The Un-Friendliest Skies
The fatigue of the airline industry is really starting to show. Employees clearly don't know if they're going to have a job next month and it's feeling like they don't really care. They don't go the extra mile and aren't really concerned with helping out customers all that much. When the pilot says he appreciates us choosing his airline because he knows we have a choice in air travel, I'm not really feeling the love from the rest of the crew.
Here's my beef:
Last month my fiance and I were travelling to Chicago for some pre-wedding showers and engagement parties. We got the airport an hour ahead of time to discover that while we booked our flights together, our seats were many rows apart, both in middle seats. We attempted to be re-seated only to be confronted by a non-accomodating agent. Lukily, the woman sitting in the isle seat next to me was in the same predicament and asked if I would switch to an isle seat. I happily did, then asked the person sitting next to my fiance if they would switch with me so I could join my travelling companion for the 4 hour flight. It was nice that it worked out.
More fun: As we were getting on the flight preparing to board, a woman in front of us in line was told that her boarding pass didn't have a "stamp" and was told she had to go back through security. Clueless to any sort of new regulation, she asked what it was all about and they simple repeated their demand for her to go back. When she asked desperately if she would miss the flight, the woman behind the desk had the gumption to actually say, "I don't know, maybe..." MAYBE?! Clearly this agent has either never flown before or been privy to the mental challenge that comes with potentially missing a flight and not having the opportunity to easily hop another flight to reschedule. I think the woman made it on.
This past weekend we went back to Chicago for another round of fun. We get to the airport well ahead of time again and I was more prepared since I had confirmed our seats were next to each other beforehand. Unfortunately, that didn't do any good, as we discovered we were once again put to the back of the plane into two middle seats in separate rows across the isle. When I asked, they said that the flight had a schedule change and they reseated everyone, putting us in two separate isles. This seemed implausable, especially since I wasn't notified and had confirmation. Asked for resolution, the woman at the gate told me to stand by until bording and that maybe there was something they could do about it. No chance, she was busy putting people on the flight and the new people behind the desk were too busy handling stand-by passengers who had been bumped from a previously over-booked flight.
Unfortunately, this time we weren't lucky enough to make the switch on board. While it's not the end of the world to be separated from your traveler on the flight, we all know that it is these kinds of inconveniences which build up a negative perception of your experience which can compound over time.
To add insult to injury, on the way home we checked our two bags of luggage and carried on the bag of gifts with breakables. Upon arriving in San Francisco, yup, our bags were nowhere to be found, even though we arrived at O'Hare well before the 45 minute cut-off even after checking in on-line, waited in line to check one bag, got our bags on and got to our gate which was the first one after security 15 minutes before boarding. I couldn't imagine our bags not having a more difficult path at that hour of the night. Apparently this was an issue with a lot of people, because when we were told that all of the bags had arrived, about 2 dozen people lined up for assistance.
At 12:30am on a Sunday night with no movement in line, we decided to take a "Delayed Baggage" claim form and call the number on the way home. We were on hold for over 30 minutes until finally we decided to try again in the morning. This morning I called the same number and was given an automated option and then sent into a bad busy signal loop from hell. Trying again, same deal. I tried customer service, and their call volume was too high to handle the call, so they hung up. Getting hung up on by an automated service is probably the most depressing feeling in the world. I called Mileage Plus Customer Service, no dice - they only handle Mileage Plus and couldn't even transfer me to a human, even a supervisor. They suggested I call domestic Reservation Sales and ask to speak to a manager, which I did, told my sob story to the woman who couldn't care less and transferred me to the same hold line I was on last night (no busy signal this time).
Estimated wait time ... FIFTY-ONE minutes!
It's taken me 30 minutes to write this. Blogging actually makes me feel better...
...hopefully this story ends nice...
[update]
The plot thickens.
After waiting on hold for 55 minutes, a woman finally came on the phone to talk to me. She pseudo-chastized me for not filing a report at 1am at the airport, even after I explained to her that the line wasn't moving and we tried to do it over the phone. She took down all my information, and when I tried to ask her if the could deliver the bags to my office she couldn't really tell me, as that is handled by an independent agency at the airport. Not wanting to chance it, I gave her my home address and cell phone number, and she said that someone would call me before they delivered the bags. The call ended and I felt slightly more confident that I'd see my luggage today.
That was 12:30pm - it's now 7:15pm and I haven't heard from anyone. I got home a little while ago and tried calling the automated baggage customer service number. After multiple attempts to get the computer guy to understand me, I finally was able to convey to him where my bags should be - San Francisco, CA. "he" then told me to wait while he pulled up all the information for that airport, and I could even hear the sounds of clicking or chewing going on like they pre-programmed some sort of "thinking" sound to make people think the computer was actually doing something. He came back and told me he was sorry (was he really?) but that he couldn't find any information for any bags at the airport - i guess the entire computer system was down, but strangely enough the automated computer system which I was talking to wasn't down, go figure. It then tried to transfer me to a human and put me the lovely queue I was in before, but I was then greeted with the glorious busy signal and disconnected.
Determined for an answer, I called United reservations and told the woman who wanted to take my reservation my story and asked for a supervisor. She told me she could transfer me to baggage service, and since that worked last time I gave it a shot. A computer woman (amazing that they have both men and women computers over there) came on the phone and told me the call could not be completed and to try again later. I was then disconnected.
I called the same number again and spoke to another woman who couldn't have cared any less about my story, wouldn't transfer me to baggage support and wouldn't try to transfer me to the airport where my bags are. After putting me on hold she could only tell me to call the Customer Care number, which I knew wouldn't work since they're only open until 7pm CST, but she didn't know that and insisted they were open. The only other option she gave me was to call the dreaded automated baggage assistance number. We hung up.
I gave it a shot and called customer care, and as expected they were closed.
I then figured I'd give the Baggage Service number another try. The computer guy greeted me again and whisked my way through the menus to get to the point where he was "thinking" and trying to get info on San Francisco bags. No dice, couldn't do it, and once again tried to transfer me into queue to talk with someone...
...this time it worked, and I was greeted by another automated lady who delightfully told me that the estimated wait time would be ... THIRTY-FIVE MINUTES...
So here I am, 11 minutes later, stuck in the same vortex of United Customer Service hold...
...i think i might just drive down to the airport and get my bags. I might take me less time that waiting on hold...
[update]
...51 minutes later, a woman picks up...she thanked me for waiting...
I gave her my name and flight number, asked to know how my bags were doing and she told me that she could not find a claim report for me in their system, even though I filed one with the same customer service department 7 hours earlier.
She found them, they were listed under my fiance's name, even though the original woman specifically told me they'd be listed under my name, whatever.
Apparently they're in route right now, picked up at 6:30pm from the airport, but won't arrive before 10:30pm. Not sure why she knew that and nothing else, but we'll see.
(crossing fingers praying for baggage deliverance)
sidenote: while i was waiting on hold I did some searching around the Internet looking for people at United I could complain to, ya know, just to make me feel better. I came across John P. Tague: Executive Vice President - Marketing, Sales & Revenue (yeah, he's having a pretty crappy year), but alas no email address, as expected.
I did discover Untied.com - a site devoted to documenting the horrids of dealing with United. Classic internet retribution.
[Final update: 9:35pm]
Bags arrive at our home 21 hours after we do! HURRAY!!!
Here's my beef:
Last month my fiance and I were travelling to Chicago for some pre-wedding showers and engagement parties. We got the airport an hour ahead of time to discover that while we booked our flights together, our seats were many rows apart, both in middle seats. We attempted to be re-seated only to be confronted by a non-accomodating agent. Lukily, the woman sitting in the isle seat next to me was in the same predicament and asked if I would switch to an isle seat. I happily did, then asked the person sitting next to my fiance if they would switch with me so I could join my travelling companion for the 4 hour flight. It was nice that it worked out.
More fun: As we were getting on the flight preparing to board, a woman in front of us in line was told that her boarding pass didn't have a "stamp" and was told she had to go back through security. Clueless to any sort of new regulation, she asked what it was all about and they simple repeated their demand for her to go back. When she asked desperately if she would miss the flight, the woman behind the desk had the gumption to actually say, "I don't know, maybe..." MAYBE?! Clearly this agent has either never flown before or been privy to the mental challenge that comes with potentially missing a flight and not having the opportunity to easily hop another flight to reschedule. I think the woman made it on.
This past weekend we went back to Chicago for another round of fun. We get to the airport well ahead of time again and I was more prepared since I had confirmed our seats were next to each other beforehand. Unfortunately, that didn't do any good, as we discovered we were once again put to the back of the plane into two middle seats in separate rows across the isle. When I asked, they said that the flight had a schedule change and they reseated everyone, putting us in two separate isles. This seemed implausable, especially since I wasn't notified and had confirmation. Asked for resolution, the woman at the gate told me to stand by until bording and that maybe there was something they could do about it. No chance, she was busy putting people on the flight and the new people behind the desk were too busy handling stand-by passengers who had been bumped from a previously over-booked flight.
Unfortunately, this time we weren't lucky enough to make the switch on board. While it's not the end of the world to be separated from your traveler on the flight, we all know that it is these kinds of inconveniences which build up a negative perception of your experience which can compound over time.
To add insult to injury, on the way home we checked our two bags of luggage and carried on the bag of gifts with breakables. Upon arriving in San Francisco, yup, our bags were nowhere to be found, even though we arrived at O'Hare well before the 45 minute cut-off even after checking in on-line, waited in line to check one bag, got our bags on and got to our gate which was the first one after security 15 minutes before boarding. I couldn't imagine our bags not having a more difficult path at that hour of the night. Apparently this was an issue with a lot of people, because when we were told that all of the bags had arrived, about 2 dozen people lined up for assistance.
At 12:30am on a Sunday night with no movement in line, we decided to take a "Delayed Baggage" claim form and call the number on the way home. We were on hold for over 30 minutes until finally we decided to try again in the morning. This morning I called the same number and was given an automated option and then sent into a bad busy signal loop from hell. Trying again, same deal. I tried customer service, and their call volume was too high to handle the call, so they hung up. Getting hung up on by an automated service is probably the most depressing feeling in the world. I called Mileage Plus Customer Service, no dice - they only handle Mileage Plus and couldn't even transfer me to a human, even a supervisor. They suggested I call domestic Reservation Sales and ask to speak to a manager, which I did, told my sob story to the woman who couldn't care less and transferred me to the same hold line I was on last night (no busy signal this time).
Estimated wait time ... FIFTY-ONE minutes!
It's taken me 30 minutes to write this. Blogging actually makes me feel better...
...hopefully this story ends nice...
[update]
The plot thickens.
After waiting on hold for 55 minutes, a woman finally came on the phone to talk to me. She pseudo-chastized me for not filing a report at 1am at the airport, even after I explained to her that the line wasn't moving and we tried to do it over the phone. She took down all my information, and when I tried to ask her if the could deliver the bags to my office she couldn't really tell me, as that is handled by an independent agency at the airport. Not wanting to chance it, I gave her my home address and cell phone number, and she said that someone would call me before they delivered the bags. The call ended and I felt slightly more confident that I'd see my luggage today.
That was 12:30pm - it's now 7:15pm and I haven't heard from anyone. I got home a little while ago and tried calling the automated baggage customer service number. After multiple attempts to get the computer guy to understand me, I finally was able to convey to him where my bags should be - San Francisco, CA. "he" then told me to wait while he pulled up all the information for that airport, and I could even hear the sounds of clicking or chewing going on like they pre-programmed some sort of "thinking" sound to make people think the computer was actually doing something. He came back and told me he was sorry (was he really?) but that he couldn't find any information for any bags at the airport - i guess the entire computer system was down, but strangely enough the automated computer system which I was talking to wasn't down, go figure. It then tried to transfer me to a human and put me the lovely queue I was in before, but I was then greeted with the glorious busy signal and disconnected.
Determined for an answer, I called United reservations and told the woman who wanted to take my reservation my story and asked for a supervisor. She told me she could transfer me to baggage service, and since that worked last time I gave it a shot. A computer woman (amazing that they have both men and women computers over there) came on the phone and told me the call could not be completed and to try again later. I was then disconnected.
I called the same number again and spoke to another woman who couldn't have cared any less about my story, wouldn't transfer me to baggage support and wouldn't try to transfer me to the airport where my bags are. After putting me on hold she could only tell me to call the Customer Care number, which I knew wouldn't work since they're only open until 7pm CST, but she didn't know that and insisted they were open. The only other option she gave me was to call the dreaded automated baggage assistance number. We hung up.
I gave it a shot and called customer care, and as expected they were closed.
I then figured I'd give the Baggage Service number another try. The computer guy greeted me again and whisked my way through the menus to get to the point where he was "thinking" and trying to get info on San Francisco bags. No dice, couldn't do it, and once again tried to transfer me into queue to talk with someone...
...this time it worked, and I was greeted by another automated lady who delightfully told me that the estimated wait time would be ... THIRTY-FIVE MINUTES...
So here I am, 11 minutes later, stuck in the same vortex of United Customer Service hold...
...i think i might just drive down to the airport and get my bags. I might take me less time that waiting on hold...
[update]
...51 minutes later, a woman picks up...she thanked me for waiting...
I gave her my name and flight number, asked to know how my bags were doing and she told me that she could not find a claim report for me in their system, even though I filed one with the same customer service department 7 hours earlier.
She found them, they were listed under my fiance's name, even though the original woman specifically told me they'd be listed under my name, whatever.
Apparently they're in route right now, picked up at 6:30pm from the airport, but won't arrive before 10:30pm. Not sure why she knew that and nothing else, but we'll see.
(crossing fingers praying for baggage deliverance)
sidenote: while i was waiting on hold I did some searching around the Internet looking for people at United I could complain to, ya know, just to make me feel better. I came across John P. Tague: Executive Vice President - Marketing, Sales & Revenue (yeah, he's having a pretty crappy year), but alas no email address, as expected.
I did discover Untied.com - a site devoted to documenting the horrids of dealing with United. Classic internet retribution.
[Final update: 9:35pm]
Bags arrive at our home 21 hours after we do! HURRAY!!!
posted by Andy at
12:32 PM
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