lincolnjkc

Let's see how the FT community does with this one .
(Non-EWR agent's I've asked scored 100%)

Part 1
1. True or False: It is appropriate to greet a customer while wearing headphones (i.e. airpods, not ear protection)?
2. True or False: The appropriate greeting for a customer approaching your gate is "Flight is gone, too bad."? [If it affects your answer: You have a printed copy of that [1K] passenger's BP laying on the podium and are aware, or should have been aware, that the inbound's arrival was delayed due to MX)
3. True or False: It is appropriate to offer assistance in rebooking the misconnected customer?
4. Multiple Choice: When a customer requests a supervisor the first time, the correct response is
(a) - Call for a supervisor or lead
(b) - Repeat "Flight is gone"
5. Multiple Choice: When a customer requests a supervisor the second time, the correct response is
(a) - Call for a supervisor or lead
(b) - Tell the customer "Supervisor gonna tell you the same thing - the flight is gone"
6. Multiple Choice: When a a customer requests a supervisor the third time, the correct response is
(a) - Call for a supervisor or lead.
(b) - Call a random phone number and tell the person on the other end that you have a "misconnected passenger who wants a supervisor for some reason, but I'm not sure who to call" then tell the passenger "someone will be right here" before leaving the gate area. [If it affects your answer: The gate display has just now rolled over to the flight's scheduled departure time and the aircraft remains at the gate for a further 20 minutes -- during which time no supervisor appears]

yelped

Ouch. This is pretty bad. Was there an agent staffing a nearby gate that you could have gotten through to?

Is this type of "service" becoming more common since COVID?

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Gee - myself and at least 4 other passengers experienced the same coming in from BOS after returning to BOS because of hydraulics issue. BOS found a/c to swap in and we made into EWR w/ 20 minutes prior to connecting flight, which was a couple of gates away. Got there, plane still at gate, doors closed and disinterested staff obviously trying to leave (probably end of their shift that night). I wanted to call the agent the acronym of the airport (Trinidad/Tobago) we were headed to, but just grumbled to myself instead and got my Howard Johnson voucher and $15 food voucher (and grumbled to myself again). I'm pretty sure connection saver, had it existed at that time, might have forced staff to wait.

Airport code POS. CO used to run a late light EWR-POS route. Different airline, probably now UA staff w/ same culture. Plenty of EWR staff are great, some just plain horrible. I think one can find less-than-optimal staff at any airport - I just think the bad ones at EWR take pleasure in proving it.

trk1

If the door is closed---it is closed and flight has been cleared----end of story. passenger must not have much experience in these matters

yelped

Not end of story from personal experience.

mduell

What does this have to do with anything? Flight closed 15 min prior, and ConnectionSaver made the do not save call.

Good rant?

oblisk

Are you sure this didn't happen at FRA, feels like some of my 2022 experiences on LH in J.

lincolnjkc

Regardless of saving the connection or not, shouldn't there be a basic level of professionalism expected (e.g. not wearing headphones and perhaps a "Hello" or "How can I assist" or even a just a "If you're here for..." greeting the passenger rather than "Flights gone" (which aside from being unprofessional--but not as unprofessional as the headphones, IMO, assumes I'm there for that flight).

I am fully aware if the flight is closed it's not coming back (though curiously, one agent I've chatted with who has experience at DEN and ORD as a lead said if it had been their gate they would have called ops to at least ask, particularly since there were "no" rebooking options (per the app and a res agent, turned out to be wrong thankfully).

Is there a way to actually confirm what time the door closed? I was witching the UG list like a hawk while riding the bus from A to C and #1 didn't disappear from that list (presumably into my seat, but I never saw them as a cleared UG) until about T-5, as we were pulling into the bus drop-off at C. Regardless the save/no save isn't as infuriating as the apathy/hostility.
Or, do I need to recalibrate my CS expectations?

EWRFlyerNJ

I just want to stand up for EWR here for a second. I have been flying out of EWR my entire life, and in that entire time (I'm a million miler so figure how many flights that is), we have only ever lost one bag for 4 hours before it was delivered to my house (out of call it 500-700 cumulative bags checked), and two cancellations (both for extreme, extreme weather). The GS office has always been great (we check tons of luggage) and when I travel with my extended family (up to 14 people at times), they accommodate us all. The staff has always been great to me and I have never had to complain once to anyone about an experience at EWR (SFO is another story .....). The clubs have been great, and the gate staff (with the exception of a single miserable woman) always thank me for being GS (always, seriously, always).

In any event, there is a ton of hate for EWR and I guess that's easy to do because it's a convenient trope but the truth of the matter is, for someone who has flown out of EWR for >40 years, I still think it's the most convenient and best airport in the NYC area and I love that NY/CT people have a reflexive distaste for it so they keep it less crowded than it should be.

But given all the complaining that goes on and on and on and on for hours/pages/gigabytes on this site, I feel bad for EWR staff having to deal with some of the people it appears they have to deal with.

fumje

This doesn't invalidate your experiences, but it seems like a self-referential comparison, so I don't see that it says anything about whether EWR is worst, median, or best. Have you ever flown regularly out of any other hub?

There's usually a kernel of truth in any trope.



Probably the reason you were cursed with this setback!

EWRFlyerNJ

Honestly I have no idea what you’re asking me. Most of my flying is EWR to LAX and SFO and they’re pretty good too. My point is that EWR isn’t a fraction of how bad people think it is, but then again many of the complaints on this site make me want to remind people that they’re flying commercial and if they want the plane to turn around and pick them up, they should fly private.

Considering the volume that goes through EWR and the general congestion of NYC airspace, I actually think EWR is a top performing airport and people should appreciate that UA has managed to
develop a hub of such size and with such a variety of nonstop destinations rather than complain.

lincolnjkc

There are, indeed, some great agents in EWR. But when they go bad they go really bad. Two of the best agent-I-don't know experiences in the past two years have been in EWR
And the number of agents that just don't care are astounding.

For Part 2 of the experience that prompted this quiz I went to the C70 United Club -- which had three agents out front (one pacing and two chatting amongst themselves). I confirmed that I was a member and mentioned that I needed rebooking assistance. "Oh, we can't do that here and there's no one [at the service desk] inside" was the answer. I was then offered a QR code or to go wait in line at the Customer Service Center. I asked for a supervisor and was told that they don't have phones(!) and the Customer Service Center could call one.

As bonus points, at the midpoint of this multicity trip (CLE-EWR-XXX-EWR-BOS-IAD-CLE), on Friday, the EWR-BOS was delayed because we were waiting on a crew member. At the C130 UC I asked if they could tell me what flight the crewmember was arriving on (since that's been pretty typical in the past and it brings my anxiety level down without having to bug agents during the delay) "Oh, we can't see that...that's crew scheduling and only crew scheduling would know where they're coming from...they won't tell us anything"--the club agent didn't even attempt to look at the flight status in SHARES, Aero, Jet, or the MAP. Just wanted to get rid of me as quickly as possible to go back to the conversation she was having with the other agent, since she turned her back and walked back to the other desk, where she had been huddled when I approached, before I was finished saying "Ok, thank you"

I asked on my return when UA took that ability away from the club agents and basically got a "what the heck are you talking about, they didn't take that away from us...wait, was that mainline or express?" (apparently in some situations with some Express carriers they can't see it but since this was a mainline flight)

mduell

Not that I know of. They'll board people after T-15 who were at the gate while boarding was still going on. But once it's past T-15 and the gate area has no one to board, the door is closing if connectionsaver didn't call for a delay.

I mean, that's Newark.

nomad420

Your spoiled coming out of CLE. That UC is hands down my favorite!

runningshoes

In statistics you're the equivalent of selection bias - you're a GS level flyer so you are exposed to the best of what the EWR UA team has to offer for most of your interactions. As a local, you also don't deal with any connection stress - like any other hub-originating flyer the worst case is to head back home in case of a bad delay or cxl, and again, as a GS, you're likely to be reaccommodated before most customers. The third, and most important part is you're from NJ so even a real lousy customer experience is normal for you