Businesses should not be measured by how they operate when things go right but rather how they react when things go wrong. United Airlines absolutely fell apart on a recent trip that experienced irregular operations before a dedicated employee saved the day. Within this experience were nestled some basic things United could do during IRROPS to improve customer relations and make their own process simpler.
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Flight 314 Was Delayed
United 314 from LAX to Denver was delayed initially from a late arriving aircraft. It was only 23 minutes behind and looked to only arrive 10 minutes later than initially scheduled. No big deal for me, my connection was an hour and 11 minutes. The plane, a 777-200 high-density configuration jet (28 business class seats in 2-4-2 layout is insanity). Once the aircraft was cleaned and the new crew prepared for departure (boarding lines were started) an announcement came that the aircraft had been damaged and would be out of service. A replacement was coming from the hanger.
Customer Service Failed
Passengers with connecting flights in Denver were advised to head to a customer service station (located at the end of the Terminal 7 hallway) and work with the team there. The oversold 777 had apparently many connecting passengers. While the line was over 100 people long, I was just third in line at the Premier customer service line. All the same, after waiting over half an hour for a single affected passenger in front of me (he was requesting replacement flights on American that would get him in that night) I decided to take my chances back at the gate on the phone.
I called the 1K line and was quickly connected with an agent. I was told that I had two options, the 6 PM flight to SFO and a connection to a midnight redeye to PIT arriving before 8 AM in the morning; plenty of time to make a separate itinerary to Fort Myers from Pittsburgh at 1:30 PM. The second option was to fly to Denver as planned and layover hoping that my arriving flight would utilize a heavy tailwind and my departing flight would be delayed. These were the only options I was presented.
Not a single option was offered (despite my request to explore the choices) to or from Newark, Houston, Cleveland, Washington Dulles, or Chicago. The 1K agent was prepared to offer me a redeye transcon in coach or completely fail to deliver me to my destination within 16 hours of my originally scheduled arrival and just overnight me in Denver getting me into Pittsburgh the next day 80 minutes after my other itinerary was scheduled to depart – those were the only two options. And while I booked coach on an afternoon flight, that is simply not the same as a five-hour redeye in coach which I would never have booked.
What’s most frustrating to me is that the agent was quite content to give me those two options or leave me to the wolves, all while being quite polite on the phone. She offered to fly me (no time benefit, however) to any city within 500 miles of my destination city alternatively. But with real deadlines, flying into an alternate city and renting a car at my own cost only to then drive 2.5 hours (closest option) wouldn’t have been a benefit at all. If I was going to overnight somewhere regardless, and the 1K agent knew that Denver’s earliest alternative flight of the day wouldn’t have worked why on earth weren’t any of the myriad other options approached?
Decided to Let it Ride/No Support
Ultimately, I decided to let it ride and fly to Denver landing a full three hours late (LAX is a two-hour flight) – arriving well after the Pittsburgh flight had crossed into Illinois. I have had two mechanical delays in my last four flights with United, each lasting at least two hours, so I figured I might as well roll the dice as my chances were literally 50/50. I also figured that once I landed I could find some support like I had become accustomed to as an Executive Platinum with American Airlines. I was also banking on it forcing United’s hand a little and making something happen once we were no longer speculating but dealing with real problems.
Once the wheels touched down at Denver International I had an email waiting with details of my changed flight to the next day as anticipated. The system must have done this automatically when I didn’t make my connection and the DEN-PIT flight had departed. But what wasn’t there were any further details. Where was my hotel? Did they provide meal vouchers? Was there any compensation for a delay that would cost me almost an entire day? There was nothing in the app or in the email.
We were told a gate agent would be there to assist when we got off the plane. That was an outright lie. There was an agent telling passengers about gate assignments for connections and that was it. I asked her if she or her colleague (at the computer) would be able to assist me with my issue, she said no and pointed me toward a customer service station. There was no one there when I arrived. I went in the opposite direction to find another customer service station with 50+ people in line and no visible priority lane.
Used Get Out of Jail Free Card
I received a handful of United club lounge passes from both the United credit card and Hyatt’s Globalist packet. I have been saving them for use in a special situation, this was just such the occasion. At the United Club West (Terminal B) I entered the doors with coupon in hand. I approached the checkin desk, manned by a pair of older gentlemen. I chose the right side and held out my entry coupon for collection. I waited there with my outstretched hand while he refused to collect it or even acknowledge my presence. I huffed aloud, “Fine” and went to the other side. He looked at me as though I had cursed him out in church.
At the top of the escalator, I was furious and short-fused. I had been delayed substantially (most of which was the delay in catering the aircraft – I guess this is a problem system-wide). I was given nearly no alternative options, rebooked on a flight that wouldn’t work for my plans without my consent and told there would be support when we landed. When there wasn’t any such support I was pointed to a customer service booth with no customer service reps, found another customer service station with an hour long line and no priority lane. When heading to the lounge, I was promptly ignored at the club checkin like I wasn’t even there. By the time I reached the counter, the slightest thing could have set me off.
Then, like an angel sent from United’s secret customer-friendly headquarters, Tracey in the club absolutely saved the day. I explained my situation, how I felt left out in the cold by United at every turn and she solved all of my problems. She found me a route that made sense, gave me food vouchers; she even instructed me on how to get reimbursed for the hotel of my choice as opposed to wherever their system would have booked me. She saved the day when the rest of United’s staff and system fell down time and time again.
Easy Solutions to IRROPs
One area that American beats United is in IRROPS for elite travelers. Mechanical delays, weather delays, crew delays all happen regardless of the carrier. I don’t expect an airline to always get it right, that’s unfair to them and sets me up for failure. However, when something did go wrong, an American representative in a hub city would greet the aircraft with a list of connecting flight gates for those who could still make their connection, and replacement tickets for those who could not. For elite travelers, they might be greeted with a ticket for tomorrow, some food vouchers for that evening and hotel arrangements made.
United had none of that. There were plenty of experienced flyers on the plane that knew what to do in such a situation, but there were plenty that flew just once a year and they were kind of aimlessly wandering once leaving the arriving gate area.
The simple solution is to have an empowered agent with clear plans for arriving passengers at the gate.
- Calls to connecting flight gates should be made when the aircraft lands and transport for those with tightest connections (identified before the agent gets to the gate).
- Replacement tickets printed for all pax who have missed their flight, waiting with the agent.
- In the case where rebooking may take some further consideration (no more flights to JFK for the night but options to LGA or Newark), have those items prepared and pull those pax to the side.
- If United is going to rebook passengers on a flight the next day and pick up their hotel anyway, why not have that planned and waiting for passengers when they land? It’s their obligation as it was a mechanical delay, so why make me stand in line and delay other passengers who stand behind me waiting for service?
- If alternative flights can be booked while a pax is inflight and changes sent by email, why not send the rest of it by email too? Why do I have to wait in line or bother a gate agent? Had my hotel been booked when I landed, I would have immediately left the airport and headed to the hotel to settle in for the night.
- Just have a plan and execute it, because like a kid putting off their homework, they are going to do it at some point anyway but delaying just makes it worse – get it out of the way and be a pro.
Have you had a good experience with Irregular Operations (IRROPS) on United or another carrier? How about your horror story, mine should be easy to top. What other options could be added to the easy fix list for IRROPS?
While United is the worst of the legacy carriers, American is not far behind. I’ve never seen where they have done what you stated. If I’m lucky I will get an alert that I have been rebooked but they have never proactively printed boarding passes let alone vouchers.
If I don’t like what they automatically booked me on it’s wait in a huge line or on the phone. Quite often even at major hubs they will have understaffed service desks. There’s a reason why after losing Admiral’s club access from my Citi Prestigr I try to not fly them.
Perhaps my experiences with American during IRROPS were lucky, but both Airlines could take some of these proactive steps to enhance the guest experience and minimize their own customer service load especially when a 777 full of connecting passengers lands three hours late.
Out of curiosity, is the OMA in your handle representative of Omaha?
I totally agree that both airlines could use your suggestions to do better and should. Given that IRROPs performance or lack of is one of the big things on the radar of frequent travelers, it makes more sense to focus on that then racing to the bottom on price if they really want a competitive edge.
You are also correct, OMA is my home airport which means for my work travels that most flights are close enough in price that I have a choice in carriers and how they handle IRROPs factors big into my decisions.
I grew up in Omaha but never really traveled heavy from there, I can imagine you do have your choices given that no airline really has a substantial presence in the city over another.
These are signs telling you to abandon your beloved. UA is no longe UA of yore. They are already at the dumps with the Dog and Dao issues
Quick clarification, this is actually my first year with United, it is Matthew’s beloved. I am a lifelong American flyer that left my “beloved” after years of management making the loyalty program nearly useless. I thought they were turning it around because of lightning rod issues like Dr. Dao – I may have been mistaken.
Right Kyle, got you wrong there. It escaped my fingers too soon, that was meant for Matthew. I would have stuck with AA given the choice
JW – I am starting to fear I may have made a poor choice in switching.
@JW: At least for now, I’m still sticking to UA.
Sad, having worked for UAL for many years, we were trained long ago how to handle ALL passengers in this situation. I put the non-caring blame on a three things…..
1. There simply is no training for new hires how to think out of the box, coupled with a younger generation who also did not get this training at home, school or anywhere to think out of the box.
2. Nobody (with the rare exception of 1 or 2 people) cares. Period. Customer “service” ??…..Lazy agents who take the path of least resistance. This will never change. With the passing of time agents just get jaded, hardened, annoyed. Why, they get paid pretty good money ????
3. Sorry, as much as some disagree, the merger with Continental became an instant Can’tinental. Their modus operandi was “we can’t, we don’t, can’t do that, don’t have it”, etc, etc, etc. Never saw one agent in the beginning able to think out of the box or see what they COULD do…..it was constantly what they couldn’t do – plus their computer system was totally backwards, inferior, incapable of flexibility.
JoEllen, thanks for writing in, I had no idea you were former UAL. I agree wholeheartedly with your first point and lament that I am left to figure alternate routes out for them myself. I have to correct the second point though that Tracey in the lounge absolutely went above and beyond and helped me find a way to where I was going that made sense – she cared, no doubt about it. On your third point, I didn’t really fly with them before the merger so I only know them as they are now but it sounds a lot like little, local US Airways taking over a global American Airlines. The thought processes just don’t work for a major carrier.
Kyle,
I agree that Tracey gave you good and correct customer service – was she a senior agent (probably) ?….but, again, she was only the 1 or 2 person EXCEPTION among hundreds of people who should be trained at Clubs, ticket counters and especially reservationists to look at more than 1-2 options. I used to love looking for all kinds of ways to get people where they were going by first looking at what was available from the connection point and then seeing how I could get them to that connection or other hubs, etc (it really was not too hard to do). This is what was called “doing it manually”.
Today’s problem is that agents are dumping all options on what the computer gives them. If the “robot” doesn’t give it to them then it must not exist. Passengers should not have to pull and drag themselves all over the place to “find” someone to help them or, in your case, stumble upon them or hang up and call again (and again) to reach someone with common sense. Infuriating. Thankfully, as a non-rev, I’m capable of thinking out of the box when things go south – plan A, plan B, plan C etc., I usually leave no stone unturned. I NEVER use another agent to “help” me.
I also documented PNRs and told the passenger what information I was putting in and that they should tell the next agent to look at it (ie., authorization to issue hotel and food vouchers, etc).
Just one more point though, when the merger took place (especially under the Smisek regime), the “can’t/ don’t” mindset was foisted/forced on legacy UAL employees…..a very negative culture from Continental. United was not perfect but at least we had a computer that worked and was able to do all things at once, especially during irrops; we also had flexibility to make decisions without shaking in our boots. As well, the CO management was so rigid “CAN’T do that”, ….their computer system literally inhibited/stopped us from any flexibility and rebooking (even on our own airline !), let alone actually reissuing a ticket – I still have nightmares. People have no idea how we went from driving a Mercedes to being handed the keys to a Ford Pinto !! Horrible (still shuddering).
Your pleasant experience at United Club West in Denver was just the opposite of the infuriating experience I had another time at United Club East. My United flight was late arriving into Denver, and I missed my connection. I went to the United Club, of which I am a member, and the agent promptly gave me a coach ticket on the next flight; however, I pointed out that my ticket was a paid first class ticket. She said, “Yes, but it isn’t a real first class ticket.” I was dumbfounded, having bought it on United.com with no notice that it was some sort of second rate ticket. After some discussion, it was obvious that she didn’t think it was “real” because it wasn’t a full fare “F” class ticket but was instead a discounted first class “P” class ticket. I complained to a supervisor, who immediately gave me a first class seat on the next flight. I have been livid at United ever since because it is obvious that some agents have no desire to make the customer happy no matter what the situation, be they an elite member or not. Flying is distressing enough in today’s world with normal situations, but it goes beyond absurd when you have United agents who simply don’t care about their customers. Anyone who isn’t paranoid about United hasn’t much experience with the company.
Interestingly, I had cleared a comp upgrade for my next flight to Pittsburgh, and secured a seat in the replacement flight in the front of the plane though I bought a coach ticket. I am sure that is a little bit of salt in the wound, but I say it more to highlight that perhaps you got a particularly bad agent, as your agent’s colleague corrected your first agent’s error.
While I agree with the premise, this post is WAY too long. Could have presented same story in about half the words.
Tighten your seat belts, I fear with Scott Kirby at the helm things will repeat very close or identical to the Smisek mindset.
And I fear Oscar won’t be able to withstand the tide of bad press making Kirby the next man in.
Yeah this post is too long. I’m almost 2 Million on UA and they do greet arriving planes with new BPs for 1K/GS passengers at some stations. For me the 1K line where I can get an agent in 10 seconds even when the airline is going through a major national weather meltdown is key. Most of the agents are good and can get me rerouted and pull strings at times. UA also has a huge network of international flights, hubs and star partners to be rerouted on.
My recent cancellation at an outstation on AA was nowhere near as good. As an EXPlat I assumed I could skip the massive line to rebook and call in. But the hotline on AA is mostly bs and I given a 25 min wait time on the phone. Unheard of as a 1K in the United world. In the end, tiny Oneworld had few options for me and I had to be rebooked in 24 hours with shitty seats. This will be my first and last year trying out AA. Their ground services, getting airplanes to gate quickly, and express island terminal in LAX is also a complete and total disaster. Transiting LAX on United is a breeze.
What helps any IRROPS situation, elite or not, is to research alternatives yourself and present to the agent and directly ask for what you want. This has worked in IRROPS situations with both UA and AA, and I almost always get what I ask for.
Of course it would be nice if the agents would consistently do this for you, but unfortunately it can’t be relied on.
I usually do my homework without relying on them but in this instance, I guess I also wanted to see how their service compared to my experiences elsewhere during IRROPS (at American yes, but also compared with Southwest, British Airways, Cathay Pacific). I was kind of allowing them the room to impress or disappoint. I was mostly disappointed though Tracey shows there are still some good eggs.
I agree 100% with JoEllen. I really miss the professionalism and outstanding service that the good ol’ UA offered. I was Global Services back then, and even GS was over the top amazing back then! (GS today is simply nothing to rave about).
Kyle: just be glad you weren’t flying between 2014 and 2015 when UA delays went through the roof and that you didn’t have to deal with the “I hate customers” mantra that CO forced onto UA. During that period (flying each week) I was forced to figure my own routings out and feed the routings to the phone agent – and many times fighting to get a simple and straightforward routings. It was too much for me. I have since moved on to greener pastures and clearer blue skies – and that no longer involve UA.
Out of curiosity Rob, where are these greener pastures you speak of?
Kyle: I now fly Delta mostly. I do live in a UA hub, but I find flying UA to be too stressful.
Here is how I compare DL and UA: When I fly DL, the entire trip from beginning to end is stress-free. I know that if anything goes wrong, I will be taken care of. (This used to be the good ol’ UA way).
When I fly UA, I am stressed because I know that something is going to go wrong on the way. I try to prepare for it, and also try to figure out a solution to whatever goes wrong. I HATE this extra stress when I have to fly UA.
Also, DL has cleaner aircraft, happy employees, great in-seat entertainment, good food, amazing SkyClubs, and yes, fantastic irrops procedures.
I only fly UA now when I have no other option/choice, or if it is $ lower.
I kind of wrote DL off after I couldn’t trust them with my miles or the program. It’s kind of surprising that they have your back so often in your experience while my interaction was mostly removing the knife from mine. All joking aside, I have heard they are great operationally but I see just as many delays from PIT on DL as I do anyone else on the board. As I mentioned before, all airlines have delays and issues, it’s what they do during those issues that makes the airline. From your account, it seems that DL rises to the challenge so maybe I will give them a closer look.
Yes, I have been a UA fan for many many years. Then after the merger, I just stuck with UA “just because”. I just became accustomed to the abusive relationship that I was in with UA. There are MANY flyers who are stuck and are too afraid to escape. In my case my client cut all ties with UA, and we were forced to fly DL or AA. I was so upset at first. Then, I saw how DL really did a great overall job, and I was reminded of the good o’ pre-merger UA days when UA really cared about you and took care of you.
I only have a few stories of how DL took care of me – even when I was lowly silver and just starting to fly them. But with DL’s superior operational performance, there just isn’t much irrops.
Yes, many complain about SkyPesos. But, I make SkyPesos work for me. Many times I get a DL ticket for less miles than a comparable UA ticket.
And speaking of upgrades, I get them on DL – A LOT!! I don’t get upgrades on UA hardly ever – and I am 1K on UA.
So my advice to many: GET OUT of the abusive relationship with UA. You can. And, you have some great options out there.
But back to the topic on hand:
(1) When I fly UA now, I have screen shots of all possible flight alternatives. A few times I have had to pull this out and say “Get me on this LH/LX/CX/KL/JL/QF/etc. flight NOW.” I then have to beg and plead to get on one of the alternatives. IME, UA doesn’t like to put you on other carriers – Star Alliance or otherwise.
(2) I like what KLM did for me recently. They directed all arriving pax on the late KL flight @ AMS to one of the many KLM kiosks. After entering your details, the kiosk spat out a new boarding pass for the next available flight. Everyone seemed to have been rebooked onto acceptable flights. I like when an airline is proactive about things.
(3) A bad UA memory: Just after the merger on March 3, 2012, the crappy SHARES rez system could only re-book you on the ‘same fare class’ as your original ticket. So if you had a W fare, UA could only rebook you onto another W fare. If this W fare was 3 days away, then that is what UA rebooked you on. Stupid, just stupid. I yelled and screamed a lot, but UA didn’t seem to care.
I tend to always go to the club to get an agent, and if there is a line, I will call 1K while waiting. But I also would have been looking for my own alternative, so I could proactively tell them what I wanted. They generally do it.
I just have so few free lounge passes and no more room in my wallet for another premium card so I have just a couple of options to use this trick before it starts costing me real money, but generally, we are on the same page. I kind of wanted to see what they would come up without me handing them the answer, what I found was disappointment.
This is the complete opposite of my IRROPS experiences with Delta as a Diamond. Their agents have always been proactive in helping me get out of a jam.
One time I was trying to get out of Houston to go back to NYC during a massive snowstorm in NYC, which caused many of their planes not to make it to Houston. The agent managed to grab me a seat on a flight to Atlanta (out of Houston Hobby, and I wasn’t even aware of the fact that Delta flew to Hobby) leaving in an hour and a half and told me she would continue to work on getting me a seat to NYC as availability to NYC was changing by the second as other passengers scrambled for the few remaining seats left and every time she went to book a seat it was gone. By the time I got through security at Hobby, I was presented with a first class boarding pass for a flight from ATL to JFK, and I had been originally booked in coach. Talk about going above and beyond.
Chasgoose, it appears you are not alone. Rob too, has found solace in Delta’s IRROPS response. Is there anything United could add that Delta does and is not included in my list? Please share.
Honestly the biggest thing is that the Delta people are willing to look into all alternatives to make it happen for you. Like I usually come prepared with alternatives when I am in that situation, but in the circumstance I described above, everything was going as fast as I could get it out. Ultimately it was the Delta Diamond agent who realized I could fly out of Hobby to Atlanta (where there are like 20-30 flights on Delta to the main 3 NYC airports), and she would just grab whatever seat she could on a flight from there to NYC.
But even outside that, I have had Delta agents come prepared for all the alternatives I had already laid out for myself before calling. There are plenty of issues with Delta, most importantly, how worthless thelr miles are, but you do get treated right as a Diamond to the extent they can help you.
“We’ll pay you back for your hotel”
I’ve heard that one before…
Good luck getting your hotel reimbursed!
Sadly, this is so typical on UA. Not my experience on Delta, but the FFP program and route network still make UA a more compelling choice for me.
Was your DEN-PIT upgraded? CPU?
When I want something, I tell the agent what s/he needs to book me on.
As in, “I want to go through Newark, the flight is J1, and you need to force clear my upgrade even though there is no R space due to Irr/Ops.”
DEN-PIT was upgraded (the flight I missed) via CPU, so I did what most of the commenters have said essentially and asked to be booked through to Florida in first using some Jedi mind tricks. Tracey was the epitome of what I expected to find at United according to your resounding tales of United perfection. She did restore my faith in United, but the rest is so easily fixed – just do it, United.
Just curious, any reason you didn’t HUCA after the first 1K agent wasn’t helpful, especially if there was no wait?
Also, trust me, for non Exec Plats, AA is just as bad during IRROPS. One time my wife got stranded at ORD due to weather. We were both Golds. After a 90 minute hold for an agent (at 11 PM, mind you), I got pretty much the same “the only option is a 9 PM flight tomorrow” line. I persisted and she eventually got her rebooked on a flight to IAH at 2 PM instead. That flight made it, albeit 90 minutes late – but they sent her bag to DFW. Honestly, Southwest is the only airline which has been reasonably proactive during IRROPS in my experience. I’ve had a few major delays over the years, and all I’ve had to do is walk up to the desk handing an earlier flight, and they’ve accommodated me, no questions asked.
Frankly sir, it was the middle of a workday and a rolling delay (every 20 minutes the plane is supposed to be ready to push back, then gets delayed another 20 minutes). I also wanted to see what would happen without my intervention. The answer was that I would have been in big trouble if I didn’t figure out the answers for them and push for better results. I won’t make that mistake in the future, though as I have stated before, these are easy problems to solve with effort, it would be nice if United would put some in.
I have experienced a lot of delayed flights in the past on UA (not so many these past 6 month) and I agree the best approach is the 1k line or club agent. That said I have had some amazing experiences with cancellations in which I was automatically offered seats on other airlines and other instances where all I got was, what is your problem? Those interactions were when I was flying on a hefty business ticket. The old United (before Continental merger) was definitively better.
Hehehe- dead giveaway that someone doesn’t work in the airline industry when they spell IROP with two Rs and use it the plural excessively. It’s just “IROP”, and if you’re going to use it in the plural it’s just “IROPs”- but it sounds awkward in the plural and only fits in certain contexts. “Delays and cancellations” works just as well, and you wouldn’t have to explain yourself.
Here are some more airline terms for no particular reason:
Flagstop = diversion planned prior to departure
Round-robin = a thru-flight that terminates at origin (AA9999 originates at DFW with destination MCI and returns to DFW with same flight number)
Hehehe, correct I am not in the airline business. Thank you for those helpful and applicable terms.
Nothing is going to change. You need to empower yourself during delays and cancellations. Subscribe to the “SkyGuide” and familiarize yourself with flight schedules. Don’t leave your rebooked flights up to the airline. Carry the SkyGuide with you and request specific flights during rebooking. Never wait in line. Call the carrier or go online, go to the club. Go to a hotel right away and sort it out in comfort while eating.
Get a credit card that has good trip-delay insurance. Send copies of your delay expense receipts (hotels/food) first to XYZ Airline’s Customer Care team (EVEN IF THE DELAY WAS DUE TO WEATHER!!! YES, CUSTOMER CARE WILL SOMETIMES REIMBURSE YOU FOR WEATHER DELAY EXPENSES IF YOU HAVE STATUS, BUT YOU HAVE TO WRITE IN AND ATTACH SCANNED COPIES OF YOUR RECEIPTS). If they fail to reimburse you, submit claims to your credit card’s insurance administrator.
Book flights with a different airline and request a “trip-in-vain” refund for the unused airfare associated with your delayed flight. When writing in to request a trip-in-vain refund with XYZ Airline’s Customer Care team, the narrarative goes something like this: “I booked travel to such city for an event at such time, but due to your delay I was unable to make it on time prior to the end of the event so it was pointless for me to travel, therefore I would like a refund of associated airfare.”
If your delay is at destination, then you wont qualify for a refund. If the destination happens to be your hometown that appears on your frequent flyer profile, then you probably won’t get a refund, unless the coordinator is lazy.
While airlines, in general, are not contractually obligated to provide trip-in-vain refunds, many of them do if you write in and your narrative fits the bill. It also depends on your status with the airline. If you have status, at minimum you should be able to use the unused coupons of your ticket towards a future flight without penalty. So bank the money and get out of Dodge on a different airline.
Without status, your written communication will likely be outsourced to India, and you’ll likely receive a “turn and burn” boiler plate response from someone who has a reply quota to meet.
Do something, anything, but don’t leave it up to others.
I guess I thought I would just let the airline representatives do their job without me doing it for them. I have an annual membership to Expert Flyer and easily found alternatives myself, however, I have colleagues without these tools that would not be able to re-route themselves as I would and I wanted to find out what would happen to them in a similar situation.
A lot of comments on this post – not just yours – suggest that I should have taken matters into my own hands and done their job for them. Your comment suggested I should even buy another ticket on a competing airline and file for a refund (trip-in-vain) because they are unable to do their job. Where else do we find examples of this? I don’t take my car into a body shop and hire a backup mechanic or show him how to fix the head gasket – why do I need to show the airline reps how to do their job? If I were in the airline business and was advising customers to do it themselves because my peers were so incompetent, I would be professionally embarrassed to be associated with the industry.
Not an IRROP, but…
For what it’s worth, last Tuesday I was flying MRS – LHR – YYZ on the same itinerary, first leg on BA, second leg on Air Canada. I have no status with 1W, but I am *A silver, and when I was boarding the LHR-YYZ, I was told “just a moment sir, we have a new ticket for you”, still in coach, but much further up the plane and in aisle, instead of a middle (aisle being my preferred seat on a long haul).
Honestly, that, with no prompting for me, was impressive.
Stany – That is some awesome customer service! And how hard is that? It seems pretty simple to me. Thanks for sharing.
It’s not that any of us are very intelligent, it’s just that so many of us are so dumb. Like every industry, airlines are full of dumb people. Many couldn’t graduated high school. Many don’t even know where Pittsburgh is. Many don’t know what direction is east. While they work for an airline, most rarely fly. Education and training can’t fix dumb, so it’s a total waste. The airlines figured this out a long time ago and stopped wasting money on training. These people don’t comprehend flight schedules at an intrinsic level. They’re too dumb to realize that the ideal way to rebook an itinerary is doing it backwards by considering first the latest departing flights from all cities that serve the destination and seeing if any are still available for the day, then trying to find a flight that can connect you to that one. Part of the problem is that dumb people have poor memories, so memorizing scheduled city-pairs is an issue. The average UA employee probably can’t even recall all of UA’s hubs. So it’s difficult to expect them to know which airports serve RSW. My philosophy is we’re surrounded by dumb people everywhere, and we can’t exile them to Alaska. But if we wait for them to do their jobs, they’ll end up killing us.