flyingfairly

Is United gaslighting me and potentially retaliating against me for a courtesy upgrade? And has anyone experienced customer service having no call record?

On 3/16 I received a courtesy upgrade to business class for an upcoming international trip (due to a significant flight change). I spoke with a rep who understood my situation and gladly gave my party upgrades for the overseas legs of the trip. While on the phone she had me check my email and account to ensure the upgrade went through. It had.

On 3/17 because of the great customer service, I tried my hand at requesting an upgrade for my 75-year-old mom's flight that also incurred a similarly significant flight change (we're traveling to the same location, but have different reservations).

On 3/17 the first agent told me it wasn't possible so I shared that it had been done for me. The rep requested my confirmation #. She transferred me to a supervisor who never picked up, and then the line went dead.

I called again and spoke with another agent. She too told me an upgrade wasn't possible, so I shared my confirmation # as reference. She then transferred me to a supervisor. After 50 minutes, the line audibly picked up and hung up.

The 3rd time I called and spoke with an agent who put me in touch with her supervisor. This supervisor informs me I don't have a business class ticket, never had a business class ticket, and there's no record of a call on 3/16. I explain to the supervisor that I have an email confirmation and my account was updated last night. The supervisor insinuates that I'm lying and I feel like I'm going crazy because I have no way to prove myself in that moment. I'm also left confused because I hadn't received any notification regarding the change in class.

On 3/18 I use the United text app and speak to an agent who is able to provide some more detailed information. On 3/17 there was an agent that attempted to put in an upgrade, but right after, a supervisor denied it. There is still no record of any call on 3/16 and no record of an upgrade ever being confirmed. This agent also is confused as to why I would receive an email confirmation with business class since the 3/17 request was "technically just added only but not yet confirmed". The agent recommends I put in a request to Customer Care for a recording of my phone call on 3/16 as they may have more access to the logs, which I have done.

At this point, even if United doesn't think we are deserving of upgrades, it is pretty shady to award compensation, silently take it away behind my back, and then essentially tell me I'm lying. The overall customer experience has been shocking. And I am left feeling that I never should have tried to help out my mom.

3.22 UPDATES: First and foremost, wow! I am beyond appreciative of the thoughtful feedback to my post. Thank you. Secondly, as a first time flyertalk user, I have been limited to the number of daily posts, in addition to the inability to post images yesterday. So I thank you for your patience as I waited out the clock. Now on to answering some of the recurring’ questions:

Email confirmation: Images of the first two pages are attached. You’ll see United Polaris class and confirmed seats.

Why would I ask for an upgrade in the first place and why would I ask for one for my mom?: I understand how my actions can be perceived as greedy and asking too much. I do. But I promise my intentions were more from me being naive than coming from a place of greed. For further background, I did originally ask for an upgrade on a call with United on 2/27 (because of the significant flight changes) to which the agent said she didn’t handle upgrades, but that I could reach out to the united.com/feedback form. On that call I was never told that an upgrade was out of the question. I then used the feedback form and a week later the response from United was that I should call the 1-800 number (or reach out via social media). Again, no mention that an upgrade is not something they can do. At that point I thought there was no harm in calling the 1-800 number again. When I called the 1-800 number on 3/16, I explained what happened with the previous call and the email. When I was given the upgrade with zero push back from the agent, I thought nothing of it being out of the ordinary. That’s why I thought I should call for my mom the following day. Should I have thought of my mom at that moment on the 3/16 call? Sure, but at that point I wasn’t aware that she had similar flight changes like mine that would constitute me asking.

Do I think United will actually provide a call record?: Unsure, but the agent on 3/18 said that I could ask, so I did.

3.22 Updates Part 2: At 5:34pmPT I received all responses at once from United Customer Care in regards to the phone recording and why the ticket was changed without notice. The separate emails say the same thing, "Thank you for reaching out to us! We want to make sure you get the best service possible, and since your email concerns a current or future flight the best resource for you is going to be united.com. If for any reason you can't find what you're looking for and you need additional assistance, please reach out to us by giving us a call at 1-800-864-8331 (1-800-UNITED-1), visiting our United Customer Care Contact Center page (that includes international contact options) or reaching out to us via our Twitter or Facebook pages." So now I don't even think United actually reads those forms bc all of mine said I already spoke with the 1-800#. What's the point of the 1-800# telling me to use the form if the form just tells me to call the 1-800#?

Page 1 United Confirmation Email 3.16.22

Page 2 United Confirmation Email 3.16.22 with seats

HNLbasedFlyer

I think you are setting yourself for disappointment if you 1) Think UA is really going to try to dig up call records and 2) Even if they did that they would do anything about it.

az22

Similar situation from the UA Reddit forum. Is this you? https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedairli...tomer_service/

JimInOhio

You mentioned you have an email from the first encounter. What does it actually say?

fumje

Welcome to flyertalk!

Not sure what might have happened with your "upgrades". That would be a very unusual compensation gesture for a schedule change. However, asking for a second upgrade and sharing details about the first seems like a gross miscalculation. Shades of Icarus.

Hope your future travels go more smoothly.

unitedbusiness

Got greedy. Should have left well enough alone, and not have called in again for your mother

rittenhousesq

Getting an upgrade for a future flight as compensation for a customer service issue is very unusual and not something that one would expect UA to offer under most circumstances, so your experience was definitely way outside of the norm and possibly the agent who gave you the upgrade did not have proper authorization to do so. I agree with the other response above: you should have left well enough alone. Your mistake was calling in and bringing attention to this courtesy upgrade with another service agent!

flyingfairly

The email I received was the "eTicket Itinerary and Receipt for Confirmation" showing the upgrades.

The email I received was the "eTicket Itinerary and Receipt for Confirmation" showing the upgrades.

I understand how it can be interpreted as greedy. I was more naive thinking that I could help my mom out. I didn't realize giving an upgrade was unusual.

I definitely learned my lesson. But honestly I didn't realize it was such an unusual request. Because it had been done easily for me, I just figured I could do the same for my mom.

jpezaris

From what I can recall, the only circumstances where I've had something similar happen is if I've already had a confirmed upgrade on the original flight and the new flight has positive space available. It does seem highly unusual. Not saying it didn't happen, just that is unusual.

Kmxu

I flew UA for 3 million miles. This never happened to me. The closest one was the upgrade from business to first class (IAD-PEK) after I volunteered to change my flight from IAD-EWR-PEK to non-stop IAD-PEK due to overbooking of IAD-EWR. The gate agent could not print out the boarding pass and asked to do it at a United club. I promptly moved to the “global first lounge” after getting the boarding pass.

If I were in your situation, I would keep myself very quiet (even not tell my spouse) until my butt is on that business seat.

You get what you paid for. United is a business identity.

Doppy

My presumed best case scenario when I call in for schedule changes is that the new flights bump me into a higher fare class, thus making an upgrade cheaper and/or more likely to clear. Had one of those on a longhaul international recently that moved me from K to B.

mahasamatman

Could you have called late enough on the 16th that it was actually the 17th at the call centre? Remember that Asian call centres could be as much as 16 hours ahead depending on where you live.

Drunkmuppet

I saw your rather heated post on Reddit, this is extremely unusual compensation for what you encountered in my opinion and likely was caught in some kind of internal audit. I've been, bumped, stranded, and a variety of other circumstances and never been offered business class for a schedule change. That likely a 2-3K cost difference per ticket and seems very excessive for having to be on hold for a few hours. Plus, if I were a Frequent Flyer on the upgrade list and found this out, I'd be rather upset that this was given out as compensation.

I think the question is: What do you want to come out of this?

sbrower

I have flown over 4 million BIS miles over the last 35 years. What you got, on the first telephone call, is basically unheard of, in my experience. I recall only one time that I got an "unpaid" (money or miles or certificate are all "paid" in my book) upgrade from coach to business on an overseas flight. And that was 25 years ago, on Northwest Orient, from Korea to Seattle, under circumstances that were VERY unusual (and it was an "at the airport" experience). [I also got Y to F on JFK to Jamaica, but that was my honeymoon and it involved being the first person to ever send a letter by FedEx to AA at JFK. And, on domestic, Anna Jefferson (LAX) gave me probably 20 free upgrades from Y to F because, at that time, I was flying LA to JFK 2 times a week, and she recognized me.]

I believe that the very sad, but very honest response, from anyone here with experience, is "That is really upsetting, but you are plain out of luck."I have flown over 4 million BIS miles over the last 35 years.

fumje

Similar to my closest, which was being moved J to F with pmUA going JFK-SFO after I got to the airport several hours early and asked to get on the earlier flight. I had just come off of some terrible meetings and was hoping to get home early; I think J was full but my ticket was expensive enough that the agent took pity. Otherwise, never encountered anything like the OP.