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Complaint Letter to UAL CEO
October 9, 2006
Mr. Glenn F. Tilton Chairman, President and CEO UAL Corporation Post Office Box 66100 Chicago, Illinois 60666 Dear Mr. Tilton: I am writing to inform you of the treatment my family received from United Airlines that I sincerely believe can be accurately described as appalling. Several of my family members recently flew to Jackson, Wyoming for my daughter's wedding. On the return trip, a part of my family group had an early morning United flight out of Jackson on October 2, 2006. After waiting 2 ½ hours beyond the scheduled departure time, the group was told that the flight was cancelled due to mechanical problems and instructed to reclaim their luggage and to get in line for reprocessing. Mechanical problems are understandable, but what happened next is atrocious and inexcusable. After the cancellation announcement, my family members had to stand in line for an additional 3 hours and fifty minutes for reprocessing (no exaggeration - 3 hours and fifty minutes!) with no information at all from United being disseminated among the waiting crowd. When my family members (which included my 72 year old uncle undergoing treatment for cancer), finally reached the ticket counter, what they were confronted with were rude, gum chewing, snarling employees who were the most uncivil group of "customer service" people I have ever witnessed. I would not have believed it if I had not seen it personally. The United employees never uttered a civil word to the group, much less any apology for the inconvenience. To put it mildly - very mildly - they were disrespectful and belligerent. And I might add that it was not just my family who received this kind of treatment. All the people who had waited in line those long hours were all just as shocked as we were over the horrible, ill-mannered manipulation. But the unfortunate experience does not end there. Another group of our family members, including myself, had an afternoon United flight that same day out of Jackson. For some reason that was never explained, this flight was late leaving Jackson. Nine persons on this flight had a tight connection in Denver to a New Orleans flight. Upon arrival in Denver the nine of us for the connecting flight to New Orleans literally sprinted down the concourse to the departing gate for the New Orleans flight. Although we were only three minutes beyond the published departure time getting to the New Orleans gate with the airplane still parked at the gate, the United employees refused to let us board the flight. Again, our treatment was uncivil. No explanation was given for the refusal to let us board and, as in Jackson, the attitude of the United employees was surly and curt. We were ****bluntly informed that we would need to contact "customer service" - a misnomer with United Airlines if there ever was one! At "customer service," we were met by more of the same negative attitudes and were brusquely given vouchers for a hotel (my room had cockroaches in it) in which the meal vouchers would not cover the lowest priced entree on the hotel restaurant menu. We were not given our luggage and the passengers who knew to ask for toothbrush / shaving kits were given them. Those of us who didn't know we had to specifically ask for them were left without the basic necessities. Again, there was no common courtesy or any communication that could even remotely be construed as an apology for the inconvenience. All in all, it was a disgusting experience for us. I have debated with myself as to whether I should write you, but I'm hopeful that you might want to know of this kind of abhorrent behavior that appears to be systemic among your employees. In any event, your firm will never again be inconvenienced by any of our family or employees spending money with United Airlines. We prefer to spend our future travel dollars with an airline that exhibits at least a modicum of civility. Most sincerely, William Bruce WHBJr/jh cc: Mr. Richard Almeida, Member, Board of Directors Mr. Mark Bathurst, Member, Board of Directors Ms. Mary Bush, Member, Board of Directors Mr. James Farrell, Member, Board of Directors Mr. Walter Isaacson, Member, Board of Directors Mr. Robert Krebs, Member, Board of Directors Mr. Robert Miller, Member, Board of Directors Mr. James O'Connor, Member, Board of Directors Mr. David Vitale, Member, Board of Directors Mr. John Walker Member, Board of Directors Consumer Reports Magazine |
#2
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Complaint Letter to UAL CEO
You do realize that your letter isn't going to ever be seen by the CEO
or Directors, right? Additionally, when you say you are never going to fly the carrier again, it kind of reduces the chance of them making it better for you. It is really a good example of how not to write a letter of complaint. I noticed you dated in Oct 9. Why did it take you 3 weeks to put it here? FWIW, if ever caught in a line of multiple hours after a flight cancelation, USE YOUR PHONE.... |
#3
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Complaint Letter to UAL CEO
Sorry to hear about your bad experience. The first
reply covered some important points already so I won't repeat them. A couple of things to add from a frequent flier ... When a flight is cancelled, there are rarely spare planes that can replace the flight using the old or a new number. Nowadays, the airline can merely work to put you on the next flight if there are open seats or route you to your destination on another itinerary. Once, I got lucky when fog hit SFO so I was routed to LAX from PDX instead, onto a better flight to the east coast. Another time, a cancelled 11:22 AM flight from Portland to Chicago ORD with the next flight at 1:48 PM full, I got routed through SFO and arrived four hours late: 12:30 AM, missing a dinner at 9 PM that I booked before a friend left for Europe the next day. )-; Your best chance of getting replacement equipment in the face of a cancellation is at a hub airport like Chicago ORD or San Francisco SFO. "Spoke" airports like Portland, Oregon PDX do not have planes housed or undergoing servicing that can be put into duty. |
#4
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Complaint Letter to UAL CEO
"Gary L. Dare" wrote in message ... Sorry to hear about your bad experience. The first reply covered some important points already so I won't repeat them. A couple of things to add from a frequent flier ... When a flight is cancelled, there are rarely spare planes that can replace the flight using the old or a new number. Nowadays, the airline can merely work to put you on the next flight if there are open seats or route you to your destination on another itinerary. Once, I got lucky when fog hit SFO so I was routed to LAX from PDX instead, onto a better flight to the east coast. Another time, a cancelled 11:22 AM flight from Portland to Chicago ORD with the next flight at 1:48 PM full, I got routed through SFO and arrived four hours late: 12:30 AM, missing a dinner at 9 PM that I booked before a friend left for Europe the next day. )-; Your best chance of getting replacement equipment in the face of a cancellation is at a hub airport like Chicago ORD or San Francisco SFO. "Spoke" airports like Portland, Oregon PDX do not have planes housed or undergoing servicing that can be put into duty. Much of the time, the hubs don't have them, either, of if they do the airlines aren't sending them out. |
#5
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Complaint Letter to UAL CEO
Sancho Panza wrote:
Much of the time, the hubs don't have them, either, of if they do the airlines aren't sending them out. Yeah, I had enough of this at SEA when flying AS quite a bit last winter. Lots of problems, though only a couple were weather related. I booked them as AA codeshares, so I complained, and collected, from both carriers. |
#6
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Complaint Letter to UAL CEO
On Tue, 31 Oct 2006 21:44:10 -0800 "Gary L. Dare"
wrote: :Sorry to hear about your bad experience. The first :reply covered some important points already so I won't :repeat them. A couple of things to add from a frequent :flier ... :When a flight is cancelled, there are rarely spare :planes that can replace the flight using the old or :a new number. Nowadays, the airline can merely work :to put you on the next flight if there are open seats :or route you to your destination on another itinerary. Or on another airline. Of course, with the death of service, that is rarely offered as an option. :Once, I got lucky when fog hit SFO so I was routed to :LAX from PDX instead, onto a better flight to the east :coast. Another time, a cancelled 11:22 AM flight from :Portland to Chicago ORD with the next flight at 1:48 PM :full, I got routed through SFO and arrived four hours :late: 12:30 AM, missing a dinner at 9 PM that I booked :before a friend left for Europe the next day. )-; :Your best chance of getting replacement equipment in :the face of a cancellation is at a hub airport like :Chicago ORD or San Francisco SFO. "Spoke" airports :like Portland, Oregon PDX do not have planes housed :or undergoing servicing that can be put into duty. -- Binyamin Dissen http://www.dissensoftware.com Should you use the mailblocks package and expect a response from me, you should preauthorize the dissensoftware.com domain. I very rarely bother responding to challenge/response systems, especially those from irresponsible companies. |
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Complaint Letter to UAL CEO
Gary L. Dare wrote: [snip] When a flight is cancelled, there are rarely spare planes that can replace the flight using the old or a new number. Nowadays, the airline can merely work to put you on the next flight if there are open seats or route you to your destination on another itinerary. [snip] For some travelers, depending upon destination, it can be useful to consider alternate destinations. Mostly that means if you are headed to some relatively large metropolitan area, are there other albeit less attractive airports to use. NYC has about 5, Chicago has at least 2, LAX has potentially 5, Dallas at least 2, etc. Even at small destinations, flying to Omaha or Little Rock has a certain interchangability. We were headed to Sacramento and looked into flying to either SFO or Oakland. Actually, because we needed to get there, we also considered Reno. These are obviously "last ditch" kind of considerations, but if the choice is a route like that, or some 5 hour delay, or worse overnight, it can be an option. |
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Complaint Letter to UAL CEO
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#9
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Complaint Letter to UAL CEO
Binyamin Dissen wrote:
On Tue, 31 Oct 2006 21:44:10 -0800 "Gary L. Dare" wrote: :Sorry to hear about your bad experience. The first :reply covered some important points already so I won't :repeat them. A couple of things to add from a frequent :flier ... :When a flight is cancelled, there are rarely spare :planes that can replace the flight using the old or :a new number. Nowadays, the airline can merely work :to put you on the next flight if there are open seats :or route you to your destination on another itinerary. Or on another airline. Of course, with the death of service, that is rarely offered as an option. Luckily, it's been nearly a year since I suffered a cancelled flight (the story mentioned) and one of my PDX-ORD alternatives was to interline to AA from UA. But AA's flight booked in full, thus my diversion to LA ... )-; gld |
#10
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Complaint Letter to UAL CEO
Gary L. Dare wrote:
wrote: These are obviously "last ditch" kind of considerations, but if the choice is a route like that, or some 5 hour delay, or worse overnight, it can be an option. If the next airport is outside the immediate metropolitan area, you could have rental car logistics issues if that is your mode of transport. Going to MKE or Gary, Indiana would entail drop-off fees if you have a return flight from ORD or MDW. Yup. Might cost ya the better part of $80 to get home. Cost benefit analysis must ensue. For a family trying to get home, the costs can be spread over all on a per head basis if it helps one make the choice. |
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