 |
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
||||
|
 |
|
||
|
||||
|
The initial feedback
Strikingly familiar letter:
From creative.net!mkruger Wed Sep 11 18:46:54 1996
Dear Mr. Cooperstock and Vinita N. D'Souza:
I am writing you in response to your letter written to United Airlines
dated 13 June 96. As I understand your comments written about the
quality of service you recieved from United Airlines, I want to point
out some errors you made.
First, you've mentioned that you arrived at the check in counter,
located in terminal 3 of the Toronto airport, 45 minutes before
departure. That amount of time is very average, and in fact quite good.
You are indeed taking an international flight! I believe you are warned
to be at the airport 90 minutes to 120 minutes before departure time now
days.
I mention this because of new security measures implemented by
governments to counteract terrorist. I've read in the paper where agents
must check everyone's passports for proper documentation, in your case,
isn't it Japan? Furthermore, agents must match the tickets with the foto
ID, ask certain security questions pertaining to the contents of their
baggage, and give detailed directions to the departing gate.
Secondly, you've mentioned about an annoucement made in Chinese with
regard to your delayment. I find this really hard to believe comming
from a country as yours where the majority of the population is either
English or French speaking. You say the announcement was made in
Chinese. And why Chinese? At the very least, one would figure at least
Japanese.
I feel you simply didn't pay attention to the announcements compounded
by your ignorance to show up the airport an hour before departure caused
your panic situation towards the Air Canada's terminal.
I should also mention that Air Canada's response to your situation, as
you put it, "she somehow managed to re-route us via Air Canada's flight
to Los Angelos," is a bit much to take. Don't you think that maybe
United put something in your computer reservation stating authorization
to issue tickets to you for travel to San Francico as originally
planned? They are, after all, code share partners. Aren't they?
Therefore, they are supposed to have a ticketing agreement, aren't they?
I believe some blame here needs to be addressed to Air Canada's delay in
getting you on the fight to San Francisco.
I even bet United Airlines had to rebook you From Los Angelos to Tokyo?
They incurred this cost too? Didn't They?
Fourthly, What is even more appauling, Is you and your party do the same
thing over again in Honolulu. I would have at least thought you would
have said that you checked in two hours before departure. But, no sir,
once again, you mention you showed up again an hour before departure.
You've mentioned that your seats were re-arranged. I would say after
reading your story that you lost your pre-assigned seats because of your
ignorance again of showing up late to the flight. They probally dropped
your seats and gave your seats to other individuals.
Mr. Cooperstock, Mrs Vinita N. D'Souza, I'll let you in on a little
secret. All airlines oversell they're seats by only a margin around 20
percent. This is because there are a certain percentage of people who
simply do not show up for the flight or who simply arrive LATE....
In all fairness to you, I believe you were indeed diserviced by the
handling of your garment bag. It is misfortunate that your garment was
permently creased. However the kind gesture by United Airlines to
provide you with 200 hundred US dollars of flight credit should be
enough to compensate you.
Mr. Cooperstock, Vinita N. D'Souza, I would like to mention to you about
the method you went about broadcasting your incedent on the WEB...It
made you both, your education institute, and your country aware of how
much you don't travel. I reccomend you remove it as soon as possible in
order to save your self some credibility
In the near future, I reccomend you simply arrive to the airport
earlier....
Sincerely,
Michael Kruse
Dear Mr. Kruse,
As I noted earlier on my Web pages, I found it interesting to receive
both your note and the very similar one from "John" only two hours
apart, especially considering that your note contains John's e-mail
address in its message path! Whether this is merely coincidence or
some curious attempt at humour, I have no idea, but since your two
letters are almost identical, I assume you and John can also share the
effort of reading my reply to him. I will save you the time of
re-reading the same material and simply address the points that only
you raised. For completeness though, I include my reply to John,
below, to answer the points that you both raised.
For some reason, you wish to blame Air Canada for their "delay in
getting [us] on the fight to San Francisco." Whether or not "United
put something in [our] computer reservation stating authorization to
issue tickets to [us] for travel to San Francico" is irrelevant. The
problem, as we stated, was that United made no efforts to ensure we
would have sufficient time to catch this flight. By the time we
arrived at the Air Canada gate, the flight had already left. How you
find that Air Canada delayed us is beyond me.
Your next comment was that "I even bet United Airlines had to rebook
you From Los Angelos [sic] to Tokyo? They incurred this cost too? Didn't
They?" The Air Canada agent rebooked us on an LA-Tokyo flight on United
Airlines at the same time that she booked our Toronto-LA flight. As for
any cost that United incurred, it would not have been for the LA-Tokyo
leg, since our purchased ticket with United included SF-Tokyo, an
almost equivalent fare.
Ignoring the illogic of these points you raised, what strikes me as
most amusing is your suggestion that "the kind gesture by United
Airlines to provide [us] with 200 hundred US dollars of flight credit
should be enough to compensate [us]" for the damage to my wool suit.
As you are in a Student-Aviation department of a respected North
American university, I would hope that you can distinguish the
difference between a flight credit and actual compensation. While the
latter would have been appreciated, the former would require me to
spend several hundred dollars (if not several thousand dollars,
considering that I am now living in Japan), of my own money in order to
make use of it.
Criticizing us for speaking out about our shoddy treatment by a major
airline, after two polite attempts at writing the airline directly,
indicates the lack of value you hold for the right of free speech.
That right, Mr. Kruse, is what gives us the ability to inform others
about the service we received from United Airlines, just as it gives
you the ability to respond to our messages in whatever manner you feel
appropriate.
Sincerely, Last modification Friday, 20-Jul-2007 14:43:02 PDT Copyright © 2007 Jeremy Cooperstock. All Rights Reserved. |
||||
|
||||
