mynolix

New York/Newark.
Also: besides the dynamically changing loads on planes, I do agree that you might have found one of the less helpful agents.

Miles Ahead

While I agree that you didn't get the best agent in the world, what are your real objections: a) there was no inventory (until there was, and you managed to get it), b) you were on hold a long time, and c) the agent called "Kansas City" just "Kansas". Maybe it's me, but I would happier with an agent who called MCI "Kansas" who got me a seat out than one who called it "Kansas City" and didn't.

Inventory is what it is. Not long ago I had a seat come, go, and come again all in the course of a single call with Reservations. In your case, it sounds like even if you had the same agent, he would have been able to get you the seat once it was available.

The wait time is a legitimate beef, but when there is weather at a hub, it's bad for everyone, even elites.

What I would have done is started from "Where can I get to from MCI"? Then you can discuss it with the agent from an informed position: e.g. "I would like to be put on DL1363 to MSP followed by DL794 to Chicago". Or whatever. Be prepared to be creative.

Often1

I think that you have to separate your concerns into the important and the unimportant.

1. It was important for you to get to Chicago, but you clearly knew what "Kansas" meant in the context, e.g. "Kansas City International Airport." That was unimportant.

2. Availability is not merely a matter of change over 23 hours, but across seconds. As many find in the opposite situation, one may see availability to book and then find that it is gone seconds later when one goes to purchase. This is especially true in times of massive IRROPS. For all the passengers such as OP who are trying to make it out, there are also passengers for whom the trip has become in vain and who are cancelling. Lastly, it is possible that the supervisor was able to obtain authority to overbook, something which a front line agent cannot and ought not to be able to do.

The bottom line here is that UA, unlike AA and WN, was able to get you out. That is not a tribute to UA, but simply the nature of the way inventory moves. The next time, it may be AA or WN which finds space.

Ilove2fly

I have to laugh with this beef. My son who attended college in Missouri would insist that Kansas City is NOT Kansas. I would needle him by calling MCI Kansas. Everyone places significance to difference things. However, I have to agree that it is not important in this case except for negative impact on OP's confidence in the rep on the phone. I would have thought OP over reacted if it were for my son's insistence that Kansas City is NOT Kansas.

bluesky3000

Lets just say united is one of the worst airlines in operators working in it... the customer service is down the gutter

Often1

Proved by the fact that UA got OP out when the two dominant carriers, AA & WN could not?

LarryJ

That's an important point. The seat map is a poor indication of the number of seats sold (or available for sale) on a flight.

I just looked at the flight I'm flying later today in a 737-900. The seat map shows 12 "open" seats but the flight is actually overbooked by 3.

A flight I operated a couple of days ago, also a 737-900, had 95 Basic Economy customers who are not able to select a set. That seat map must have looked wide open until shortly before we left with all seats filled.

Clay_C.

Not extremely important, no. But in the context of talking to someone who had to ask me the time in my location, it further decreased my confidence that I had someone knowledgeable on the phone. Looking at the clock on my wall, I can tell you the present time in hundreds of foreign cities, and I am not paid to help customers in any of them.

Actually, they were all equally unable to get me out that same night. Once this became clear, I was no longer interested in paying hundreds of dollars to buy a new ticket with another carrier.

transportprof

Another possibility is that the supervisor had more privileges in SHARES, and was able to oversell the MCI-ORD flight to get OP a seat, while the first line agent did not.

They wouldn't have gone into such details with a customer, even if you asked. There job is to get you booked and off the phone line asap so that they can attend to the other desperate shmoes whose flights have been cancelled. @:-)

Hipplewm

That is a classic rookie mistake, if you go to United.com and turn on expert mode, when you search for flights it actually lists the fare buckets and how many seats are actually available

This is how the FAA lists it:
Kansas City International Airport (IATA: MCI, ICAO: KMCI, FAA LID: MCI) (originally Mid-Continent International Airport)

I usually says Kansas or KC or if talking to traveling friends - MCI - or just "The [deleted by moderator per rules] airport in the midwest" with no food and gate areas the size of a hamster cage - but that is probably a different topic.

InfoHelp

it should not happen to anyone

Clay_C.

Thank you. Part of my motivation is posting a thread like this is to learn from experts.

999 out of 1000 phone agents for airlines serving this market will say "Kansas City". Again, not even close to a huge deal that I got two overseas phone agents who didn't...but in the context of feeling like I was on the phone with someone unwilling or unable to solve my problem, it struck a sour note.

I will concede that this is a bugaboo for those of us who are from the Kansas City area. Then again, I do think anyone who was trying to get out of STL in an IRROPS situation would find it odd to get on the phone with someone who continually referred to that airport as "Saint".

And you are 100% correct about the airport itself. The good news is that the new single terminal airport is inching closer.

1P

Exactly. It's like hospitals where the number of beds has been reduced to the point where in case of an emergency or epidemic there is no room to accommodate all those who need it.

In the case of the airlines, they once had extra aircraft and flight crews in reserve for this sort of contingency. I can still remember only 30 years when, if a flight was overbooked, airlines would frequently put on another plane and crew to take the overflow (to the point where I was once the only passenger in the second aircraft....). These days, they have pared their margins to the point where that sort of thing is no longer possible. It's all about packing in more and more passengers, slashing comfort and prices to the bone, and forget about providing a service to the public.

MHDFLYER

OP,
Just a note to let you know that I was trying to leave MCI on the same day and saw almost no inventory several days out, and what was left were single seats at the highest fare bucket. This was on Thursday. Graduation weekend at KANSAS University and others killed the inventory.

Also, I had experienced an overnight at IAH the previous week due to the storms that shut it down and was trying desperately to find an open seat to MCI. Needless to say I experienced some of the same disappearing and reappearing inventory that you eluded to, and as others have noted, it's just the way the tight inventory fluctuates.

Finally, as it relates to calling MCI Kansas. I had the same thing happen on my flight home from ORD Wednesday evening. The FA was clearly from the Philippines, and as someone who pays attention to dialects, notice it happens mostly with those who have a hard time pronouncing the word City accurately. He said it at least five times during boarding. I live in Kansas, so I don't take offense, but like you it does surprise me sometimes. I find the same thing happens when I call UA and get an overseas agent, who sounds like they are from the Philippines. Just a hypothesis, but wanted you to know, it happens all the time.

StuckinITH

This still makes my wife laugh. In 1981, on my wife's first trip to the US, she was supposed to go somewhere in Kansas to learn English. She nearly had a panic attack when the pilot announced that the destination of the plane was Kansas City, Missouri. Good for her that the two passengers next to her were going to the same ESL program (English as a Second Language, although in my wife's case it was going to be English as a Fourth Language).