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 Chicago to Cleveland Takes 24 Hours on United Airlines
Posted Tue May 22, 2007 12:00 pm, by Shawna C. written to United Airlines
Write a Letter to this Company | Rate this Company
My husband flew on your airplane for the very first time ever. This flight was suppossed to be a joyous event since my husband was coming home for a visit to see his children and myself. He works out of state and is unable to fly home. We were able to save up enough money to buy a plane ticket and he took off work so that he could visit us.
Christian, my husband, flew from Denver to Chicago O'Hara and sat on the runway for two hours in Chicago as they waited for a gate to open. Due to this delay he missed his connecting flight to Cleveland. When he finally got off the ramp and tried to be placed on the next flight out he was given the run around. He was on stand-by for 4 flights and United was not willing to fly him to Cleveland on another airline.
I drove to the Cleveland Hopkins Airport which is one and a half hour drive each way. We waited for his flight to find that he missed the connecting flight into Cleveland. I was told by the United Airlines Baggage Claim represenative that she had no idea how is luggage arrived, but he did not. She explained that he had missed the connecting flight, but had no idea when he would arrive in Cleveland.
I drove home with all three children as this was their Easter surprise. During this time I called United Airlines several times to find out when my husband was going to get a connecting flight. I was on the phone and my mother was on the phone trying to find someone who could help. We were unsuccessful at finding anybody with United Airlines who could help. Then my husband left a message telling me that they had finally put him on the 10 pm flight.
I drove back up to Cleveland Hopkins airport with all three children and sat and waited again my husband was not on the flight. I again talked with the United Airlines employee and she said that he was bumped from that flight, but he had already boarded the plane for the 12 midnight flight. So we sat and waited.
The flight arrives and my husband is NOT on the plane. I again ask for help from your United Airlines employee and she assured me that he was on the plane because he had two stars behind his name and she said that they never mess up and he had to physically board the plane to get the second star.
I had my husband paged at the Cleveland Hopkins Airport, but he did not respond to the page because he was never on the flight. I even described my husband to the Cleveland Police and he walked me around part of the airport and we did not find him. Then the United Airline employee has the Cleveland Police start questioning me about my husband and myself and our three children. They were asking very personal questions about did my husband leave me, is he on medicine, would he give his ticket to someone else, did he take drugs, did we get into a fight before he came, etc.
Then after about 15 minutes of questions the United Airline employee checks her screeen again and finds that he is scheduled on the 1 pm flight the next day.
At this point it is now 3 am and I have three tired, confused children and all I was offered was a voucher to get a room for $50 at an area hotel.
My husband did arrive finally 24 hours later than when he should have arrived. The United Airline employees in Chicago never offered my husband a room for the night. He had to sleep on the chairs.
My husband was scheduled to leave Sunday evening; however, I called to bump back his flight one day and I was given the run around. The United Airlines customer service tried to charge me $100 for changing the flight and then tried to charge me the difference of the flight fees.
We never received an apology from the customer service represenative on behalf of United Airlines.
Great customer service. LOL
I feel that United Airlines should compensate my husband and I for their awful customer service. We scraped our money together after several months of saving to fly my husband home and he sat in an airport for over 24 hours without being offered a room for the night and I was offered a room for $50. This was not our fault that United Airlines would not put my husband on another airline and fly him to Cleveland.
We feel that a complimentary roundtrip ticket or two would show that you do care about your customer service. I also hope that you take this incident and review it and use it to train. To make sure that flight attendants don't mark someone as boarded the plane when they never did and to give the customer or customer's wife the benefit of the doubt when she clearly states that her husband did not run out on her or her family.
We look forward to flying United Airlines with our complimentary roundtrip airline tickets. My husband will be flying home more often and we do enjoy getting the flyer miles and would like to continue using United Airlines.
Thank you for your time,
Christian and Shawna
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by rkcbw0314 Posted Wed May 23, 2007 @ 10:48 AM
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I am sorry your family had such a horrible experience on United. You
have every right to be outraged by United's treatment of you and your
family. I would like to say such stories are uncommon, but on United
these sorts of things seem to happen every time. It is not surprising
that the DOT rated United the worst airline in America in terms of
customer service for 2006.
While you should send this complaint into United, United is notorious
for not responding to complaints. Most customers get nothing more
than a form letter. Therefore, in addition to writing United, be sure
to send a copy of the complaint to the consumer protection division at
the Department of Transportation. You can email them at
airconsumer@dot.gov Since DOT asks United to respond to these
complaints, thie is about the only chance of getting a serious
response from United.
Again, I am very sorry United ruined your family's special weekend.
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I think the other posters all have valid comments. I would never
leave for the airport without first checking the flight information --
is it on time? Early? Late? Luckily, I have the luxury of living
outside the flight path, but still within 15 minutes of the airport,
so perhaps the OP lived too far for any last-minute changes in the
flight info to be of assistance to her.
My main support of the OP comes from the fact that she kept getting
misinformation from various airline employees.
I do agree that there is way too much extraneous information that
isn't pertinent to the complaint (and the "LOL" was unprofessional and
snarky--I wish that word would disappear from online vernacular), but
it otherwise is a well-written letter and I can understand her
annoyance at having gotten the runaround. The comment about her
husband flying UA for the first time probably won't help her
position--United can hardly "take care" of its frequent flyers; it
sure isn't likely to do much for a newbie of questionable flying
habits.
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by Richard S. Posted Wed May 23, 2007 @ 10:45 AM
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I find this a little difficult to believe. After searching the UAL
schedule from Chicago-Ohare to Cleveland, there are no scheduled
flights that leave Ohare after 9:30 pm.
Furthermore, how does an airline let someone board a plane and then
take them off. Usually if there is no seats on the plane, the person
will not be allowed to board. How did this happen twice to the same
person?
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Chicago O'HARA airport.....LOL
Perhaps this is the problem?
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by dawniedawn67 Posted Wed May 23, 2007 @ 10:09 AM
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In the first line of this letter you say it was your husband's first
time on a UA airplane, but in your closing line you say that you
"enjoy getting the flyer miles", which you would not be getting if
your husband did not frequently fly with them. Am I missing
something?
I also think the validity of your complaint is lost among all the
dramatic and extraneous information that you have included. I'd maybe
clean it up a little and send it again.
Would your husband's wait have been acceptable if he had money to burn
and DIDN'T have to 'scrape together' money for airfare? I didn't
think so.
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by PurPink Posted Wed May 23, 2007 @ 9:11 AM
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I disagree with the previous poster.
This letter isn't that great because there are some key bits of
information missing.
You said your husband's trip was to be an Easter surprise however you
didn't cite the dates of travel. That would definitely help in
sorting out your case.
Since your husband was connecting in Chicago (with O'hare being
amongst the busiest airports in the US), did it ever occur to you that
there was inclimate weather somewhere between Chicago to Cleveland?
Also, I believe the flights between Chicago and Cleveland are United
Express flights aka puddlejumpers.
There are still payphones at O'hare airport - why didn't your husband
try to call and let you know what was going on. If he didn't have
change or a calling card, he could have called collect.
I am also really surprised that the airlines gave you a voucher for a
discounted hotel room. Especially since you, specifically, were not
their customer.
I would think that you would also be happy that the police got
involved in your situation as early as they did. However, what does
that part of the story have to do with the letter to UAL? They have
no control over local police departments.
And of course to change your husband's flight at the last minute like
that is going to cost the change fee and fare difference.
Quite honestly, I do agree that something might be in order (like 1
voucher since there was ONLY 1 member of your family who had this
experience) due to the delay at O'hare but that is about it.
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