doraine

I am rather in shock about it!!

I wrote this to United:

I had a very unpleasant experience with one of your employees this morning at LAX. I was on the 7:40 flight from there to Denver. I was only in Denver that day, looking at houses to buy, then flying home that night. I took a cloth bag with a very small computer, a sweater, and my purse in it. I realized that it needed to go under the seat only, on the cheapest economy ticket, and packed very light.

I got to the kiosk, and tried to check in there. It said I needed to check with an employee to check in, and a woman appeared. She looked at my carry on bag, and said “you need to check that in the counter and pay for it.” I said no, it fits under the seat, and I’ve done that many times with this bag. She said “it doesn’t fit the size requirements” and I flattened it down, and said that it does. 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.

I then opened the bag and she said “you even have a computer, purse and sweater in there”, and I agreed, wondering why this was such an issue {??}. She had my ticket and kept repeating that I needed to check in my bag. I said no again and again. She then yelled loudly “There’s a problem here, I need help!”. Everyone turned and stared at me like I was causing trouble or doing something wrong. A supervisor appeared, looked at my blue cloth bag, and said “It’s fine”. And the employee stormed off.

The woman was xxx description, etc.

fastair

What does this mean?

doraine

it's a very rude employee they need to know about

Aussienarelle

I am assuming your are posting to ask how you could have handled this better since you have already contacted UA. Rather than getting into a "debate" with the employee and you both getting upset, asking for the supervisor earlier could have deescalated the situation.

fastair

I understand...but I didn't quote your entire post, just the part I quoted, and asked what THAT part meant. I didn't understand what the part that I quoted meant, hence the reason I quoted it and asked about it, not the entire post. I got that since you had a basic economy fare, the machine required you to see an agent to confirm that you had nothing more than a personal item. There was debate about the size of the personal item and a supervisor eventually said that it was fine, without measuring it. You feel that agent was rude for deciding it wasn't fine without measuring it (neither measured it, the one that sided with you quickly was OK by you, the one who thought your item was too big was not.) But what does that last line mean, that is what I questioned. In retrospect, was it a format error where you just didn't edit that out, or was there something there that I didn't understand (in that last line, the part I quoted) AM I wrong to think that you were offended by the "I need help" comment, when in fact, it got the supervisor there to help which actually helped you? The person you are complaining about escalated it, was over-ruled, and you were vindicated. Isn't that how the system is supposed to work?

laxmillenial

At LAX, I'm pretty sure you were interacting with contracted workers, not a UA employee. And your 'supervisor' was probably a UA employee.

In the mornings, they typically have 1 employee covering the right of Premier Access, 2 employees covering the Left of Premier Access, some super secret number covering the GS lobby (that I probably will never be privy to), 2 covering the non-premier check in area of LAX, and everyone else are contractors.

Doesn't justify the situation, but the contractors are normally huge sticklers for rules and have no flexibility. Contrasted with UA employees, I think the contractors need the new 'compassion' training. As an example, they tried refusing to attach Priority Baggage tags on my parents bags since I wasn't on the same PNR as them. I just walked up to the counter, got them, and attached them myself. They looked absolutely morbid, argued with me (which I politely ignored), and they tried taking them off saying there was no "VIP" printed on the bag tag, therefore, I could not do this. It took an employee all of 2 seconds to correct them.

I know i'll get pushback for this, but flying out of LAX weekly, and seeing my fair share of lines and DYKWIA people trying to break rules and overpack / overweigh luggage and complain when they're charged, I have never ever heard a UA contracted or UA employee ever shout or raise his/her voice. I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just stating my observations flying in/out of LAX. Others may have different experiences. I'm sorry this happened.

doraine

The woman was holding my ticket, refusing to let me have it unless I paid extra for a carry on bag. She ordered me multiple times to pay for it, and all I could do was say no. It was a madhouse, and I needed to get to my flight. The line was long to get any help, I did not know how to get help. Any ordinary person would have given in an paid $25 for a cloth carry on bag, after being embarassed and made into such a big deal like that. I feel I handled it as well as I could have, considering.

laxmillenial

When you have a problem at an establishment (lets say a restaurant), how do you get help if the server charged you for something and you don't believe you should be charged for it. The server of course won't let you go without paying the bill. The logical response would be to Ask for a supervisor.

The same rules apply here. (As an FYI if this happens to you again since you stated "You did not know how to get help").

fastair

Ok, so the part "The woman was xxx description, etc." was nothing? (That was my question, I thought I clarified it, but I apologize that I wasn't clear in my question.)

laxmillenial

I think she put "xxx" as a placeholder for Flyertalk when in her actual email to United Customer Service, she put the actual name/description of the woman.. Since we know this happened at LAX, I think there are rules about posting employee names, locations, and descriptions on Flyertalk, but I could be wrong.

DCP2016

At LAX, UA contracts the agents out to the LA County Jail. Or at least, that is what it seems like.

narvik

Maybe OP omitted the full description of the employee that was included in correspondence to United for identification purposes?

Aussienarelle

I very much agree with you. I see some very rude and hostile people when traveling and notice most UA employees are good at deescalating situations but there have been some that were so bad I have written into UA proactively to defend the actions of the employee. I have found if I vocalize the support for the position of the UA employee (who generally are merely following the rules and procedures) the very angry DYKWIA will turn on me for speaking up in support of the UA employee. Trust me there are some UA employees who are having bad days but I am glad I do not suffer from some of the rude behavior displayed by some pax.

With that said, I think it is always wise counsel to ask for a supervisor before the shouting starts

HNLbasedFlyer

It was resolved - what else do you want? I'm not sure why so sensitive. That kind of stuff happens in the real world outside of the airline industry.

Kevin AA

Check in online, say that you will be checking a bag, print boarding pass, go to airport and not check a bag... problem solved!