1. United lies about flight availability
2. United gives in to threat but still loses the customer
3. Lies about seat assignments
4. United does "everything possible" to help
5. Be glad they didn't empty your wallet
6. United invalidates ticket without warning
7. Enough of United
8. Still more weather lies
9. More equipment failure lies
10. More weather lies, untruths, and surliness
11. United's version of "heavy rain"
12. No problem, you'll make the connection
13. Yet another UAL customer disservice
14. Paid for first class? Sorry, you fly coach.
15. Booked in advance? Too bad!
16. No bulkhead
17. Chronic overbooking
18. Bumped on Thanksgiving
19. Reservation policy

United gives in to threat but still loses the customer
from: Dan Bustillos, Chico, CA
Sun, 12 Oct 1997 23:55:29 -0400 (EDT)

I booked some flights with united in april. I was flying from Sacramento to national airport in DC for a youth conference. I have been a United Milage Plus Member since 1992. I was ready to spend 30,000 of my miles for this trip. I called and followed all of their rules. But, when I finally talked to an agent I was told that all the flights that I needed/wanted were unavailable for milage plus usage.

I said can I speak with your supervisor please. I had saved my miles and I really needed them now. So, I told her that I had been a member for awhile and that if she could not accomadate me that I would no longer be flying United.

Would you believe that no more than 1 minute later, the agent found space for all the seats/flights that I needed on mileage plus! I have since not flown with united. While my last flight was plesant, I decided that if it took a threat to get it, that I could no longer support them.

Lies about seat assignments
from: Loren Allen, Eureka, CA
Mon, 6 Oct 1997 03:36:07 -0400 (EDT)

In May I used my Mileage Plus miles for a trip to Chicago. When I asked for a seat assignment at the time of making the reservation, I was told that for "security reasons in that market" they could not assign a seat until flight time. What does giving a regular customer a seat assignment have to do with security? I called reservations back and made a reservation on the same flight in the same class and was given a seat assignment on the phone (I cancelled that reservation almost immediately so as to free up the seat for someone else).

On flight day I arrived an hour ahead of departure time at Chicago airport and was told to sit down until my name was called and then I would be issued a seat. You've already guessed it, haven't you? I was among the last called and given the middle seat in the last row of coach. What am I to assume?

My ability to make a full-fare reservation with a seat assignment gets rid of the "security in that market" ruse. The logical conclusion is that because I was travelling on a "free" ticket, I could jolly well take whatever seat they might have left over. The lie is that Mileage Plus seats are not "free tickets" given by the generosity of the airline. I earned those miles by spending a great deal of money flying United. A Miileage Plus ticket is no more a "gift" than my tax refund is a "gift" from the Internal Revenue Service.

Ed comment: Although the policy of favoring full-fare paying passengers for seat reservatiopns is common across most airlines, is it too much to ask for a bit of honesty in this regard?

United does "everything possible" to help
from: Noreen Smith
Fri, 12 Sep 1997 14:42:50 -0500

On August 14, 1997, my husband and I took a flight from Las Vegas to Springfield Missouri. It was the return of a round trip and our connections in Denver were rather close but under ordinary circumstances would have been adequate.

We sat on the runway in Las Vegas for almost an hour being told every few minutes that we were the next to take off, but we had to wait for this and that, finally taking off about 40 to 45 minutes late. When we arrived in Denver we checked with the person at the gate and were told they were holding the plane for us at gate 60... we had arrived at gate 16. There were no electric carts in sight, even though almost every passenger on the plane had tight connections to make and this information had supposedly been relayed to the people on the ground so that "everything possible could be done to get us to our departing flight on time." My husband is 68 years old and has artificial knees, I am 66. In spite of this we made it from one end of Concourse B to the other in 7 minutes, totally exhausted, just in time to have the door to gate 60 slammed in our face. It was exactly 7 minutes after the scheduled departure time.

The young lady at the counter at gate 60 told us there were no more available flights out to Springfield that night, we would have to go to gate 35 to the customer service counter and they would give us a certificate for a free room, dinner, and breakfast. So... back to gate 35 (over halfway back down the concourse) only to find that it was closed and we needed to go back to gate 39 on the opposite side of the center hub. We did not rush to get to either gate as we were exhausted from our rush to get from 16 to 60. When we got to Gate 39, after waiting in line for 10 minutes or so, we got to the counter and the man there said, "where have you been?" and told us we could have gotten on a plane about 15 minutes before that would have routed us through St. Louis that night with arrival in Springfield about 11:00 P.M. He sounded like it was our fault that we weren't there to catch that plane! Since we had already been told there were no more flights out that night we didn't see any reason to run all the way back.

Then, we were told they could not give us a room, but would give us a letter for a discount and we were on our own for meals. At this point we asked to see the supervisor, who then disappeared in his office leaving us standing in the waiting area for another 10 or 15 minutes. He returned saying it was a "weather related delay" and they were not responsible so could do nothing more to help us. We ended up in a sleazy Ramada Inn, which was one of the places listed on the "letter". The people there were very nice, but the room certainly left a lot to be desired. We are not complaining because we cannot afford to pay for our own room, or food. We are complaining loud and long because it certainly was not for a lack of effort on our part to make our connection. United Air Lines made no effort to see to it that we got there on time! We saw only one electric cart on the whole concourse and it was full of people going in the opposite direction! From what we heard among the other people also suffering from various delays and misconnections, not all from the same flight, it appears this is not an unusual problem. There were a lot of people just like us that have vowed not to use United in the future if it can be avoided. I have reservations which I cannot cancel in October, but I will not use United after that ticket unless it is the only air line going where I have to go.

We found almost every employee we talked to was either rude or totally indifferent to our problem, probably because they have heard it all and have become hardened to it. Our initial intention was to be uncomplaining and accepting of whatever needed to be done because we are in business for ourselves and know how frustrating it can be dealing with an irate public when we have no control over the situation. It did not take long for those intentions to be destroyed as the lack of concern on the part of UAL employees was revealed to us.

Between my husband and myself we make at least eight flights a year and sometimes more than that. Perhaps you don't mind losing the potential of only eight or ten bookings a year, but I assure you we will do our best to discourage our friends from using United also.

We are not looking for something for nothing, only fair treatment for something that could have been avoided with a little help and concern from United Air Lines. I have delayed writing this letter until my anger and frustration cooled down. But it is something I must do as I want you to be aware of the customers you are losing. There were several others that said it was the last time they would use United because they had at least one and some had more than one unpleasant experience.

Years ago I flew almost exclusively with United and had nothing but good things to say about them. Something has changed! And I would say it would be to your best interest to do something about it.

Be glad they didn't empty your wallet
from: Kathleen Jackson, Laguna Hills, CA
Tue, 9 Sep 1997 00:48:17 -0400 (EDT)

This letter was sent via courier with return receipt requested, but the self addressed and stamped envelope have not been returned with any response. We are still hoping for a full refund on all 4 tickets.

July 14, 1997

Attn: Jerry Greenwald, CEO

I want to share with you my experience traveling on UA, Los Angeles-San Jose, Costa Rica on May 22,1997 returning 30May.

The passenger's letter was too long to reproduce here in its entirety, but I summarize the contents as follows:

Luggage checked in "stand-by" by relatives hoping to accompany the letter writer were misplaced by United, necessitating long waits and many phone calls to different UAL offices. Despite promises by various UAL agents that "urgent meters" were being sent from Chicago to assist in the location of these items, agents at LAX were unable to find any record of such messages.

While in Costa Rica, the writer received news that necessitated her immediate return to Los Angeles. UAL agents were unable to verify the upgradeability of her ticket over the phone, so she went to the airport with her ticket, where she was told to return to the airport later than evening to purchase a one-way Connoissuer Class ticket, for an additional $810 (upgrades were apparently not possible). On returning to the airport as per UAL's instructions, the writer was unable to purchase the ticket because there was no cashier on duty. She was told that the booking was made for her on the direct flight, but that she would have to return once more at 4:00am.

Back at the airport at 4:00am, the writer was then told that despite the booking and earlier assurances of space on the flight, she would have to stick to her original itinerary and fly through Mexico City with a 7-hour layover. Pleas amounted to nothing: There was no reservation for her in the computer and the flight was full. By now, completely fatigued and distressed from the ordeal, the writer forgot her fanny pack, containing her money, on the x-ray machine. She realized this aboard the plane, but none of the flight attendants were able to assist. In Mexico City, after speaking with several agents, the writer received confirmation of the findings, including her wallet containing $899. However, since "UA's baggage responsibility extends to checked baggage, not carry-on luggage (fanny pack) left in the airport or on the aircraft," she then had to go through a series of runarounds involving different stories for how the pack would be returned to her.

Day 1: "I was told my fanny pack would be taken off the plane and brought to the Baggage Dept., that I was to show a photo ID and it would be handled without any problems."

Day 2: "She could not explain why the bag was not sent as promised but promised that she would send the bag via DHL; I would have it on Wednesday."

Day 3: "She told her that she had sent it on flight 888 instead, since she didn't know what to do with the cash if she sent it via DHL! The pack was to be offloaded from the flight with all the other baggage, then after no one claimed the pack it would go to lost and found."

Fortunately, the writer was able to retrieve her fanny pack and its contents, after her daughter made several more long distance telephone calls until reaching a helpful UAL agent who assisted her.

I am 67 years old and have had some of the best years of my life traveling internationally. I understand traveling can be an adventure, with airline delays and canceled flights. However, UA caused my family and I unnecessary headaches, stress and expense with all the misinformation I was given.

There were 2 seats open on that flight in upper class and some in coach too. My family was on UA888 Friday 30May. They watched a newlywed couple be upgraded for free on that flight since those seats went out unsold and because they also asked for them when they checked in. They were extremely excited and it made their trip complete, yet I couldn't buy one.

United invalidates ticket without warning
from: Frequent Flyer #:00438 198 482, Chicago, IL
Wed, 30 Jul 1997 17:38:30 -0400

On June 10 I purchased a round-trip ticket Chicago-Boston for the amount of $214 (confirmation #: N83VHS). A few days before leaving, I had to change my travel plans. Since there were not enough days for an advance purchase, the United Reservations representative was not able to change my booking or offer me a new ticket at an attractive fare. However, she did tell me that the ticket would have been valid for a later travel date, that I could use the return portion and keep the Chicago-Boston leg for subsequent travel with 14 days advance reservation. The representative did not request me to call and confirm any changes. Since similar matters were handled very well by United Reservations representatives in the past, I did not question her suggestion and decided to follow it. I organized my travel from Chicago to Boston with a different transportation means.

You can well imagine my surprise when, on Tuesday, July 8, I went to the airport in Boston to fly the Boston-Chicago return leg of my regular purchased ticket and I was told that my reservation was canceled and that my ticket was no longer valid. This was a possibility that the United Reservations representative never mentioned to me. Obviously, if I had known, I would have made different travel arrangements. It was very disappointing to have to pay an extra $176 for a one-way ticket when I had a reservation on the very same flight made a few weeks in advance.

Passenger's follow-up letter
Mon, 04 Aug 1997 17:09:25 -0400

United just offered us a refund of $180 on a purchase of a ticket for the inconveniences created on July 8 in Boston. We still lost the first tickect ($215), but at least the refund will cover the cost of the Boston-Chicago trip that Wendy had to pay ($176). I guess that they are trying to get things straight again, perhaps also because of efforts by customers like you.

Enough of United
from: Larry Greenfield , Fountain Valley, CA
Sun, 27 Jul 1997 23:38:10 -0400 (EDT)

I've flown many miles on United, but since January, I've had enough, opting for other carriers on every occasion. Here's why:

Story #1: cancelled flight, no notice.

Last August (Aug 96), I was to fly from LAX-SFO. I bought my tickets directly from UAL over the phone well over 2 weeks before the trip. The night before, on a whim, I called UAL to make sure everything was ok. The response: My flight early the next morning was cancelled. I couldn't believe it! No one from UAL had notified me of my cancelled flight. Isn't that what they ask for our phone numbers for? By the way, my voice mail number is always available...

What was worse, the agent told me I couldn't change my flight this late -- I'd have to wait in line early the next morning and fight for a seat. When I asked to speak to a supervisor, the agent said no, then hung up on me. I called back again, to almost the exact same response, and it took a third call, going on about midnight, to finally get an agent who would connect me to a supervisor. The supervisor didn't want to put me on another flight either; it took well over a half hour of arguing to get myself placed on an alternate flight.

Story #2: misinformation regarding mile credits

On a recent trip from LAX-Australia, I was told by four different UAL sales agents that the miles flown on UAL's partner airline (Ansett) in Australia and New Zealand would count for my Mileage Plus miles. Each time, I verified that the flight segments using Ansett would count towards my mileage (albeit at 70% credit due to the fare basis). One agent even took the time to go through my entire itinerary on the trip, including all of the UAL and Ansett flight segments, and then calculated the total mileage credit I would receive.

When I arrived in Aust/NZ, the agent there told me that in fact, only the Ansett flights in Australia would count. None of the Ansett flights within NZ would count unless they were within 24hrs of arrival on a UAL flight. This, even though four separate agents told me otherwise! When I complaied I got the standard "oh gee, no, you must have misunderstood us" reply.

Story #3: Five agents and a supervisor doth it take to book a seat

The daughter of a host family in Japan I once stayed with flew to the US in February to visit. She took UAL. For her long return flight, she wanted to request a front row seat (such as the row in front of the movie screen) so she could get up and go to the bathroom more easily.

I called United's local 1-800 number to make the request for her, and the agent assigned her a seat (seat X). As soon as I hung up, seeing all the misinformation that UAL's phone agents have given me over the past 12 months, I decided to call right back. Our guest didn't understand why. After all, the agent had assigned her a seat as she requested, right? (Yeah, right.) Sure enough, when I talked to a different agent, I was told "oh no, that's not a front-row seat, that's right in the middle of the section" and the second agent then assigned a second seat (seat Y).

Ok, I hung up, and called back. My guest was more confused than ever. Agent #3: "Huh? Seat Y? No, you still have Seat X. It hasn't been changed." Ten minutes later, we had a third seat assignment (seat Z), which we were assured was what we had requested. I hung up, and of course, called right back. By this point, my guest was laughing, not believing that a U.S. airline could be so incompetent.

Sure enough, Agent #4: "Yes, you have Seat Z, but that's not a row at the front of a section." At this point, I asked to speak to a supervisor. The agent refused. I explained this was my fourth attempt to get this simple seat request fulfilled, with every agent giving me different information, but she still wouldn't connect me. So I hung up, called back, and spoke to Agent #5, explaining that she was the fifth agent I've spoken to in 30 minutes just trying to get a seat. Agent #5 transferred me to a supervisor, who couldn't believe the list of seat numbers we were assigned, but made a new assignment and assured us that this was a front row.

Success at last, but why did it take five agents and a supervisor just to assign one seat? When my guest first arrived, I told her why no one in our family flies United. By the time she left, she understood.

Story #4: Book with air miles, but charged $600

My sister used to fly United to Asia constantly, and so, had more than enough Mileage Plus miles in her account to give my dad a California-Florida ticket as a retirement gift. As she was in Asia at the time, she sent a note explaining that she was authorizing the transfer of points.

When my dad made the reservation, he told the agent on the phone that he was using the mileage from his daughter's account which was being given to him as a gift. He confirmed with several agents that all he had to do was show up at the airport with the travel vouchers (which were in my sister's name), and there would be no problem, since family are allowed to give the miles as gifts.

When he arrived at the airport for his flight, the agent refused to accept the vouchers. She said it was because the vouchers hadn't officially been transferred over to my dad's name. He was told that if he wanted to board the plane, he'd have to pay $600-some dollars (full fare, despite the fact that he made reservations weeks in advance) and if he didn't like it, too bad, complain to someone. Unfortunately, my dad is almost 70 years old and doesn't travel that often, so didn't know how to deal with UAL -- he paid the $600.

When we found out about this on his return, we wrote UAL in Chicago, got a brush-off form letter from the head of "customer service". We wrote another letter to the head of UAL, and received the same form letter in reply. After that, my sister stopped taking UAL on all her business trips to Asia, as did I, for all of my travel.

I know full well how hard the airline business is, and there isn't an airline out there that hasn't had a bad flight or mishap now and then. But United seems to go beyond the occasional mishap. They have lied to and cheated us. Since I stopped taking UAL at the start of the year, I've had no such troubles on any other airlines. I wonder why...

If anyone at United wishes to contact me concerning these events, they can reach me by email.

Still more weather lies
from: Brian & Maria Thompson, Sulphur LA
Thu, 17 Jul 1997 23:39:08 -0400 (EDT)

I work for Chevron Corp. and my wife and I combined pleasure with a business trip I took to San Francisco two months ago. We flew Continental from Lake Charles (LCH) to LAX on the way out, rented a car and drove up the coast sightseeing on the way to SF.

We had a fun-filled trip, UNTIL it was time to fly the United Shuttle from SFO to LAX on Sat May 18. We sat on the runway for over 30 minutes before the pilot finally thought it was time to offer an explanation: "It seems they are having bad weather in LAX, and they are only allowing in-bound flights clearance to land." We sat there for another 45 minutes before we finally took off. Of course, arriving in LAX offered no evidence of bad weather. When I asked a United agent what had caused the weather delay, I received a fishy explanation that sounded like a vieled excuse for their own incompetence.

The significance of this delay was missing our Continental flight from LAX to IAH. I quizzed several different Cont. personnel about the weather situation. According to them, Cont. flights were pretty much on schedule. United's weather forced us to miss our last connecting flight from IAH to LCH. We therefore had our vacation extended by one night at an airport hotel, courtesy of Untied.

We returned to the United counter in LAX in an attempt to obtain some satisfaction, at least in the form of meal voucher. We were told "sorry, we can't do that", in so many words. I wrote the standard letter of complaint later on, and received a form letter reply in return. Did we receive a flight voucher or compensation? No, of course not. The reply letter was essentially deviod of an acknowledge of blame on Untied's part.

As a fairly young, aspiring business-type person, I intend to steer any and as much future corporate business away from United as possible.

More equipment failure lies
from: Ben Austin, San Mateo, CA
Wed, 16 Jul 1997 02:10:03 -0400 (EDT)

I was once quite a loyal customer for United, your basic traveling salesman, flying constantly, and I was a United Premier member. What caused me to take my business elsewhere was a series of customer service mishaps, way back in 1992 and 1993, too numerous to write here.

The last straw occurred after a trade show in southern California in January of 1993. I was scheduled to fly to San Francisco, and I had a meeting I absolutely had to make. United pulled a trick which was quite common in that day, which was to find two flights headed to SFO, about an hour apart, each with a one-third passenger load. They canceled the first one (on which I was confirmed), and offered me the departure in 90 minutes. I explained that I would be late for a meeting, and asked if they could put me on a different airline to get me to SFO on time, or at least close to on time. They said that this was not their policy during cancellations for "equipment failure." When I spoke to a supervisor and told him that a gate agent had said that the flight was being canceled only cause it was largely empty, he confirmed that the cancellation was indeed to keep the planes flying full (he said "just between us"!) but said that "on the books it was for equipment trouble" and there was nothing he could do.

I appreciate his honesty, but never flew United again when there was another carrier I could take.

Fortunately, I had accumulated about 100,000 miles in the Mileage Plus program, and I had no shame about taking my final flights with United gratis. But the "old" Mileage Plus program was expiring at the close of 1994, and many of the award levels were increasing. I had a long conversation with a helpful supervisor at Mileage Plus on 12/12/94 (Michele Orth, Rapid City, SD office), who confirmed that I could purchase two round trip tickets to Asia for only 75,000 miles, and that this award level would increase dramatically a few days later. Unfortunately, the names had to be on the certificates when they were generated, and I had no idea who I would fly with (the certificates were good for a year). "No worry" said Ms. Orth; for a $40 fee, the certificates could be changed or the miles returned to my account if I couldn't use them.

Guess what? After I bought the certificates for 75,000 miles, I split with my girlfriend and could not use the certificates as the names had been printed. I called back to have the 75,000 miles put back into my account, and was told that this was impossible. Fortunately, I had the name of the supervisor who generated them and the date of our call. After much deliberation, I got through to Michelle Orth herself, who didn't deny that our conversation took place (she said it was in her records), but she told me she could not help me.

I told her I was now in charge of sales and marketing for a software company, and that I would never allow any of my employees to fly United if there was another choice, but she didn't seem to care, and she couldn't help me.... I now have have AAdvantage Gold status on American.

More weather lies, untruths, and surliness
from: Max Lent, Rochester, NY
Tue, 15 Jul 1997 20:31:53 -0400 (EDT)

My wife was booked out of Rochester, NY at 6:20 a.m. on a UA flight to Chicago and on to L.A. and Oxnard, CA. Sometime in the middle of the night a UA rep called our telephone answering machine and left a message that the Rochester to Chicago flight was canceled because of weather. When we awoke there was no sign of bad weather in Rochester, so we called UA and asked about the flight cancellation. We were told that there was bad weather in Rochester and that all flights from all airlines were canceled out of Rochester. We said that didn't seem possible, but were told that we were misinformed. We called several other airlines and asked about early departing flights and were told that none were canceled and that there was no bad weather in our area. We asked if there was bad weather in Chicago and were told by more than one airline that all flights were getting to and from Chicago without problem. American Airlines offered a seat to my wife on their 7:00 a.m. flight if United would sign over her ticket. United refused saying that flights canceled due to weather were not transferable to another airline, even for just the shuttle flight. A call to a surly supervisor named Auer further flamed the situation by their calling me a liar regarding the weather forecasts. United would not extend the courtesy of letting my wife fly the shuttle from Rochester to Chicago. Because of their screw-up, my wife lost a day of work in California by having to take a later series of UA flights to CA. This was our last UA flight. We would rather cancel a trip than fly with a company as surly, untruthful, and insensitive as they were. We will not fly the unfriendly skies of United.