I’m not one to dwell on bad things. Actually, some would say that I can be annoyingly positive. And I feel bad writing this post, knowing full well that it’s going to bash United Airlines. But really, they’ve left me no choice! I don’t think companies should exist nowadays if they aren’t willing to make an effort to improve customer experience.
Flying should not be this stressful!
I booked a flight from SFO to EZE. I decided to use points. Nowadays, you just don’t know who is going to go bankrupt and how point redemption schemes will change. If you’ve got points to use, use them now. And points, might I add, are a reward for being a loyal customer. Agree?
I found one flight leaving March 30th with a return on June 8th. It was the only flight available (supposedly), both online and according to the ‘customer service representative’ that I was speaking with. Great, right?!
Not really.
The departure is a flight from hell. SFO -> DEN -> MCI -> IAD -> EZE. That’s San Francisco, Denver, Kansas, Washington and then Buenos Aires. Hello?! Do airlines not even check their machine queries to see if the options they spit out on the user-interface make any sense whatsoever?! Do they really think that I’d prefer to joy ride across America for 10 hours before my 11 hour transcontinental flight?
I wanted to kill someone!
But I didn’t. Instead, I called Customer Service (which should be nicknamed Place You Call To Make Your Blood Boil).
Me: Hi, this is my confirmation number. I was wondering if you could help make my flight a little less painful by checking to see if there is a reward seat that will take me from SFO to IAD direct on March 30th?
Place You Call to Make Your Blood Boil: Yes, there is a direct flight from SFO to IAD. That will be $150 change fee please.
Me: Really?! Why?!
Place You Call to Make Your Blood Boil: Oh, because it’s a routing change.
Me: Well, actually it is not. I want to get from SFO to EZE. I just wanted to avoid the connections in between and since you say there is a seat available from SFO to IAD direct, I’d like to take that please.
Place You Call to Make Your Blood Boil: Sorry ma’am. Your flight is already ticketed. Any changes will cost $150.
Me: Don’t you think I would have chosen the direct flight to IAD had I known it was available? Your system didn’t show it on-hand, the lady on the phone didn’t tell me it was available when I was booking it and now you are charging me $150 dollars for something that any normal company should have done in the first place: ensure that your customers are getting the best service from you possible? That makes no sense.
Place You Call to Make Your Blood Boil: I understand ma’am. But that will still be $150.
Me: I’d like to speak with your manager.
Place You Call to Make Your Blood Boil: This is our policy ma’am.
Me: I’d like to speak with your manager.
And now I need to stop writing because I’ll really want to kill someone. The manager was just as useless. Useless, useless, useless. And now, instead of feeling good about redeeming my ‘reward’ miles, I just have a bad taste in my mouth because obviously nobody at United gives a sh*t about customer satisfaction and customer comfort. Let’s query a United Airlines executive to see if he would be willing to put himself on these same flights that he offers to his customers.
They’re a real bunch of geniuses. Einsteins, really.
There’s a website called BrandKarma.com that lets the public talk about their experiences with brands. United, I’m sure I won’t be the first to write my gripping testimonial about you.
Never. Again.
