zrs70

Yes, this is snarky. It just seems like my last few calls have been answered by people who can do nothing more than read what is on their screens. There is no friendly voice, and seemingly no pride in what they do.

My last call was because UA emailed me that I had to call regarding a reservation. The agent said, "We have to cancel your reservation because there are no suitable flights to put you on."

I asked if there were any Unsuitable flight.

"Huh," she asked? I then asked her what it means that there are no suitable flights. She said that SWISS was not operating my flights that day.

"Which flights, there are two of them."

"Both were cancelled."

"Both? I find that hard to believe."

I pressed her. She then said that SWISS was not authorizing my award ticket.

"AHA!: I thought, that answer I understand, though I don't like." I mentioned to her that there is a difference between a flight not operating and a flight not being available.

I then asked her to check again for alternatives. Magically she came up with three other options.

Mind you, this is one example. But most of my calls in the past months have had similar reception.

aCavalierInCoach

Where have you been? Skynet became self-aware at 2:14AM on August 29th, 1997.

zrs70

LOL! Yes, yes!

EWR764

UA has been hiring phone agents... perhaps unlucky with some new-hires?

karenkay

i've had similar issues lately. right now am dealing with an international--canada--flight where i'm going to misconnect due to united's delay. the first agent seemed to have difficulty with both her headset and the concept and eventually hung up on me.

the second agent, who appears to be in the philippines, doesn't have a clear idea of where things are in the US (suggesting alternate airports that are over an hour or three away from me) and i've now been on hold about 30 minutes while she--i hope/think--deals with the support desk. in the meantime, i've found flights that'll work, but she hasn't come back to the phone to check.

really glad you posted, zrs70, i was wondering if this was just because i'm no longer a 1K. we know million milers don't mean much in 2021.

Fly2Connect

I had a similar experience. My itinerary CMH-ORD-YVR was changed from a morning arrival to arriving late at night and I wanted to arrive earlier. Called in and asked about options and was told I should either cancel or drive to ORD/DEN from CMH... what?? Then I began searching up alternative options when I was told I could not move to an AC flight #. The person on the phone did nothing while I was looking for alternatives. They didn't give my any suggestions except one which was to go on the flights I previously had... which didn't exist... Finally I found a suitableish flight from CMH-ORD-LAX-YVR with the last segment being on AC, but with a UA flight #. Took about ~30 minutes for them to put me on those flights. Overall very disappointing. Call lasted over an hour and the agent was not very helpful. For what it's worth I've found AA's support to be much better than UA's recently.

Kmxu

Will UA hire me? I will be very helpful to any flyer.

nevansm

I've had nothing but incredible agents the last 20 months via the 1K line.

keitherson

Much of the United contact center has been contracted to the call centers in the Philippines, which are very hit or miss with agent quality and competence. They usually are very by-the-book or they can get fired. They also rely on what "the computer" gives them for options.

Also, people saying the 1K and Global Services lines are good really don't get the experience the the rest of the 99% of UA fliers have.

karenkay

this.

The agent I dealt with today came back after 40 odd minutes and told me there were no options today that would get me in tomorrow.

she told me United would allow me to fly with an expired Covid test certificate to montreal (96 hours instead of 72) but I didn’t bother to argue with her that Canada might not be as amenable.

I found a routing that would work, she seemed quite surprised since she had not been able to find the same thing…but she did book it.

Without years of experience on flyertalk, I would have taken what she was giving me…Which wasn’t a satisfactory solution, especially since there was an acceptable *A option available.

zrs70

OP here.

I asked the agent to leave the record alone. (This is AFTER she told me to call SWISS, as they were the ones to help. HUH???)

This morning, I looked at the reservation. The first flight (LAX-ZRH) was showing a schedule change. It also showed confirmed. It was the second leg that was not confirmed. So I called UA back, got a great agent. She cleaned everything up, and I think I am good to go now!

cfischer

won't go that far, but 1K calls are still handled by experienced agents and almost all of them end with a reasonable outcome. 1 HUCA max.

MDTyKe

Out of curiosity which flight did LX cancel? I have a UA award ticket with a few LX segments, now you're making me a bit nervous

mmack

Yes!!!!Hear hear for the 1K Agents. Frankly, the ability to use the 1K agents is the MAIN reason I continue to try for 1K status.
{T}hey are phenomenal! Bless them, and may they live forever…It’s maybe once a year when I need help,
but bless them: they deliver!
Hope UA Insider is reading this post

OCedHrt

I just tweet them rather than waiting on hold.