TomMM

Not going to work on a BE fare.

lhrsfo

We seem to be approaching near total meltdown with UA's frontline staff. They have had much of their customer-friendly discretion removed (probably rightly) and, at the same time, they are having to implement many more customer-unfriendly rules. This has led to customers taking a more confrontational approach and staff taking a much more confrontational approach. This directly leads to the issues the OP faced, and so many others also; and the rights and wrongs of a particular circumstance get lost in the stand-off.

The most saintly of customers now crack under the hostility of the staff and the most saintly of staff crack under the hostility of the customers. I don't know how UA can get itself out of these problems as, although they can (and should) re-train the staff, they will really struggle to re-train the customers.

laxmillenial

I would not classify a few issues as a near total meltdown. So when a few incidents happen at United (i said a few instead of 1 in case someone points out they had an incident as well) we call it a meltdown.

Keep in mind that same term was used when Delta cancelled 3500 flights and passengers were stranded for days. Meltdown? Let's be a little more realistic. How about isolated incidents?

If UA's staff was 'a near total meltdown' then operations would most definitely suffer. I checked in at LAX this morning just fine. I did not see any staff in 'meltdown' mode. Thousands of people (hundreds of thousands?) fly on UA every single day without incident. And a few incidents in a week merits a meltdown? Really?

onthesam

They should have handled this better (there's a recent thread about a similar experience at O'Hare). They could have better explained the rule which is that the personal item bag cannot exceed 9 inches x 10 inches x 17 inches in size, regardless of whether it could be "folded" to fit in the sizer.

That being said, its important to read the rules governing ultradiscounted fares. When the ticket was booked the 9 inches x 10 inches x 17 inches limit was made clear.

Sorry to hear about your experience. It seems that bad feelings follow BE customers who don't adhere to the size limitations and instead rely on stuffing their bag into the sizer.

jsloan

Is that really the rule? If so, it's unnecessarily punitive. The point is to make sure stuff fits under the seat. OP knew that the bag was required to fit under the seat, and it did.

From what I've seen, some UA employees really, really dislike BE passengers. (I've observed similar, although not as out-of-control, behavior at the check-in counter as well). It's as if some have decided that BE passengers are basically stealing a little bit of each employee's paycheck by refusing to buy up to regular economy.

onthesam

Of course it's true. Here's the text of the rule as displayed to those purchasing tickets:

OP had to "flatten it down."

MSPeconomist

jsloan

Sorry, not only are you wrong in spirit -- if this is an exact quote, you're wrong by the letter of the rule as well. (Also, for Pete's sake, UA, use the Oxford comma). This sentence can be simplified to "You are allowed one item that fits under the seat in front of you, such as an item that is 9x10x17." Or, "You are allowed one item that fits under the seat in front of you" -- the way this sentence is worded, 9x10x17 is a suggestion, not a rule.

And if it is 9x10x17 after being flattened, it's 9x10x17. There's no other reasonable definition of size. If the bag had a telescoping handle, would you require that OP extend the handle to see if it fit? What's the difference between collapsing a handle and flattening the body of the bag?

kb9522

This was over $25? Was it really worth it? For most people the value of the time it took to resolve the issue and submit a complaint about must be well into the $100 range and possibly even higher.

And what is there to even complain about if the bag was allowed at the end??

MSPeconomist

kb9522

This will be a little bit off-topic, but I'm genuinely curious...

Here's a hypothetical... A passenger at check in has some bag that is not suitable for carry-on per strict interpretation of the policy. However the contents of that bag are not well suited to be checked. Is it:
A) The passenger's fault and problem for not packing appropriately, and whatever happens during transport is their own fault
B) The passenger's fault for not packing appropriately but UAs problem to make accomodations
C) Not the passenger's fault (for whatever reason), but the passenger's problem (mail/ship, buy a new bag and come back, repack existing bag, or something else)
D) Not the passenger's fault nor their problem (again, for whatever reason)

I'm thinking perhaps a combination of A and C is applicable for that scenario... It's the passenger's fault and problem, but perhaps they should be allowed to leave the line, find a better solution and return (OP claims the first employee prohibited her from leaving the area).

kb9522

Okay, so option A applies in a hypothetical where OP truly was non-compliant. Or are you suggesting it becomes entirely the airline's problem at that point?

Kacee

So here we have a conflict between a passenger who bought BE and had a slightly oversized personal item and a contracted check-in agent who had zero empathy or customer service skills. Bad experience results.

On the UA side, the problem is that some percentage of its employees and contractors forget they're in the customer service business, and believe their primary job function is to apply restrictive policies in the most punitive and restrictive way possible.

The flip side of that is that they have to deal all day long with passengers who are trying to skirt the various baggage rules in order to save a few bucks. I've traveled with these people. They are extremely annoying because they always plead ignorance when the truth is they are counting on no one noticing their bag is oversized or overweight.

fastair

I was under the impression that the AGENT "She said, it won’t fit into the size bin for a carry on personal item, and I said – yes it would, let’s check that. She said they are way over there and I can’t leave." couldn't leave (assigned area to go to the sizer, which IMHO means they need more sizers, at least 1 in each area) and that in subsequent posts, the passenger said she had to get to her flight, it was a madhouse, implying that the OP didn't have time to leave, find a better solution and return. The use of "I" when quoting another usually refers to the other, not the person quoting the other, but the lack of clarity (omission of quote marks) by the OP makes it difficult to understand with certanty

EAlyse

I think the complaint is that she was not treated well by a Employee representing UA (contracted or not). She felt felt victimized that the employee resorted to yelling and drew attention to her. I wouldn't like that either. At the end of the day it goes back to the compassion issues that UA is having in general which seem to be admitted based on their upcoming "Compassion Training".

Also, it seems like alot to pay $25 to check a bag that would clearly fit under her seat for a day trip.