HNLbasedFlyer

I’d be very surprised if they don’t rotate positions at the hubs. Like really surprised. At LAS and HNL they are expected to do both roles.

uanj

I never had a bad agent when rebooking in a club. To be honest, I have seldom had an agent I would describe as a dragon when entering, but there has been the occasional agent who looked like each entering passenger was doing so only to inconvenience the agent.

The club agents who handled rebooking have been a great resource for my during IRROPS. And I say this as a long time GS. I have not always been rebooked when I landed too late for a connection or was rebooked for two days later. The clubs always helped me out.

I would prefer a system like the TK lounge in Istanbul, you enter cattle loading gates, scan your BP and it opens to let you in. Have one manual lane for people with guests or problems entering. Then keep an agent or two for CS after you enter the club. It's like UA is not planning to have any more IRROPS.

Joshua

How is “virtual assistance” any different than calling United on the phone?

MBS MillionMiler

We get this is no big deal to you, we're not all as fortunate to have HNL as a base.

I cannot go anywhere from my airport but ORD...Y'all know what that is like. My home airport is also one with weather similar to ORD. This time of year I go from snow-to-snow, and often connecting to places with more snow. And in the summer, it's thunderstorms. IRROPS are often a rule, not an exception to me. We're 40 days into 2022, and I've already had 2 canceled flights (on 2 different trips) and an unplanned overnight at ORD--and that's in 6 segments flown. Heading home from ORD a few weeks ago, sitting in the club already waiting out a 2-hour rolling delay, I had an agent protect me on a flight to a nearby airport as well as proactively put me on the first flight home the next morning--that was already down to Y2B2. When my flight and the nearby-city flight canceled, I was relieved because I had a seat on the next morning's flight, and 70 other people didn't. Would I have gotten it as a 1K? Maybe. Maybe not. Yeah, this is a big deal. Unless these virtual calls are with 'special, magical, above-and-beyond' agents that will multi-protect you--because even the 1K line will NOT touch a 'double booking' these days...

I also strolled up to that agent that had done these nice things for me and she said, "I guess you need a hotel"? ...2 mins later, I had the new-fangled version of online vouchers (including the ability to pick my hotel, which is actually a fine improvement!)

And what I described above was pretty standard for my IRROPS. While that particular agent was great, helpful and went above-and-beyond--that level of service was not much different than I've received from others over the years. Yeah, I'm QUITE skeptical of being thrown to someone on a chat screen that may or may not treat me well, compared to the CONSISTENT good service I get in the clubs.

In my head I more-or-less justify the $ for the United Club BECAUSE of their IRROPS handling. Not for the same tired ham-on-pretzel roll or frozen hummus that ORD has been running since November. I can get MUCH better food for an overall less cost annually than the membership. I also don't drink much (I probably haven't had an alcoholic beverage in a UC since pre-pandemic). But I'm there for the support when crap goes sideways. I'm also not sure if renewing will be worth it if this is the case. And I'll be glad to admit I'm wrong--If I'm forced into said situation, where I have to use a remote agent, I'll come crawling with my tail between my legs should I get all the things I've been afforded by UC agents over the years...I'll even come back and re-quote this post if I can find it.

And as WineCountryUA says, it's most certainly not the customer service agents in the clubs that are the problem--the 'dragon' and other derogatory-termed employees are the ones 'guarding the door'...But you'll notice those descriptions and complaints are down significantly since the scanned boarding pass now computes everything as to whether you're admitted or not. I think a lot of the complaints in the past were agents misinterpreting the rules. And most certainly, there are also just bad employees--no matter which desk they sit at or which airport they call home.

NikoLGA

Twitter

Are there any other clubs that have been confirmed to be ripped like so, though? I too will drop my club membership in May for this reason.

tarheelnj

Is there a difference between the QR code on the middle sign vs the one on the left or right (seen in the gate area as well), in terms of prioritizing quickly available, competent agents? And if so, will it identify me as a Club member but not by my location, so theoretically I could use that QR code anywhere?

MBS MillionMiler

I just scanned 2 of the three from the above Twitter post. The middle and right both take you to the exact same place…

https://united.fiveout.app/welcome

…I couldn’t get the far left one to scan for me.

When you get there, it only asks you for your final destination and your name. Not being able to enter your MP # or status leads me to believe we all get dumped in the same queue. (Unless, indeed United magically uses your destination and name to determine said status, but I highly doubt it. ) You can scan your BP, but since the alternate method of entering info doesn’t call for your MP#, my uneducated guess is that we’re as random as the Basic Economy customer whose flight to Paducah got canceled.

tarheelnj

In that case, the middle one is definitely deceptive, making you think that as a UC member, you have some kind of priority. It does sound like it's one big video call center responding. Question now is what gives the best results, video, text, or phone, particularly if you're 1K.

LondonElite

EWR right now

dinoscool3

Looking with my eye, not my phone, it looks like the right and left are the same QR code. The center one is different. If it does lead to the same place, very deceptive.

fumje

That's how it's been for years! The difference, a subtle one, is that the front desk agents will help with irrops (sometimes — it's EWR).

J_Stroming

1KMM, never used the lounge agent, not even once. Much faster to call the 1K line when sitting on board waiting to deplane or at the gate. When I am in the lounge I still call.

JAXPax

I have a little bit of insight on this from my prior life working at the airport (managing for an airline other than United - but we were next to one another so I know a lot of the agents). The people on the other end of that airport assist are how they accommodate the employees who refuse to get the COVID vaccine. They have many of them in like a back room behind the baggage office where they have to be by themselves and nobody else can come in and they spend their shift doing the video chat assist. Some may be in a call center but a lot are at airports like BOS, BWI, DFW, etc.

nomad420

Really? I will say 90% of my calls are always to the 1K desk but IF they are open and available and I am just hanging at the club I have used the agents when I have needed to...often with drink in hand. They are right there and generally very knowledgeable.

mmack

Who do we contact to complain? The personal service we receive as 1K and Club members is the ONLY reason I spend the big $$$$ to stay at the 1K level.
Face to face (masked if necessary) is the big deal in customer service