UNITED Travel Chronicles

I don't want to just blabber and vent about what happened during my flight with UNITED on July 26 and through to July 28 but make sure that this is recorded for resolution and future comparison.
Log the steps that passengers need to take when there is an issue with the airline or the flight. Chronicle what we all have to go through to resolve the issues we ran into from the trip we took within this past week. How we are treated as passengers when we run into these situations and how long it takes to resolve.

Im posting this because I truly believe this is not the way customers who choose a particular company over an entire army of competitors should be treated. This kind of ordeal isn’t acceptable even in third world countries, let alone in America. And trust me as a frequent traveler I have many experiences to compare.

I will update this page with all and any interaction I have with them.

Here's the tale of UNITED Travel. The frustration that they’ve caused with so many different people, and their attitudes and unprofessional demeanor towards passengers in general left all of us pondering how this airline is still in business at all. Their customer service at LAX Arrivals is nothing short of abusive. Instead of the scheduled 630pm arrival we got to LAX at 940pm. After being delayed on the flight to LAX from EWR for - first - 2hrs in Newark ON the plane and then - in LAX after landing for another 1.5hrs still ON the plane, you get to the customer service desk to be yelled at - just for asking if you could get an upgrade (even if you had to pay for it) on the next 14 hour flight - which will now be the following day. The yelled response “NOOOO!! You’re not GETTING ANYthing! I’m just putting you on the SAAAAAME flight tomorrow and you get what you paid FOR! You don’t get NO UPGRADES!” Then you tell the customer service rep how tired you are so you’re not even going to take part in that tone and get yelled again with a head nod and a stare “Oh Im TIRED TOO! Don’t even get me started!” ?!!@!#~@??????!!!! And you say “I’m the customer you can’t address me in that tone” and STILL get “well YOU can’t disrespect me!” What? Where did I disrespect you? I asked if I could get an UPGRADE that I'd even be willing to pay for. And the WORST part is that the supervisor was standing RIGHT there - so when I said I’m going to report this the come back was “you just go ahead”… Seriously United?! Thankfully, I have a picture of the people who were working at that desk from BEFORE I got to the desk - the person (had never so intently avoided using the word lady before) is right in the middle of that shot - I’m not posting it here though, if you want it let me know, I still respect their privacy given the situation - Im not out to attack or defamation, just what’s right. What made me take that photo was how each and every single customer was practically storming away from that desk. Sure we’re all human, if somebody is too tired to handle their shift then they shouldn’t work. If they are CHOOSING to work because they want overtime or keep the job or whatever the reason, they have absolutely no right to reflect it on the customer. At the end of the day that ground hostess reached her home and slept in her own bed. You know what happened to us?

Right - that was not the end of my horrendous UNITED experience for the night - it was just the beginning… After being handed an updated itinerary, 3 $10 meal vouchers and 1 voucher to Doubletree for the night, I was told by that same person that my baggage would be waiting for me at the carousel downstairs. 

On my way to the carousel thought I could stop and get something to eat with the vouchers provided but everything was closed in the airport. When I dragged myself to the carousel, to nobody's surprise, out of a whole lot of luggage around in the area none was mine. Left no other choice I went to the desk very doubtful anything would be done… of course a line up of about 8 people in front of me in a very crowded area. The lady at the counter told us she’ll be helping us. Frustrated but at least acknowledged. 30 minutes later my turn - it’s now past 11 - the lady behind the desk said “I’m sorry I have to leave, my shift is over you can be helped on the next line”… REALLY? "Oh please, you can’t just leave when you have somebody waiting for the last hour”, what else would she say but “yes I can and I am” as she shut down her station. Fast forward to the time I got to somebody at the desk - my luggage was actually still in Newark. After telling me that the luggage would be at my final destination she was graceful enough to update the flight information from the printed itinerary I had, because the person at the desk in arrivals didn’t do it. 

Then finally thinking I was going to get some rest, made my way to the shuttle and went to DoubleTree. On arrival all of us were told that they have been getting many people referred by United, but they do not honor those vouchers - it should be just for crew. At that point there were 4 of us there trying every type of begging to no fruition - as proper to any customer service person, the front desk radioed the shuttle to come right back and pick us up instead of saying we’d have to wait for the next one, if you get my drift. We ended up at the airport again. 

Now in Departures - searching for anybody at a UNITED desk due to the late hour, we found 1 lady, as soon as I said “we have these vouchers” she completed my sentence and pointed to the 4 people ahead waiting to find a room. We were informed that all the personnel they had were calling each hotel in the area one by one to find us a room. This was almost 1am at this point. Another group joined in with the same dilemma. We’re all hungry, everything at the airport closed and we’ve all landed at least 4-5 hours ago in most cross nation trips with no food since boarding(!) which was 12 hours in my case and over 18 hours for a couple others. We had a couple of elderly, one Vietnam Veteran who was being shown to sit on the floor at the airport, or on one of the baggage carts... 

Leaving out all the solutions we were proposing to the personnel and the numerous “our hands are tied” responses we received - at 330am we were left to find our OWN rooms to be able to get out of the airport. To be fair the guys there were incomparably more professional than those at arrivals - we do truly believe they didn’t HAVE a solution and were left in a difficult position due to policies. By the time we got to the hotel and into our rooms it was almost 5am. To request additional help we also tweeted the summaries to @united but they seemed to be responding to all tweets other than those coming from LAX. 

Why couldn’t your CSRs help us find the hotel? Yes they gave us a voucher each for $200 (in LA where the cheapest hotel was at $300 meaning we’d have to pay a minimum of $100 out of pocket on top of all this), and we have to go online and fill out a form with a ref number on that voucher. Really? WE need to follow your procedures on top of all this too? If we lose that voucher we lose our chance of getting anything back? Whereas we were thinking, in a 21t century customer service department we'd expect them to take all of our information and tell us that we would get a call from a UNITED rep and send a cheque for $200 after the ordeal we had to go through. The difference in fees could be captured during the call and a further reimbursement issued if necessary. Sounds very 19th century to put it on us to get what is more than fair to give. 

So at this point on top of the hassle, frustration, fatigue, verbal abuse - I am in for: 

$350 LA Hotel

$60 return trip to hotel from LAX

$120 1 night hotel in Tonga (missed but can't cancel)

$100 tour in Tonga (missed and can't cancel)

I'm taking the breakfast, lunch and coffee on myself. 

Keep in mind UNITED - you are NOT the only airline out there that we can take. Regardless of what kind of connections you have, or that you’re two or three hundred cheaper. I had to lose 24 hours from my trip, pay an additional night at the hotel I was booked at in my destination, spend 10 hours in airports where I was to only have a 3hr layover, find and book my own stay at LAX, fill out meaningless forms trying to convince YOU why I should be reimbursed for that hotel stay and the list goes on… Out of the people who were waiting at the airport there was the previously mentioned Vietnam vet who had to wait hours just to get a wheelchair to sit on! At that age and condition he a sleepless, restless night, left to trust complete strangers instead of being taken care of by the people he entrusted for the services he needed (i.e. you). We, passengers, fly with you because we think you’re better than the competition, we choose you - and you challenge our decision. You’ve convinced me so DEEPLY at the moment, I’ve changed my return ticket so I do NOT even have to fly with a United Operated flight. I rebooked myself on an Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia flight… operated by them. I truly hope that you revisit your customer service practices, your leniency towards your reps that are not keeping customer interest and respect as the highest priority and making sure that the key is always taking care of the passengers. If not anybody else, I do know that from just that ONE “isolated” experience you have 10 people convinced you don’t put your passengers first and telling their friends in Canada, California, Connecticut, NY, Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand that the few hundred dollars is not worth it.