The Customer Is Always Wrong

On February 26, I emailed and faxed the following letter to United:

Glenn F. Tilton

Chairman, president and chief executive officer

United Airlines

Dear Mr. Tilton,

Several months ago, using miles, my husband Melvin Goldstein, booked a Mileage Plus ticket from San Francisco to Nice France. When I booked my paid ticket, I couldn�t match his routing (or change it � I was told by a United agent). We were disappointed, but it was okay because we would arrive in Nice within a short time of each other. From Nice, we drive five hours to our home in Abeilhan France.

February 3rd (I think) I called United to make reservations for a small dog to accompany each of us in cabin. At that time, the United agent suggested to me that she could switch my husband�s flight so he could fly with me part of the way and still arrive about the same time as me in Nice.

On February 23rd, my husband received an email detailing a schedule change for his return flight on July 31. We were concerned when his departure information only listed him flying as far as Frankfurt Germany. The connection that had been booked from Frankfurt to Zurich to Nice no longer existed.

Last night I called United. Apparently on February 5th (I think) Swiss Air cancelled the second part of the reservation because it was an illegal reservation because it only allowed for a 30 minute time for transferring from one flight to another.

I eventually spoke to a customer service director. I think her name was Karen. She was very helpful and for about one hour tried to come up with different routes. She couldn�t for a variety of reasons � award seats, the fact that a small dog was accompanying my husband in cabin and so forth. She said she could not book him on the Lufthansa flight I was on that went from Frankfurt to Nice because they were not showing any award seats available. She booked him on a later Swiss Air flight that has him arriving in Nice FOUR hours later than me. She advised me that the only way out would be for a United service director to call Lufthansa and try to persuade them to release an award seat on the Frankfurt to Nice flight. She said she couldn�t call because Lufthansa was closed (It was about 2am in California). She suggested that I call back the next morning.

This morning I called. The customer service director was Mrs. Linquist (?). She said that the woman that I spoke to the night before was wrong and that there was no way that she could call Lufthansa and try to get the seat released.

She was rude. She suggested that we leave the one of our dogs (the one traveling with my husband) at home or ship him in cargo, or that we travel on another day or for $900 I buy a ticket from Lufthansa from Frankfurt to Nice or I accept being inconvenienced and wait four hours for my husband to arrive. She said the only thing she could do is to offer me a $150 flight certificate for my inconvenience. I told her that offer added insult to injury.

As I mentioned we have a four hour car ride to our house from Nice. The difference between leaving when arriving at 2pm versus 6pm is huge. It is the difference between having some sleep that night and being exhausted. We can�t even spend the night in Nice because the following morning I have an appointment at 9am with my cardiologist to treat my heart condition. I am not well and can not postpone this appointment. As an aside, I am suppose to avoid stress!

As long time flyer of United Airlines, I have been disappointed several times in recent months by United Airlines, but this incident is unconscionable. United Airlines is clearly at fault starting with the fact that I never would have changed my husband�s ticket in the first place if I had know that would delay his arrival in Nice.

I am asking that you use your influence to call Lufthansa and make arrangements for my husband to be on the same flight from Frankfurt to Nice that I am booked on. You are all members of the same Alliance � right. Any response that does not include of this change is unacceptable.

I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Sharon Gilman Goldstein

cc: Graham Atkinson

Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer

Pamela A. Coslet

General Manager, Customer Relations

I received no reply by February 28, so I tried calling United. No matter what number I called � corporate headquarters, customer relations and so forth I ended up either on the main reservations line or at call center in India. I asked the operator answering the telephone why I couldn�t talk to someone in the executive offices of United and she said if I didn�t have their number, it meant I couldn�t talk to them.

I finally let the call go through to the India Customer Call center. I was very insistent that I would only speak to someone in Chicago. One agent and a floor supervisor (and long time) later I was connected with a supervisor named Lynn Johnson. Ms. Johnson listened to my tale of woe, including my need to keep a doctor�s appointment. She said she couldn�t help me and the only thing she could do is transfer back to the reservation line. She suggested if I wasn�t well perhaps I shouldn�t travel.

In desperation, I agreed. Ms. Vasquez was incredibly professional, helpful and ultimately came up with a satisfactory solution to my problem. She rebooked my husband on his original flight - the one I was told had no more frequent flyer seats and/or a problem with the dog in cabin. She was on the telephone with me working these issues through for over an hour. She also read me some of the comments in the record. Let�s just say that my conversation with Ms. Linquist bore no relationship to her notes.

Aside from my original problem, I am now trying to understand why the executives of United are hiding. Surely Graham Atkinson or Glenn Tilton have a large enough staff that someone could actually try to solve a customer problem. I was persistent enough to keep on trying to reach someone who could help me and very lucky in reaching Ms. Vasquez.