I am mad at United Airlines

by Brian Reich | 19 May 2008, 2:00am

I am mad at United Airlines.

I don’t usually write posts like this.   I don’t find it super productive to vent through my blog (and that’s not why I launched a blog in the first place).   And United Airlines, in this case, really doesn’t deserve the extra time and energy that I will spend to put some thoughts down.   But, in this case, I needed to say something.

I am mad at United Airlines.

First, their website is terrible.   I spent almost an hour last week trying to book a simple round-trip flight from Los Angeles to Monterey, CA (I am attending the Sustainable Brands Conference in early June).   The flights were very difficult to find, the formatting of the site was super confusing, and the supporting information — about buying policies and similar - is hard to find and not very helpful.
Second, when I finally found the flight(s) that I wanted, I moved quickly to confirm my registration.   I checked and double checked all the information that I had entered, the date and times of my travel, etc.   Even with that, somehow I managed to make a mistake and book one flight for the wrong date (NOTE: I take responsibility for making an error - its not fair to blame that on the website - but let’s just say I book a LOT of travel and I have never made a mistake on any of the other airline websites).
Third, realizing I had made a mistake, I logged into the ‘my itineraries’ area, following instructions that explained I could make changes to my flight online, only to learn - through an error message - that was not possible.   Thanks for wasting my 15 minutes on a wild goose chase, United.

Fourth, I called the customer service line to get assistance and found the automated system to be awful.   The thing that frustrated me most - the voice prompt system asked me to use ‘common names’ to identify the letters in my confirmation number (i.e. Bravo, Charlie, Tango).   When I used what I thought was common names (Brian, Steve — I didn’t have a name for Q), the system failed to recognize any of the letters correctly.   I argued with the system (if you can imagine me and an automated voice prompt arguing, its not pleasant) and after a few minutes was finally connected to a representative.   My conversation with the operator went very smoothly - he recognized I had made a mistake in booking online and said that because I had called within 24-hours of making the reservation online he could change the date without a charge and would send me a confirmation email.   Phew, problem solved.

Not so fast.

No confirmation email arrived.   I decided to call and follow up.   I didn’t make that call until this morning, four days after the original reservation was made (I was traveling this weekend and this was the first time I have had a chance to sit down and call United).   After some more time with the voice prompt system, I was connected to a representative.   I explained that I had called last week and made a chance to my reservation but never received a confirmation email.   The operator said they did not see any record of me calling, no change was made, and if I wanted to make an adjustment to my reservation I would have to pay a $150 service fee.   I protested.   I asked to speak to a supervisor.   After a few minutes of arguing, to no avail, I made the change and paid the fee.

What went wrong?   What didn’t.
- United Airlines has a confusing online system, which played a big role in my problem booking the correct flight.

- United Airlines has a bad phone system, which added to my frustration.

- United Airlines committed to making a change to my reservation when I called and did not.

- United Airlines was unwilling to acknowledge that they might have made a mistake (which they did).

- Not only did the representative I spoke to this morning not have a terrific command of the English language, our conversation consisted mostly of him reading from what I assume are disclaimers and best practices detailed in his training manual (”Let me inform you, if you choose to make a change…” and “I would like to confirm with you again that you are asking…”).   Very polite, but not really human.
- United Airlines has a policy of charging $150 to make a change to a ticket, no matter the circumstance.   Seriously.
The supervisor did offer me a $75 travel voucher, which I accepted, because I was so angry that I didn’t even know what to do.   Best of all, even though I booked my ticket via online and handled the changes via the phone, they will snail mail me the voucher.   I suppose that is the best they can do.   But, really, why would anyone think that someone who is frustrated about their travel with your airline would want a coupon to travel more — and for an amount that won’t even cover the change fee.     What can I buy for $75 - a snack pack!?
I know that I must take some responsibility for this screw up.   I made a mistake booking the flight.   I should have waited on the phone until my confirmation email arrived the first time I called, or gotten the name/ID number of the person I spoke with, and did not.   I should have called immediately, not four days later, when I realized that my confirmation email had not arrived.

What really frustrates and saddens me - more than the time I wasted on this process, more than the $150 change fee, more than the fact that United could care less, it seems, about my frustration or their role in this mess… what really frustrates me is that United Airlines has changed.   What saddens me is that United is no longer a good airline to fly.   I used to fly United Airlines everywhere.   All through my childhood, up through college really, United was my airline of choice.   I earned hundreds of thousands of frequent flier miles (most of which I never redeemed because when I didn’t use them before United changed their system many years ago and the miles were lost).   I had a membership to the United Club.   I went out of my way to use United Airlines, traveling through Denver or Chicago to get just about anywhere.

And now… I won’t fly United unless I absolutely have to (which was the case for this flight, trust me, I tried every other option I could imagine).   And after this little episode, well, now I feel even more strongly about it.

I am mad at United Airlines.

I am so mad I felt it was necessary to post on my blog about it.   So mad that I will tell this story in all my speaking events over the next few months where the topic of customer service comes up.   So mad that I will now choose to pay more and fly at less convenient times when traveling to places where United is the dominant airline option because I don’t want to deal with them anymore.

A voucher is not going to make me less mad.   An apology won’t solve the problem (but it would be a nice start).   No, I expect United Airlines to change.   I expect them to improve their website, train their phone people better, and come up with more flexible policies that respect the customer and the amount of money we are paying to fly their airline.   I expect them to try a little harder, care a little more, and do a little better.   And until they do, and until I hear, read, or see for myself that things are significantly different, I will stay mad at United Airlines.
By the way — if the United Airlines people are smart, and listening, and someone comes across my post, I hope they will contact me.   If they do, I will happily explain, as a customer and as a consultant, what they did wrong and how they can learn from the experience.   Also, I promise to use a calm, tolerant, instructive voice.   No yelling.   No swearing.   Just help.   That is my offer to United Airlines, on behalf of customers everywhere.

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