Updated posts:
First off I’m not your occasional traveler. I have over 600,000 miles on Delta, 200,000 on Continental, 40,000 on Frontier, and 40,000 on United. I was a platinum member on Delta’s FF program for two years and a gold member of Continental’s (at the same time, that’s 100,000 miles minimum for each of those years).
UNITED HAS TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!!
Here’s why:
Due to the amount I travel my plans changes sometimes at the last minute. I prefer to check-in on-line the night before my flights so I can walk right to security and get to my gate. Well with United if you do this and your plans change before your flight you first must call the “Web service” line and cancel your check in, which you can’t do on-line. This process normally takes about 15mins. Once you have that done you then need to call the reservations line to change your ticket, this process normally takes about 20+ mins.
The biggest issue I have with United is that they have outsourced all of their call centers to India, even the Premier line! Beyond the fact that they aren’t employee Americas I have other issues with this. 1st some of the call handlers don’t speak English well enough to understand them 80% of the time. I have had to repeat my flight #s five times and have had to ask them to repeat what they told me multiple times. In two cases the person could barely understand me and I could barely understand them! 2nd they don’t really try to help you much, they do the bare minimum needed to get you off the phone with them. 3rd they don’t come across as friendly.
Here’s the REAL KICKER!!! If you ask for a manager they has “Why would you like to speak to my manager”, which I reply “I don’t have to tell you. The three times I have asked to speak to a manager, due to the terrible service I had gotten due to poor English skills, being left on hold countless times for 5 – 15mins, etc the manager was India also. When I did get a hold of a manager, 2 of the 3 times, the manager just said “I will talk to the employee”. That’s not what I wanted! I want a formal complain filed and for someone to know that the employee sucks and should be fired!
The 3rd time, where Chrissy couldn’t get ahold of a manager, the person kept asking her the same information (flight and travel info) multiple times. Each time he said he was getting the manager, but after 5mins+ on hold he would come back on and ask something else. Chrissy DEMANDED to speak to his manager, who the call handling finally said he was too busy, and then DEMANDED to speak to his manager’s managers, which also didn’t go anywhere.
This past two days have been hell trying to get ahold of United (Frontier also), see
Christmas chaos. When were able to get ahold of them they provided TERRIBLE customer service as always. My Mom, with my 7 year old niece, was stuck in Chicago for 2 days and then when we did get a hold of someone at United we were told the earliest they could get them into Denver was 12/27!!! I understand the airport in Denver was closed down for two days but something besides sorry we can’t get them out of Chicago, which United left them stranded in when they were connecting, for 7 days isn’t an option. [I told them just to book them on a flight back home to VA].
I had two tickets in the past which I had to cancel and the 1st time it took about 45 mins for United to find the reservation information, since their primary system purges data after six months even though tickets are valid for up to a year. Since I hate United I try to to fly them that often, and will not anymore. The 2nd time I took over an hour and half for them to find the reservation and then i was told they would have to mail be out a paper voucher which I would need to take to the airport to use! WTF!!!!
In addition to the above complains I got stuck multiple times with a middle seat when flying on United, even when checking in on-line well in advanced.
Jason (Izzy) Sherry's Blog 