Avoid United Airlines at all costs

Posted Tue January 11, 2011 12:00 pm, by Eric S. written to United Airlines

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The storm earlier this week caused many delays in flights leaving the East coast. United Airlines’ way of dealing with these delays turned out to be unethical, unprofessional, and inhumane. Here is our story…

We booked a flight from Albany NY to LA on Dec. 28. Albany has a small airport and usually it doesn’t take long to check into flights. Relying on our experience from numerous past flights we were at the airport just before 5am and checked into our flight, which was scheduled to leave at 6 am. There was no problem checking in, or checking our luggage. We got our boarding passes from United Airlines and headed for security: a huge line welcomed us. When we told one of the officers that our flight was at 6am his responses was “so is everyone else’s… wait in line”. OK, we waited.

At around 5.45am we heard the final boarding call for our flight. We managed to get to the front of the line and quickly went through security. My husband ran ahead to the gate to notify them that we were on our way. The person at the gate(here he is, enjoying the good life) acknowledged my husband’s request and told him we needed to hurry.

We were a party of six: my husband and I, my elderly parents in law, and our two children ages 2 and 6. All of us ran towards the gate. When we arrived at the gate we saw that he ignored the fact that we were on our way and instead let the standby passengers board the plane. We could see them walking through the gate, taking our places on the plane!

He looked at us, said “the flight is closed”, and shut the door in our face (literally and figuratively). We were shocked! We never experienced anything like that, and we fly often. Moreover, our luggage was on the plane, making its way to LA without us! For my parents-in-law, who were visiting from another country, this meant they now had nothing but the clothes they were wearing.

Naturally, we were angry. We confronted him and his colleague. Their response: “you were not here on time”. But we were! My interpretation of their response: “ We are overbooked so we were very happy to have those extra seats. We don’t care if it’s you or someone else on that plane – a warm body is a warm body and we have a crappy business to run.”

We continued to argue and he called the police. The officers were nice and simply said “calm down”. Not a big deal but another indication of the excellent customer service provided by United employees. At that point, however, my 6 years old was so stressed she began vomiting. That’s a very big deal. I wonder how many other children he scares as part of his job.

Our next step was to minimize the damages – so when’s the next flight? Five days later! This means canceling our family vacation and getting to LA just in time for my in-laws to catch their flight back home and for us to continue to the second lag of our trip (work-related).

So there we were, at the airport, angry, tired, and just want to go home and leave this hellish morning behind us. Unfortunately, our car seats are on their way to LA! In the end we made it home safely and immediately proceeded to file a complaint. As most of you probably know, United (like many other companies who don’t really care about their customers) now only has the 800 number that lets you speak to the representative in India, who has the liberty of reading to you the generic sentence provided as response to all customer complaints by United Airlines. Filing a complaint through the website resulted in a “do not reply” email telling us they will respond as quickly as possible. We are still waiting.

What we lost in this experience: (1) a family vacation for our children to spend time with their grandparents, and enjoy a trip to Disneyland. (2) Money for bookings we were not able to cancel at the last minute. (3) More money for things my in-laws had to buy because their luggage was sent to LA. (4) Whatever naïve belief we still had that customers matter.

What Unites Airlines lost in this experience: (1) they lost us as customers forever. (2) They probably don’t care…



First, they have to apologize, then...

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Re: Avoid United Airlines at all costs by dg132001 Posted Mon January 31, 2011 @ 1:02 AM First of all you were not on time because you failed to arrive in enough time to get through the security checkpoint. They have a schedule and you being unprepared really can't be a concern to them. Second if they felt threatened enough to call the police to handle you then you were obviously out of line. It really surprises me that people think they can scream and yell and argue and get what they want. Finally, I'm sure if you were calm and handled the situation reasonably then they would have been able to find you another flight (routing you through somewhere else or whatever). Next time be on time and prepared to go through a long security line. Reply Re: Avoid United Airlines at all costs by batmoody Posted Sun January 16, 2011 @ 11:07 AM If anything this makes me want to fly United, because they expect to depart on time and not make everyone wait for late passengers who couldn't get it together. Reply Re: Avoid United Airlines at all costs by fairywithfangs Posted Fri January 14, 2011 @ 3:11 PM Your first part of the complaint it with the TSA - they were the ones that would not allow you to cut in line. That was not United and not in any shape or form their fault. As far as everything else, I dont think it matters if you switch airlines or not - if you try the same thing with a different airline you will have the same results. They had standby passengers waiting, you were late to the gate, and it was time to take off. Very simple math here. Reply Don't fly United.... by Dmudger Mon January 24, 2011 @ 9:34 PM Re: Avoid United Airlines at all costs by DCGirl Posted Thu January 13, 2011 @ 4:29 PM United's website states the following for the Albany airport: 1. Customers should arrive 90 minutes before departure (you were there only 60 minutes, at best, before departure). 2. Peak times for the security lines include 5:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. (you arrived 30 during a peak time). 3. Waits during peak times for the security lines range from 20 to 45 minutes. 4. Passengers should be at the gate 30 minutes before departure. I'm not unsympathetic to the loss of your vacation plans, but I think that you need to accept responsibility for the role that your actions played in the events that transpired. A simple check of their website would have prevented the situation. Reply Re: Avoid United Airlines at all costs by petgiraffe Posted Thu January 13, 2011 @ 4:25 PM I normally fly out of a smaller airport too, where check-in doesn't usually take very long. However, even though lines at security are normally pretty short as well, I have seen them HUGE. I always arrive extra-early just in case. I am often left sitting at the gate waiting for over an hour before my flight boards, but that is better than missing the flight. Reply Not a big deal but another indication of the excellent customer service provided by United employees. by PepperElf Posted Thu January 13, 2011 @ 8:49 AM How is that an indication of airline service? The POLICE are not airline employees. They are officers of the law. But what really astonishes me is how many people expect airlines to run as smoothly as a summer day ... right after - and sometimes during - weather that's bad enough to force airports to close. I mean really... all those other canceled flights. They're all paying customers. Sometimes you have to understand there WILL be lines. In times of bad weather or heightened national security, you CANNOT show up just one hour before your flight and expect to breeze through. As for holding the flight... Hey, everyone else on that flight is a paying customer too. Why should they be forced to sit and wait an extra hour for people who chose to cut it close? Are they now somehow less important? Reply Re: Avoid United Airlines at all costs by olie Posted Wed January 12, 2011 @ 10:00 PM I can totally see the reaction of the passengers who were seated on the flight. "We stayed at the airport all night, and were in line the second a United rep arrived. But then some family who arrived a few minutes before flight time pushed us back AGAIN." My kids are older--what exactly IS the policy regarding car seats for children, on United? Reply Re: Avoid United Airlines at all costs by Harleycat Posted Wed January 12, 2011 @ 1:36 AM You were flying on a holiday weekend after a disaster of a storm and you only arrived one hour before your flight? This is on you. Most airport websites advise arriving earlier on peak travel days. Reply That was my reaction by Lisa H. Wed January 12, 2011 @ 8:50 AM I agree by ST Wed January 12, 2011 @ 1:01 PM My first reaction too, BUT by olie Wed January 12, 2011 @ 9:54 PM Albany Airport by kathleen m Wed January 12, 2011 @ 11:05 PM Your last paragraph is so true. by olie Thu January 13, 2011 @ 9:11 PM plus... by PepperElf Thu January 13, 2011 @ 8:53 AM