ContinentalFan

Kevin AA

UA revokes elite status for people who call too much?

Why operate a 1K desk in the first place if you don't want people to call it?

Yunnnn

I get way more misinformation from the agents at the airport, including being lied to in my face and claiming that there's nothing they can do to re-route me during a 4h flight delay. Person forced me to requeue to get another agent at the desk.
(UA app allowed free rerouting at that point, but was giving errors)

Phone staff are generally more helpful and have never given problems (HUCA always works if you get the occasional bad one)

TomMM

Its situations like this where I wish somebody from UA would see OP's complaint, do a little footwork and determine OP's identity and make a proactive phone call to OP to discuss their dissatisfaction with UA's customer service. I would love to see OP's face when they received that phone call!

sinoflyer

You sound surprised that this could actually happen. And it's not only UA that protects its frontline employees from abuse by customers, including situations where agents are intimidated to provide information that agents are instructed not to provide.

onthesam

Spoken there is one of life's great truths -- it is the true embodiment of elite life at UA. Those words should be plastered verbatim across the top of the "MileagePlus Premier Benefits" webpage, the reservations webpage and, when booking tickets on the phone, spoken as an important disclaimer you must acknowledge before completing the transaction. CPU = Crapshoot.

DCP2016

That's exactly what happened to me, I had a 2 hour delayed UA flight (clear weather all over the US, obvious technical issue) went up the CS desk, no passengers there and the agents were chatting/on their phones, go up and ask them about it and rebooking options (this was at LAX). Women gets off her cell phone and says there's no delays, what am I talking about? I repeat what I said and she asks the guy sitting next to her if the MCO flight is delayed, and he confirms it is. She then says oh well, and it'll still get me there quicker than rerouting me through IAH. I get out of there, call up UA and they rebooked be on the flights connecting through IAH, with one leg in E+. Get to MCO a full 2 hours quicker than if I stayed on the nonstop.

Montreal

Since some of you have asked for further clarification/questions, below are the responses. However, first I will just relay my experience that, whenever I have called seeking this type of information (which has not been that often, perhaps around 10 times in all these years) I have always been provided the information except for one-time when I thought the agent must be having a bad day (excluding the time I called last week that prompted the thread). I was not aware of any policy against providing such information so it seems like I only encountered agents who broke the policies and did me a favor, including Martie. This reminded me of a FA I encountered last year on a SFO flight who said "you are entitled to just a regular drink, but this time I will do as a courtesy, please keep this in mind in future" when I had asked for a Moscow Mule. Prior to that, I had never know about this policy as everytime I had asked for MM the FA's had provided, and sometimes even 2 (I offered the drink chit for the second one but they said not to worry). It it pretty clear from some of the commetns that some did not read the entire post but still decided to weigh in with an incorrect understanding, people assume that every one is well versed with all rules and policies of United, that they know what all acronyms stand for (DYKIA, needed to google that one), and that just because you are on FT you are a "Pro" at all FF things.

uanj: Martie was the HNL agent, our flight had got nothing to do with YUL, ever!

rankourabu: As I mentioned above, Martie was not a Canadian agent and since stattioned at HNL, I presume he is a United employee.

laxmillenial: Thanks for the term HUCA and also spelling it out, never heard the abbreviation so if I hear it, at least I'll know what that stands for.

Kacee: If you do read my post and understand it, I wrote that was the first time I learnt through Martie, and subsequently through reading FT wiki, how to figure out Non-revenue passengers on the flight list.

MatthewLAX: We were at the airport around 1:30 pm and DEN flight leaves around 8 pm. We just decided to stick to our original itineary, regardless of any options the App was providing.

IAH-OIL-TRASH: Your assumption (not point) about OPs telling their side in a convenient way is valid. I do have a pretty good memory, and I stressed my brain to recall that conversation which was very recent, and the exact words she had said "I cannot see that information".

SFO777: "Why not just buy J/F ticket and not have to worry about upgrades". That's got to be the most comical comment I have read. If that were to be the case, why don't we ALL just do the same so that we don't have to worry about any upgrades and there will be no threads and wiki devoted to this subject. Life would be much simpler and easier without these upgrade instruments for sure.

TomMM: "To discuss their dissatisfaction with UA's customer service." That's a very broad brush statement. I never indicated dissatisfaction with all of UA customer service (if you read my post and understand, I said I bumped into a very helpful agent Martie). I only indicated dissatisfaction with "Brenda and her lies"!

laxmillenial

It's DYKWIA.

lhrsfo

It seems to me that there is a big difference between telling a lie, or simply not giving the full picture. As it's against company policy for the agent to go into lengthy details on the status of everyone on the upgrade list for a range of different flights (I can think of a million reasons why it should be against policy, not the least of which is wasting huge amounts of an agent's time), a legally trained agent will simply respond that it's against company policy. A more empathetic agent (Brenda, perhaps?) will simply say that she could not look it up. It's easy to interpret that as that she is not able to, rather than she's forbidden from, but both interpretations are consistent with the truth. Brenda may have learnt over the years that saying she's not allowed to divulge the information invites a long argument, and so uses an expression which many will mis-interpret as meaning that she has no access to the information.

My other take-away from all this is confusion over the use of the 1K line. I has always assumed that it was there for two purposes - to allow faster access for 1Ks and also to reflect the fact that most 1Ks (clearly not all) are experienced in using the website and will likely have more complicated problems to solve. I have certainly come across 1K agents who were less competent, but I have never come across one who was not willing to spend enough time to solve my particular issue. But then I would never dream of trying to get an agent to break company policy and feed me load management data.

DirtyDan

This entitlement about upgrades clearing and the ensuing nonsense with people seat-jumping at every flight pre-boarding is why I left UA a few years ago.

I demand flight info and my upgrade!!

californiadreamin'

It is not unusual for call centre agents (including tier level lines) to not have access to airport DCS or departure information that is airport-specific, so you may have received the correct answer from her perspective.

MSPeconomist

Tblack15

Poor communication, not lies. The HUACA process is mind blowing. I've had fees waived or gotten better seats for partner, etc. just by being nice and talking through things. So then, we re-set our expectations to EXPECT these things from agents, knowing that it's the minority that get around rules and procedures. Upgrade list info? Waitlist info? It's clear these days you do your research, then call in with a targeted question.. not open ended that they can just say "no" to. Example: "I see there's availability on 123 departing ORD at 955", etc. etc.

The sad fact is not everyone who is a customer service rep, actually cares about servicing the customer. Don't expect them to work their butt off for you 'every' time.

Global321

Really? Non-revs only? All 21 passengers looking to upgrade were non-revs ?!?!

Not one revenue passenger was looking to upgrade?

That seems to be the most unbelievable part of your rant.