United Passengers Air Bitter Grievances

United passengers air their bitter grievances
By Karen M. Nichols for USA TODAY

United passenger Brenda Kitterman got stuck in Cancun, Mexico, in
December because of a snowstorm in Denver. She had to buy a $1,198
ticket from Delta to get home.


Justin Graham was bumped from a flight home to Michigan for exams.



Flying to Seattle, Leah and Wyatt Hardesty missed a connection because
their flight was several hours late. There were no more flights that
day, and United didn't offer them a hotel for the night.


UNITED TAKES BIG FALL

Customer satisfaction with United Airlines declined more than any
other big U.S. carrier this year, according to a University of
Michigan survey that rates it on a 100-point scale. 2007 scores and
point changes from 2006:

Airline 2007 Change

Southwest 76 + 2

Continental 69 + 2

Northwest 61 0

US Airways 61 - 1

American 60 - 2

Delta 59 - 5

United 56 - 7

All airlines 63 - 2

Source: University of Michigan American Customer Satisfaction Index





AIR TRAVEL CONSUMER ADVICE

Bill McGee: Know your rights when you're bumped from a flight



Linda Burbank: How to respond when you get bad news at the airport





By Marilyn Adams, USA TODAY
United Airlines stranded Brenda Kitterman in Mexico. Her ordeal didn't
end there.
Kitterman, 43, learned last December that United (UAUA) had canceled
the first leg of her trip home to Montana from Cancun because of a
blizzard in Denver.

But rather than re-book her on different flights or promptly refund
the price of her return tickets, United agents in Mexico told her she
was on her own, she says. To get home, Kitterman was forced to buy new
tickets to her hometown of Kalispell, Mont., on Delta Air Lines, at a
cost of $1,198, more than she had paid for her entire week's vacation
in Mexico.

Kitterman, a Montana state employee, e-mailed a complaint about her
experience to the U.S. Department of Transportation, as did 942 other
United passengers last year.

Their discontent with United reflects a particularly vexing problem
for the USA's second-largest airline: a severe decline in the quality
of service at a carrier that once prided itself on just that.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: US Airways | Mexico | Delta | DENVER | US
airlines | Cancun | Jean Medina
Multiple studies show plunging satisfaction with the industry
generally. The April DOT complaint rate for US Airways, still
grappling with its 2005 merger with America West, tripled year-over-
year. The rate for Delta Air Lines, which just emerged from Chapter 11
reorganization, doubled.

But United arguably has fallen furthest and fastest among the big U.S.
airlines in its ability to keep customers satisfied. Company officials
acknowledge service problems and say efforts are underway to fix them.
The performance of Chicago-based United, one of four major U.S.
carriers forced into bankruptcy reorganization after the Sept. 11
attacks, is a sign of the times in an industry trying to accommodate
near-record passenger volumes with fewer workers.

Some indicators of trouble:

·United had the industry's highest rate of passenger complaints to the
DOT for all of 2006: 1.36 complaints for every 100,000 passengers
boarded. By April, the latest month for which DOT has data, that rate
had risen to 2.6 per 100,000. Last year, United's first year out of
Chapter 11 bankruptcy, saw its worst showing in DOT complaints since
2002, the year the airline filed for Chapter 11.

·In the University of Michigan's 2007 American Customer Satisfaction
Index, airlines scored lower than at any time since 2001, and United
scored at the bottom of the industry. The ACSI gauges satisfaction
with companies and industries based on thousands of interviews.

·The most recent Airline Quality Rating, done by Wichita State
University and the University of Nebraska, ranked United No. 8 of 18
big and small airlines for 2006. American (AMR), Delta (DAL) and US
Airways (LCC) scored worse, but United slipped from No. 4 in 2004.
Ratings are based on publicly reported performance indicators.

Some of United's most loyal, high-mileage passengers - who get
preferential treatment in return for their patronage - say they have
seen service decline.

"There were days in the not-too-distant past when United's service was
fantastic, especially if you were an elite flier," says Jordan Ayan,
CEO of a Chicago high-tech firm.

A million-mile United flier, he used to buy Christmas gifts for his
favorite United agents at Chicago O'Hare. "Boy, have times changed."

He says a United gate agent was so rude to his daughter before her
March flight that Ayan e-mailed United CEO Glenn Tilton.

Out of luck after 20-25 calls

A USA TODAY review of complaints filed in December 2006 and January
2007 with the DOT about United provides a rare window into the quality
of service by one of the nation's largest airlines in the wake of deep
cuts in spending and jobs.

Interviews with passengers who complained to the DOT show how hard it
can be to reach one's destination, get accurate help from airline
customer-service representatives, or get money refunded when a flight
goes awry.

Arnold Graham, a Pasadena, Calif., lawyer who begged United for a fare
refund for seven months and complained to the DOT, says he was amazed
how hard it was to get what he was legally owed.

"I think the system is deliberately designed to never make a refund or
listen to the customer," says Graham, whose son Justin, 22, was bumped
from a United flight.

In October, Justin Graham was returning from a wedding in Oakland to
the University of Michigan for exams. United bumped him from the
Oakland-to-Denver leg of his trip. United switched the original plane
to a smaller one, so there wasn't enough space. United didn't have a
seat until the next day.

So Arnold Graham paid $830 for new tickets on different airlines to
get Justin back to school.

Arnold Graham estimates he and his wife, Susan, attempted to call
United agents, located in India and the Philippines, 20 to 25 times
for a refund. "The system would patch me through to somewhere and then
I would be dropped," he says. "It was impenetrable."

After a call to United headquarters from USA TODAY, United last month
refunded him $178.62, the price of the return trip Justin never took
on United.

United says there is no deliberate effort to save money by frustrating
customers and says Graham's experience is not up to its standards.
Officials say they are working through customer-service problems
related in part to the outsourcing of jobs during the reorganization,
which ended in 2006.

"We know we haven't done well, and we're doing an enormous amount of
work to improve the experience for customers," says company
spokeswoman Jean Medina.

United Executive Vice President Graham Atkinson calls the stories in
the complaints "very disappointing." But Atkinson, United's chief
customer officer, says the complaints represent a small percentage of
all passengers flown.

"What you are seeing here is not acceptable, but they are exceptions
to the rule," he says.

United takes steps to improve

United promoted Atkinson to the new job of chief customer officer in
October. In January, United recruited a new vice president for
customer experience, a new position, from Walt Disney Co., whose
customer service is widely acclaimed.

During restructuring, United shed 21,000 jobs, about a quarter of its
workforce, and cut annual expenses by $5 billion, yet today it is
flying about as many passengers as before bankruptcy. Remaining
employees work harder for less pay because of contract changes made
during bankruptcy.

Among jobs United outsourced were hundreds of U.S. phone reservations
and customer-service jobs. They went to contract call centers in
India, the Philippines and Poland. The remaining United call centers
in the USA serve only its high-mileage customers, international
passengers and special groups such as military personnel.

United also eliminated 200 U.S. finance jobs, including 30 in refunds,
and outsourced the work to India.

"Bankruptcy is a cataclysmic event," Atkinson says. "It forces you to
think about sacred cows."

Atkinson says United is working to improve its India call centers and
its refunds operation. It's increasing phone capacity and doubling the
staffing in refunds.

Next year, United plans to install multimillion-dollar software so
agents in different customer-service areas can share information about
a customer's problem.

Vice President Barbara Higgins, the ex-Disney executive, says she
wants to make United so proactive when things go wrong that customers
don't need to complain.

"We need to acknowledge when something goes wrong, apologize and
immediately let our customers know what we're going to do to fix it,"
she says.

Even refunds leave fliers leery

Passenger Carolyn Smith of Singapore complained to the DOT after what
she calls a "flight from hell" from San Francisco to Hong Kong in
January. Eight hours into the 14-hour flight from San Francisco, the
United crew announced none of the lavatories in coach were usable, she
says. Only the business cabin bathrooms worked, she says. The crew
asked passengers to stop drinking so they wouldn't need the bathroom
and did not serve the second meal, Smith says.

The captain told passengers there would be food and beverage waiting
in Hong Kong when they arrived, but there was not, she says.

United responded to Smith's e-mailed complaint three weeks later -
with an apology but no explanation for the toilet snafu. United sent
her a $200 voucher; Smith would have liked a refund.

Leah Hardesty of Albuquerque says she would have liked some
compassion. When she and her 19-month-old son boarded a United flight
to Denver in December, the captain told passengers it would take 15
minutes to de-ice the plane. Hardesty and her son were going to
Seattle to see her parents.

But United ran out of de-icer and had to use a de-icing contractor at
the airport who was busy with other planes. Passengers had to sit on
the plane five hours before takeoff. By the time they reached Denver,
Hardesty's connecting flight to Seattle was long gone.

United could not rebook her to Seattle that day and did not offer her
a hotel for the night. Fearing she and son Wyatt might have to sleep
at the airport, Hardesty sought out United's main customer service
desk. The line was too long to wait. In tears, Hardesty phoned her
parents, who bought her a $404 ticket to Seattle on Frontier Airlines
that day. United sent her a voucher for a future flight. "They treated
me poorly," she says.

Kitterman, the Montana woman, waited five months for a refund. Despite
months of calls and e-mails to United, she did not get any money back
until late May, after USA TODAY asked United's headquarters about her
case for this story.

When Kitterman arrived at the Cancun airport for the trip home, she
learned United's flight to Denver was canceled.

Kitterman says United's airport staff in Cancun told her it had no
obligation to re-book her, book her on another airline or refund her
money because she bought discount tickets as part of a $967 vacation
package sold by a tour operator. She says United's telephone agents
could not re-book her for the next several days, either, so she bought
tickets on Delta.

United spokeswoman Medina says the airline's staff in Mexico "should
have done a better job explaining the situation and helping her find
alternative arrangements." Medina says the airline couldn't re-book
her on another airline because carriers don't honor others' deeply
discounted tickets sold with tour packages.

United acknowledges it owed her a refund for the price of her unused
ticket. Last month, checks for $1,198 arrived from United, the price
of the Delta tickets - more than it legally owed her.

Kitterman says her Mexico experience has left her afraid to travel,
fearful she will be stranded again with no way home. United recently
sent her a $300 coupon that she could use for a future trip.

"I won't use it," she says.

In article ,
Larry in AZ wrote:

[ USA Today ]

|| United passenger Brenda Kitterman got stuck in Cancun, Mexico, in
|| December because of a snowstorm in Denver. She had to buy a $1,198
|| ticket from Delta to get home.

An airline owes passengers NOTHING if the airline is not at fault. Weather
is not their fault. All they can do is their best to get you on their next
possible flight to your destination.

Beyond that, passengers can expect to receive no compensation of any kind.

An argument can be made that anything is or isn't the airline's fault. In
many cases, the airline blames events that have the effect of raising the
airline's costs of providing the contracted service, but not making it
impossible for the airline to provide the service. How much does the cost
need to be raised for the airline to be able to say "not my fault"?

The airline plans to have a particular crew fly a particular flight, but
that crew is delayed by weather. Should the airline call in a reserve crew
to staff the flight? Or can they say it was a weather-related cancellation,
sorry, you can stand by on any of the flights upcoming but they're all
overbooked 21% already? What if it's the equipment that was delayed? How
many hours, how many hops away from the weather can they invoke it as the
cause of the non-fulfillment of the contract?

If a weather-related delay causes a crew to exceed its hours, should the
airline replace the crew, or cancel their remaining flights? When the
airline diverts equipment which was to be used for a sceduled flight, to a
charter customer (whose contract includes penalties for non-performance)
because the charter's scheduled equipment was delayed by weather, is the
cancellation of the scheduled flight weather-related? Does the airline get
to tell the scheduled passengers "go away, we've got your money but we don't
have to fly you because there was bad weather somewhere, and so our failure
to do what we said we'd do is not our fault"?

Modern contract law prefers to shift the costs of statistically-predictable
events onto the party with the best ability to predict those events. That
is held to promote economic efficiency. Certainly, the airlines are better
able to predict and mitigate weather-related problems than individual flyers
are. Why does the wrong party bear the costs of weather-related delays and
cancellations?

--
Randy Hudson

Larry in AZ wrote:

Waiving the right to remain silent, said:


United passengers air their bitter grievances
By Karen M. Nichols for USA TODAY

United passenger Brenda Kitterman got stuck in Cancun, Mexico, in
December because of a snowstorm in Denver. She had to buy a $1,198
ticket from Delta to get home.


An airline owes passengers NOTHING if the airline is not at fault. Weather
is not their fault. All they can do is their best to get you on their next
possible flight to your destination.

Beyond that, passengers can expect to receive no compensation of any kind.

I'm not defending United. They have earned their sucky reputation, but the
above scenario is not their fault.


I suspect they told her they couldn't get her out on a flight in the
near future. They would have told her she could try standby or accept a
refund and buy a ticket on another carrier.
As you have stated, this is not the airline's fault.

Randy Hudson wrote:

Modern contract law prefers to shift the costs of statistically-predictable
events onto the party with the best ability to predict those events. That
is held to promote economic efficiency. Certainly, the airlines are better
able to predict and mitigate weather-related problems than individual flyers
are. Why does the wrong party bear the costs of weather-related delays and
cancellations?


I'd rather stick with having cheaper tickets and handling the weather
delays on my own.

"NotABushSupporter" wrote in message
news
Randy Hudson wrote:

Modern contract law prefers to shift the costs of
statistically-predictable
events onto the party with the best ability to predict those events.
That
is held to promote economic efficiency. Certainly, the airlines are
better
able to predict and mitigate weather-related problems than individual
flyers
are. Why does the wrong party bear the costs of weather-related delays
and
cancellations?


I'd rather stick with having cheaper tickets and handling the weather
delays on my own.

Until it is you that get's stuck.

tim

tim..... wrote:
"NotABushSupporter" wrote in message
news
Randy Hudson wrote:


Modern contract law prefers to shift the costs of
statistically-predictable
events onto the party with the best ability to predict those events.
That
is held to promote economic efficiency. Certainly, the airlines are
better
able to predict and mitigate weather-related problems than individual
flyers
are. Why does the wrong party bear the costs of weather-related delays
and
cancellations?


I'd rather stick with having cheaper tickets and handling the weather
delays on my own.


Until it is you that get's stuck.


If you fly often enough, eventually you get stuck.
I was "stuck" for a few hours due to ATC delays due to weather. on June
8 and June 12, while flying LAX-JFK-LAX. Luckily I was in business
class for the ground holds, but on the outbound flight the legrest was
broken. I had upgraded, but AA still gave me 5000 extra AAdvantage miles
for the problem.

I bought the ticket in early April for $258 roundtrip.
At those prices, I think I can handle the occasional delay that might
keep me overnight. Do you expect the airline to feed me and put me up at
a hotel when I only paid $258 for a roundtrip to fly coast to coast?

In article ,
NotABushSupporter wrote:

I suspect they told her they couldn't get her out on a flight in the
near future. They would have told her she could try standby or accept a
refund and buy a ticket on another carrier.
As you have stated, this is not the airline's fault.

The old CAB rules included one -- rule 280 D ? -- that required the carrier
unable to carry the passenger to pay for a seat on another carrier. When
discounted excursion fares became common, that was changed to a rule that
allowed the original carrier to pay only the discounted segment fee the
passenger had paid them, rather than a full walk-up one-way fare, to the
carrying airline.

In cases where the airport was closed, or nobody was flying for safety
reasons, that didn't make much difference. But when only one particular
carrier couldn't fly, the passengers were taken care of with relatively
little delay or additional expense to the passenger.

But the airlines preferred to keep that captive passenger, and the
associated captive revenue. So they started publishing "Valid on UA only"
(substitute your carrier of choice) fares, that were exempted from the
contract clause that mirrored the old CAB regulation.

And, they don't issue refunds for partially-used tickets, unless they are
"at fault." Since they tend to attribute nearly every case where they can't
fly on schedule to "weather," they get to keep that revenue whether you fly
on another carrier or not.

My guess is that the woman in the original story was flying on a "Valid on UA
Only" fare, so UA didn't offer her any help with alternative accomodations,
nor would they refund any part of the fare. And if she pursued them for the
taxes they collected (which she would have to pay again to another carrier
if she booked an alternative flight herself), they would respond as America
West once did to me in a similar situation: "Yes, sir, we can credit those
taxes against the additional amount you owe us because you did not fulfill
the conditions of the ticket you bought; you did not fly the round trip."
They were willing to overlook that only if I did not seek recovery of the
overpaid taxes.

--
Randy Hudson

On Jun 19, 8:54 pm, wrote:
United passengers air their bitter grievances
By Karen M. Nichols for USA TODAY

United passenger Brenda Kitterman got stuck in Cancun, Mexico, in
December because of a snowstorm in Denver. She had to buy a $1,198
ticket from Delta to get home.


She'll get reimbursed. What is the big deal.

wrote:

On Jun 19, 8:54 pm, wrote:

United passengers air their bitter grievances
By Karen M. Nichols for USA TODAY

United passenger Brenda Kitterman got stuck in Cancun, Mexico, in
December because of a snowstorm in Denver. She had to buy a $1,198
ticket from Delta to get home.



She'll get reimbursed. What is the big deal.


Why would she get reimbursed?
In a weather delay, you can choose to try your luck at standby, wait for
a confirmed seat, or take a refund. Apparently, she chose to take a refund.

Maybe the current Congress can pass a law.
We need the law that the airlines weaseled out of a few years ago.