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

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....

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

gld

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

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.