et_phonehome

On a recent nighttime flight from PHX to BOS my overhead lamp didn't work--meaning I couldn't read, and wound up spilling the dinner on myself! I sent US a complaint, and all they said was they were sorry and thank you for my patronage! I sent a response stating that United usually gives some sort of compensation for any problems, and they just said they were sorry, again...How does anyone get credit vouchers from them?

dcpatti

Few airlines can compete with UA's Skykit bonanza. Since speculation is that they'll go away as the hybrid UA/CO takes shape, I suggest you get used to getting reasonable compensation for reasonable problems and not a $200 voucher for a burned-out reading lamp. I suggest you resend your email and specifically name your price. It's not the lamp's fault that you spilled dinner on yourself; if it was too dark to see my tray, I'd have asked the FA's to raise the lighting in the cabin for meal service. So focus on being unable to read-- by the way, did you inform the FA and see if a seat swap could be made? I'd think this would be worth asking for 5k miles or so, as a token, to make up for your inconvenience. But if you ask for or expect UA-level compensation here, you simply will not get it, and I don't think it's deserved, either.

UA's over-generosity has bred a compensation-hungry client base who goes out of their way looking for minor problems in hopes of writing themselves a big paycheck (pay voucher really). The OP may or may not fall into this category but either way, I expect we'll see a lot more posts like this as former UA elites try flying on US and other carriers.

itsme110

Compensation for a burned out light bulb???

coachrowsey

Just what I was thinking

gleff

That's one of the default, pre-filled in options on the United website for entering Skykits...

bkafrick

OMG... Cant we please lock this thread under the MOST RIDICULOUS THING EVER TO COMPLAIN ABOUT?

Life is just too short...

dcpatti

Seriously the way UA's skykits work, we could add "complaint running" to our other favorite pastimes of mileage running and bump running! There will be a lot of upset people when this particular gravy train comes to a stop.

RICflyer

I needed a laugh, burned out light bulb. People need to get a real life.

fly747first

Seriously! What's next, $50 for every hair found on US Airways' F seat pockets?

miffSC

I know - I think that it's one of the reasons so many people fly UA is because of their ridiculously absurd compensations. I've heard of compensation for IFE that didn't work, seat recline not working, wobbly armrests, wonky lights - just about anything will earn you a $250 voucher. However, I guess for UA it must work because they have certainly built a fanbase of extremely loyal customers.

Now don't get me wrong - I enjoy flying US, but I do think they could do a little bit more in the way of earning and keeping customer loyalty But as long as they have someone tightening those purse strings at every turn, I think minimalistic is the way US will continue to operate. They are in it for the revenue and not the loyal customer. Just saying.

HereAndThereSC

I beg to differ on this. You are paying for transportation and accommodations, both of which should be fulfilled by the airline. Having anything that's broken is shorting the customer.

If you went to the bank and they told you "We're out of pennies" when cashing a check for say, $238.89, you would be pretty annoyed, not so much for the value of 4 cents but for the fact that they are shorting you.

If nobody complained or were given anything, the airline would be flying around with broken just-about-everything.

I think that compensation IS due.

HTSC

LufthansaFlyer

You couldnt see your meal because of a 20 watt lamp? C'mon Man. Maybe you have bigger problems than what US can do for you.

Is it me or is there a trend that a lot of new members to FT come with complaints as their initial postings? In the last 2 weeks I've noticed at least 10 complaints from op's with less than 10-20 posts.

LufthansaFlyer

I can see your point, but what is the value on the light bulb and OPIE's inability to read and find his mouth during the flight? NO WAY should any consideration exceed a few dollars (10-20 max). OPIE still got 99% of the product he paid for.

Here's an analogy, lets say you buy a bottle of ketchup, and its impossible under reasonable terms to truly empty it out of all its contents, do you send Heinz an email asking for consideration because you couldnt use all the ketchup??

dcpatti

It's hard not to be loyal when there's a good chance you'll get a $250 voucher on any given flight. It brings your travel costs down dramatically. I've seen folks post about getting more than one SkyKit card on a flight (one for dead reading light, one for wonky chair arm, stuff like that, to the tune of $400-500 on a single flight), compensation that's more than the flight cost ($250 SkyKit on a $150 DCA-ORD fare), and compensation when already paying with vouchers. With a payout like that, I'd be loyal too. And if you look hard enough, you can find something compensation-worthy (at least by UA's standards) on a high percentage of your flights. It'll be interesting to see if folks remain loyal if/when the compensation structure becomes less generous.

At some point, though, it stops being "shorting the customer" and starts being "the customer is acting petty." Would you expect compensation for a non-working electric outlet in a hotel room or a rental car with a burned-out taillight/turn signal? The latter is actually a safety issue and I've had rental cars with a dead turn signal more than once, and never ever considered it to be compensation-worthy. Would you expect compensation (free dessert or such) from a restaurant that seated you at a wobbly table?

Perhaps OPIE can take the 10-20 dollars and buy a personal reading light. I've got a clip-on one for my Kindle which cost about $12 at amazon.com and not only does it protect me against burned out light bulbs that might prevent me from reading onboard, but it prevents my neighbors from having my lamp bother them while they are trying to sleep.

757guy

You know, I'm beginning to wonder if flying "through" those storms over New Mexico and Colorado en route to BOS caused the reading light to break.

In all seriousness, I think many of us have experienced broken reading lights, wobbly armrests, damaged seatback pockets, and crooked tray tables. Could you complain about them? I suppose, but I guess I don't really fixate on them anymore. Things break, especially when you're on an aircraft that has flown five to eight segments already over the course of the day. I'm not an expert, but if the aircraft had a quick turn from the flight prior, is it possible that the flight crew would have just written up the issue to be addressed whenever the aircraft RONs at a hub?