Draw your own conclusion...