laxarrival

So frustrated. My flight tonight was delayed, only by about 50 mins, but delayed. I called to find out the reason and reservations who is wonderful double booked me on the earlier flight. it would be tight, but i've driven to sfo enough to know i could make it.

rush rush rush, get to the gate 12 mins before departure, and he says i don't have a ticket and wont' let me on. i said res put me on, they confirmed it, could he please let me on. he says no, have to shut the gate...blah blah, you've all heard the story. meanwhile, as he's telling me he can't let me on, 3 more passengers procede to board the plane (evidence we had not hit the 10 minute mark). i quickly call the 1k desk and they say i'm on the flight, not sure why ga won't let me on. he then goes into this long explanation that i was checked in for the later flight so he has to offload me blah blah, okay fine - how often am i checked into a later flight and go earlier? almost weekly! and i see the gate agents, it takes usually about 60 seconds to do, max 2 mins. definitely enough time.

so i'm on the phone with reservations and they tell me i'm on the flight, the ga won't let me on, the plane is just sitting there and other people are boarding. then he shuts the gate, the little monitor says there are about 30 empty seats and i'm frustrated that i rushed, left early and now i just get to sit here.

so i then get transfered to a supervisor cuz i'm frustrated and they look up the record and say, oh, the gate agent sent us a note in your record that you were late to the gate. now i'm even more frustrated. he had time to sit there and write a note to reservations while the plane was still sitting on the runway (the plane is STILL on the runway - though in all fairness they just disconnected the jetbridge - as the supervisor informs me of the note the gate agent wrote). really? sheesh. i bet it took longer to write the note than it would have to give me a stupid boarding pass.

the res sup is so nice. she takes responsibility (rare) and says it was res' fault, they shouldn't have booked me so close to flight time. i said...they booked me 85 mins before departure. she says, oh...hmm...the note from the GA was blaming res saying they booked it less than 60 mins to flight time and that's against policy. i said that is a direct lie. i know exactly what time they booked me and just look in the record. i said res' was GREAT. they double booked me, did everything properly, and it's good people like them that make me like UA. she offered me comp, i said what is most important is a sup in sfo talks to the GA. i'm sure nothing will be done, and it'll just be a he said, she said, and we all know that on time departure is so important that GA's hide behind it and can get away with it. but oh well.

FriendlySkies

First off, CALM DOWN! You will get nowhere by calling the GA an idiot.

United737522

I cannot blame the GA. Just because you were booked does not mean you were ticketed. Re-issuing a ticket can take several minutes. The res agent could have re-issued the ticket, but if you had missed the earlier flight, you would have been screwed. It was a lose-lose situation. Not UA's fault. You risked it and lost.

jgsx

How is this not UA's fault? Regardless if it was res or the GA, that's still UA.

sinoflyer

The GA was no idiot. They followed procedures correctly. You can be booked and double booked, but you can only be checked into one flight and that has to be done 30 minutes prior to departure. Lesson learned? I hope that you became a little wiser today.

unavaca

What actionable step was learned? i.e. what specifically should he tell the GA in the future to prevent the back-and-forth? "I'd like to get on UA123, but am currently checked in to UA456. Please offload me from UA456 so that I may board UA123."?

goingbananas

+1...

I have done this a lot....never had a problem....I guess..YMMV....and GA's as well....

sinoflyer

That's exactly it. The 30 minute cut-off is crucial, so I would first try to un-check-in for my original flight online, and check-in for the earlier one as soon as I get to the airport. I wouldn't wait until I get to the gate, unless there is enough time padding for the 30 minutes.

StarAllianceFanatic

Right, so, there is this little thing called service. Reservations gets it. The GA could too. I have purchased a ticket before 27 minutes before a flight. This sounds to me like the agent went out of his way to NOT provide service.

Note to the gate agent, loyalty is build through service. Note for FriendlySkies, calling him an idiot is nicer than I would have been.

Cheerfulflyer

I'll side along the OP. Some SFO GAs are stupid, lazy, incompetent and/or wicked. Some are clearly idiots so I don't think OP might have been too far off in calling the GA just that.

My suggestion is write to Customer Relations. I am hoping that you have the GA's name. Some GA staff at SFO need to either change or get fired.

FriendlySkies

If they write MP, I would not use the term 'Idiot". Write a clear statement, detailing the major points of your complaint, and nothing further...

ldsant

Amazes me how many apologists there are on this board. OP - I feel your pain. I had a similar type of experience. Was connecting from SEA-SFO-SAN. Was meeting a friend in SFO. UA flight from SEA was late. Got to the gate. Plane still there. No GA there. Finally found one who was shopping in the Body Shop. Asked her to let me on the flight (plane still there; it was delayed - talking with my friend on the phone who was ON the plane - they were still sitting there and door was open.) She refused. Finally found another agent who let me on (plane was still there). Why agents won't help customers is what I don't "get."

The GA's job is to help somebody get on the plane. It doesn't matter who booked whom. Granted the OP could have gotten there a bit earlier, but he/she is a 1K, had reservation on the phone who confirmed that they were, in fact reserved. Why wouldn't the GA just make things EASIER for a CUSTOMER?

I realize there are two sides to every side of the story, but it does seem over and over again that so many UA folks forget who the customer actually is.

cblaisd

^ Indeed. We've only heard one. And we've only had a print version of that, which lacks, of course, the body language, tone of voice, and all those other cues that make for reality.

flyinbob

Once again, customer service, United Airlines style.

To those trying to support the GA position, their job is to serve customers and get them on the plane. No one should have had to tell this (idiot, moron, fool) how to do his job. Unfortunately someone has to. Too many of us have had the same "service" from UA gate agents.

And while there are 2 sides to every story, we never seem to get the other side. If UA really "listens" to the FF on this board, as some in other threads have claimed, they would step up and respond to this. But as usual we will only hear silence.

I hope you are including the body language, tone of voice, and all those other cues from the GA also. Their approach to customers is more often than not incredibly condescending and arrogant.

StarAllianceFanatic

Amazes AND Sickens me too. GA's are not always right. I have lost count of how many times I have seen perfectly reasonable people with perfectly reasonable requests be disserviced by front line employees that should not be customer facing. There are some agents that should try to put half as much energy into providing service as they do on making up excuses or hyper-technical excuses to avoid service.

Yeah, maybe we have only heard one side of the story but it is believable because I have seen it happen a hundred times and it has happened to me.