Unfriendly Skies
During an on-going nightmare between Sunday, June 17th and Tuesday, June 19th my husband and I were unable to complete a journey between Pittsburgh and Sao Paulo on United Airlines. For three days we were within the impenetrable thrall of United Airlines ‘don’t ask, won’t tell’ Customer Service Maze.
This all started when United Airline’s flight #UA7469 bound from Pittsburgh to Dulles failed to take off. This non-performance by United made our connections out of Dulles to Sao Paulo impossible that night. As we attempted to re-book and to make sense out of the situation we were unable to speak with any United Airlines supervisor while at the United Airlines Counter in the Greater Pittsburgh International Airport.inexplicably, in the midst of a cancelled flight, the supervisor had ‘gone home’. We were also unable to get a reason for the flight’s not taking off, although we overheard one employee say to the other ‘this is the second night that the pilot has not shown up’ � whatever that might mean. The incontrovertible fact, however, was that the plane did not take off. There was no problem with the weather and we were given meal and hotel vouchers and told that we could not be scheduled by United Airlines to leave Pittsburgh for connections to Brazil before Tuesday night.
Since the purpose of our trip was to participate in the World MasterAthlete Judo Association’s WMJC in Brazil that was to commence on Monday, June 18th we were keen to find a way to a hub and get to Sao Paulo. My husband is WMJA’s Secretary General and was indispensable to the running of the many Executive and Board meetings that were to take place. Also, he was to be honored for his fifty fifth year in Judo and was, himself, to honor WMJA’s President by dedicating the 12th in his series of oil portraits of Judo Greats. And most importantly of all, he was to defend his World-Championship in Judo.
Knowing how vital it was that we continue on our trip promptly, our travel agent was able to find us a Monday evening flight with United, leaving from Akron, Ohio at 5:00 PM with a connection to Chicago’s O’Hare AP where we were to board a Sao Paulo flight at 9:30 PM. We rented a car and drove to Akron, checked in and awaited our flight. At around 4PM we heard that the flight would be delayed, at 5PM we learned that, if it flew at all, it would be delayed approximately five hours which would again cause us to lose our Sao Paulo Connection.
Our travel agent then suggested that we immediately change our tickets to a Pittsburgh departure the next day (Tuesday) with a connecting flight to Sao Paulo via Dulles. This required re-renting the car and returning to Pittsburgh where no hotel rooms were available near the airport. United declined to give us a hotel voucher or to pay the car rental fees as they declared that ‘and Act of God’ caused the weather-related delay of the Akron flight.
When we attempted to appeal to the United ticket agent’s logic and showed that we were in Akron because of the non-performance of United on Sunday night; and that we were victims of a non-flight that was decidedly NOT an “Act of God’ we were advised by United Airlines security that if we continued to argue there would be ‘consequences’. When we asked for the intervention of a United Airlines Supervisor, we were told that no supervisor was on duty.
The next morning I phoned United Airline’s reservations desk and was told that there was already a 3-5 hour flight delay on our flight from Pittsburgh that evening and was told that in all probability we would not make our connections to Sao Paulo for the third day in a row.
I then phoned United Airlines Customer Service and after being routed and re-routed electronically finally spoke with a gentleman in India who was unable to give me any substantive advice or refer me to any person with authority within the United Airlines hierarchy thus wasting my time as well as his. The United Customer Relations phone line prohibits any conversation with any person within the confines of the United States; one is buffeted and circumrotated into various blind alleys with recorded messages.
We were, at that point, forced to abandon our travels as we were both suffering from near exhaustion. Our physician was consulted and he forbade further abuse at the hands of United Airlines.
At this point we have returned home and have found to our amazement that not unlike the cheated spouse in some country-western song we were among ‘the last to know’ that United is notorious for non-existent Customer Service, unprecedented agent rudeness and highly unreliable flight schedules. After speaking with over twenty people we find that when we begin our tale of woe, the listener almost always says, “You were flying United, right? ’
We also visited the web and were amazed to find that so great is the travail experienced daily by United victims that there is an on-going, day by day, listing of letters sent by those ‘who are mad�, and will not take it any more -http://www.untied.com/cgi-bin/scan. Pl.
When inquiring into the name, appropriate title and address of United Airline’s Customer Service czar we found that this information is difficult, indeed, to procure. After three hours of intensive research we were finally able to find that United Airline’s Customer Relations Chief is: Mrs. Pamela Coslet; United Airlines General Manager - Customer Relations; PO Box 66100; Chicago, IL 60666.
We feel that when a prominent airline’s Chief Customer Relations Officer’s name and title are deliberately withheld from the public that this is a sure indication of a complaint level that prohibits conventional methods of dialogue and solution.
Our only solution � not to ever fly United Airlines again.
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