It’s unfortunate that United really has hit rock-bottom with customer service and bad press. As a former United 1K, and someone who is Newark-based, I still seem partial to the airline for whatever reason it may be, despite my own frustrations with United employees I’ve had over the years. Maybe I feel that there’s a glimmer of hope that change is coming with the way they treat passengers, but after today, I’m not the slightest bit convinced.
Please allow me to vent from my seat on my flight from EWR to SFO now, as I just experienced an incident onboard that truly showed United’s terrible customer service at it’s finest.
Since the EWR to SFO flight is a premium service flight, with no complimentary upgrades given to elites, I booked a paid seat in economy and had a friend apply one of his Regional Premier Upgrade certificates to my reservation.
I didn’t clear before departure, but as I boarded the flight, my upgrade cleared into seat 2A. Â Absolutely thrilled, I walked to my new seat and was immediately told that I was not able to sit there. I asked why and was told that the passenger in seat 15L was a “paid” passenger, who was more important, and was upset that his light didn’t work in his seat. I responded politely and said that’s pretty unfortunate, but 2A is my seat now.
While I was waiting for the gate agents to figure it all out, I saw that 15L wasn’t actually a paid business class passenger, instead also upgraded just like I was. So in that case, we are both equally “paid”, which is besides the point anyway.
I waited patiently to sit in 2A and was rudely told that I needed to hurry back to economy and that I was never upgraded. Huh? My paper boarding pass was in the hands of the purser, and my mobile boarding pass clearly had my name and “2A” on it.
When I showed my mobile boarding pass (since I felt they were purposely holding my paper BP from me because that was “proof”), the agent didn’t know how to respond and quickly came up with,”well you were upgraded for free sweetie, this person paid, now go take your seat”.
As polite as I could be, I responded, “actually it seems that both of us upgraded using an RPU, and there are no ‘free’ upgrades on this flight. My seat right now is showing as 2A”.
I was then told to step off the flight while they tried to figure out how to cover up their faux pas. One gate agent was trying to explain “upgrades 101” to me at a kindergarten level while the others tried to figure out what to do with me.
Feeling rather annoyed at this point, I offered to take 15L, the seat with the broken light. The flight was already 30 minutes delayed over this, and I just wanted to get moving.
They told me that it was not an option, and the seat would be blocked off.
Traveling with just a backpack, I offered to be accommodating – I could  take the next flight in 30 minutes, or really any other flight if they could confirm me in a seat within the next 5 hours. Still, it was not an option and I was told that I didn’t get back to my seat in economy, I wouldn’t be flying.
So here I am, sitting back in economy over an operations/customer service issue that all of the United employees I dealt with couldn’t take accountability for. Instead, I was talked down to like a 5-year old, belittled, lied to, and pretty much left with the fear of being offloaded if I didn’t comply.
At the end of the day, it’s not about the seat, and the purpose of this post is not to come off as “poor me, I’m in the back”.
As much as I’d rather be sitting in the front right now, this just further shows just how terrible United’s customer service has become. How much more can it go downhill? For whatever reason, the person with the broken light was so much more important that it required removing me from a seat, lying to my face, and communicating with me disrespectfully.
It’s really upsetting that United has truly hit rock-bottom with the way they treat passengers. On the plus side, the FAs in economy on this flight are really nice and pleasant.
For now, I think I need wine. Thanks for listening and happy travels.
Why would they block off a seat due to a broken reading light if the passenger didn’t care??? And that should have been an easy fix for maintenance while you were on the ground.
I was on a flight recently with Delta and there was a problem with a broken seat and a BP was issued for it. When the ground crew got it all straightened out they gave that passenger a different first class seat and downgraded the person that would have been lowest on the priority list (I believe this passenger was platinum on an upgrade and they downgraded the lowest tier passenger).
If the person in the broken seat was a 1K and you had no status that may have been why. They may have downgraded the lowest status passenger on the lowest fare to keep a higher level elite happy but they should have been upfront about it like they were in the case on my Delta flight. They also offered the person they downgraded the comp meal and free drinks,. which they should have offered to you seeing that seats meal was catered anyway.
Mistakes happen. It’s all about how a company resolves the mistake. United has built a corporate culture of doing their best never to admit a mistake occurred in the first place.
This has happened to me before, but more politely. Once you have been upgraded you are then in that class. If sent hack again to economy then that is an involuntary down grade. At the time when mine happened, couple of years ago, I was provided with $500 compensation. The FA on the plane can’t sort this out. Talk to customer service who will see the history of your seat changes and Recognize this as an Involuntary downgrade.
wow, that is terrible — so insulting to you. at the very least they should have comped you in some way — free food, miles, whatever. UA workers really do hate their jobs/hate passengers. i hope you plan to complain after the fact.
Sorry to hear, and I agree, being Newark based too, we are limited with carriers! Please let us know of the follow up from United on the issue! Amidst all of the negative press in regards to basically everything under the sun, I’ve had two successful flights, where I volunteered to be bumped, and made out with 700 each time. YAY!! This was before the major incident. Anyway, thanks for the articles on the renewal fees and helping me make the call to my SPG card for that 10k bonus, I’ll be using it in Vegas on a weekend at the Four Points behind the Linq for a low redemption. Im also trying to book the Chicago seminars this year!!
Since you were upgraded last minute, in the system you had lower priority than the other pax who was probably higher status or higher fare class.
What they should have done was offer you downgrade compensation – which is standard procedure. Hopefully there isn’t a next time for this situation, but that’s what you should insist on.
I’ll bet your friend’s RPU is now marked used to add insult.
Same thing happened to a friend of mine on United last year. Nevertheless she persisted…….because she really wanted a sundae.
A couple of things:
1) Sounds like they assumed you were an employee/non-rev, hence the paid customer comment, and they tried to backtrack once they realized their mistake.
2) EWR is one of the worst stations from customer service perspective. Agents are mostly indifferent, probably inherited from PMCO days.
3) Ask for a service director next time – they are the equivalent of senior managers, and often are better at customer service than inept agents.
4) You are technically eligible for downgrade compensation, since you had a confirmed BP in business class. I would write to customer service and demand compensation.
Why would they assume that she was a non-rev, if she was gifted an RPU?….also the gate agent would have been able to determine that, hence the downgrade. No doubt the guy ending up in her seat may have been a high status flier with many miles versus her non or lower status and the upgrade was gifted to her (not “earned” on her own merit). I sound like I’m arguing the point with you but I am not. You are most likely right as the UA mentality is to shoot first and NOT ask questions later. I agree about the PMCO mentality – still continuing – THE WORST. I have no clue how UAL training or whatever they plan on doing is going to change that mindset -they might want to start with the people that do the interviewing and hiring.
It clear to me that United has developed a culture of “us vs. them” within the ranks of their employees and has condoned baldfaced lying as a legitimate approach to performing one’s duties. Stories of seemingly impossible-to-believe customer service failures are a dime a dozen with United these days. I say this from the perspective of a United Gold frequent flier, who is struggling to justifying any continued loyalty whatsoever, despite still having a clear path to maintaining gold, if I choose to.
My hope lies in articulate bloggers like yourself who get the word out there and prevent the airlines from setting the narrative themselves. You and I both wondered if United was near a tipping point recently, but a fundamental change in customer services seems about as near-term as their new Polaris business seats.
Clearly, United has not yet paid a high enough price for dehumanizing their passengers. Through my work, I happen to know a number of lawyers/lobbyists that represent United Airlines on federal policy issues, and they have told me on more than one instance how stunned they were at the indifference of executives towards passenger complaints. United moves only when you force them to.
Maybe its time to start financially supporting consumer advocacy groups that lobby for Congressional intervention. Angelina, do you have a sense of who the major players are?
@Stephen, I will have to respectfully disagree. Involving the government is the last thing consumers should do. In matters of public safety? Yes. But in instances of insufferable behavior related to customer service – in a free market economy, passengers have the ability to bring about change by flying other carriers.
@JakePB, thank you for your comment, and in theory, I agree with you. However, in practice, I have to respectfully disagree that the commercial aviation in the U.S. can be characterized as a “free market.” Airline consolidation and the prohibition on foreign ownership of airlines (among other barriers to entry) is significantly curbing choice in flying in the U.S., and the legacy airlines are seeking to leverage this anti-competitive landscape to the nth degree.
As someone who works in public policy professionally in Washington, DC, I have learned a truth about this city–you are either at the table or you’re on the menu. Airlines for America (A4A) is a powerhouse lobbying group in this city and reported (per the LDA Database) $2,312,000 in lobbying activities in the last two quarters, while United Airlines has itself reported $1,510,000 in lobbying activities in the same time period.
Wow! Thank you for this information. I agree with you!
Looking forward to the UA response.
I am scared of flying United now :(
Similar situation occurred to me a couple of weeks ago and of course at EWR. Battlefield upgrade cleared via CPU – took my seat in F and then was told I have to return to my “old” seat in Y. I asked why and the GA stated the person that paid for my seat was a late arrival but made the flight and that the system “prematurely” processed upgrades. Granted I was only flying to BOS and 30 min flight is nothing so didn’t complain but in your case clearly UA effed up and you are entitled to $500 downgrade compensation.
I’m sure you’ve seen this thread: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/united-airlines-mileageplus/1736028-downgraded-first-business-class-united-questions-compensation-etc-24.html
You are owed an apology and an e-cert!!!
Honestly, the only way to effectively deal with nonsense like this is to “vote with your feet” by taking your business elsewhere. There’s a very high probability that is exactly what happened over at Hyatt with Jeff Z departing, why not United?
Definitely demand compensation. Meanwhile United stock has been hitting record highs!
Angelina
I sympathize with you because United is also the primary carrier at my home airport. (IAD) However, you chose to fly United. What did you expect? Friendly employees, on time flights, and good customer service? Well, we all know that is not what you will find on most United Airlines flights, particularly at IAD or EWR. Despite living at IAD, I have reduced my United flying to less than 10% since 2012 (4 of 47 flights this year and I’m still kicking myself for those 4) Seriously, the only way to bring about change is to select another carrier. The customer dis-service culture is so deeply ingrained at union United that it will take a massive disruption to their business to change. I’m not holding my breath. I’m on JetBlue and Delta.
This might have been the final push. You’re absolutely right.
The lesson here is to buy United stock and use your profits to fly on a different Airline. :-)
DOT complaint and nothing less than that!
Ha! The last, and I mean LAST time I flew p.s. to New York and back they cancelled my ticket and left me stranded at LAX after a misconnect- my inbound flight couldn’t get a gate (operations). When I tried to get the next available flight, they pulled up my reservation and saw that there was no way they could get me a flight to New York in time for me to make my return trip home and refused to help me further. Then to add insult to injury they then accused me of VIOLATING FARE RULES (!!!) because I had purchased 2 one-way tickets instead of roundtrip, so long-story short, I flew 1 out of 4 segments that I paid for. I was so frustrated after they way they talked to me (not that it even matters but I was 1K at the time) I walked over to Delta and bought a same-day ticket home to Sacramento and cancelled the rest of my trip. I was later able to invoke the trip-in-vane clause for a partial refund (since their operations issue made me miss an important meeting in NYC) and got a measly token of apology from customer care but somewhere out there is still an unused LAX-JFK segment and an RPU that I never did get back. There is a total us vs. them attitude and that experience has still left a bad taste in my mouth years later. I eventually flew a few more times to secure my Million Miler status, but after that haven’t flown with them again. I’m with Alaska now.
@Michelle, there’s a reason why AS wins all those Freddies. Thank your lucky stars you live in a place well covered by them!
That really, really, really sucks.
But did you really hold up the flight for over 30 minutes to deal with this…?
seriously. what an entitled crybaby.
Precisely. It’s gross and is indicative of why United has taken this tack – fliers like this one. I am 1K with United, flying well over 200k miles per year and have had exactly 1 bad interaction with United in the last several years, which was quickly dealt with when escalated to Customer Care, and without delaying or inconveniencing my fellow passengers. As if she was ENTITLED to an upgrade. That is a privilege, not a right. It’s not as if she paid for it, and United has a clear policy with respect to upgrade prioritization which it seems to have followed for this flight.
I did not feel entitled to the upgrade. I used an upgrade instrument and it confirmed. What bothered me was that I did have a seat, a confirmed upgrade and they did not acknowledge that, nor the fact that they involuntarily downgraded me. Count your blessings that you’ve had a good run and history with United. I know that there are plenty of us who haven’t, and countless who don’t even voice their stories.
Angelina, because of what happened to you I am never going to fly United, seriously. I’m boycotting them. United was very wrong with how they treated you. They could have just explained that they (United) were sucking up to that other passenger and apologize to you for the inconvenience. You are just as important as anyone else!
I did not hold up the flight over this. All of this happened while the doors were open and maintenance came on several times to make reports on the seat. I patiently waited, responded politely, and complied with the outcome, despite feeling disrespected and lied to during the process.
Make sure you let us know what happens! That sounds so bogus but not much else you could do. Glad you were able to grab the screen caps and will be even more helpful if the RPU is marked as used.
Thanks Mark, yes it’s still showing “upgrade confirmed” on my reservation as we approach SFO now.
Kudos to handling the matter calmly! I would send United everything here word for word. I’ll happily share their response on my social media accounts, especially if they decide to act if they did nothing wrong… Give it to them! =)
That’s just imbecilic. Do you still plan to fly United after this incident? I recently booked a one-way flight back to EWR from SJO in July because they’re the only direct flight back at a good rate. Your story and countless others lately made me leery of flying them. Now, I just hope I go through this flight unscathed.
Following to see if there is a resolution!
Please update us on what happens when you talk to/e-mail customer service post-flight. I fly about 150k miles a year (50k with United) and I was thinking of increasing my flying with them. Your and others experience makes me question whether to switch loyalties.
I have to ask–do you think this would have been done to you if you had been an insistent man? Naively wondering….
I’m glad you brought this up and I was reluctant to bring “being a younger woman” into the post, but I do believe in part I was treated the way I was based on my age, my gender, and because I don’t fit the stereotypical profile of a “business traveler”. I hate to open that door, but I have had dozens of “elite discrimination” instances over the past 5 years, which I’ve blogged about quite a bit in the past.
I feel the same way. When there’s no evidence I’m being discriminated against, I automatically assume I’m being mistreated because I’m Jewish.
And in more important news, Boko Harem has freed 82 Chibok schoolgirls.
Also,
Nearly 250 refugees feared dead after two migrant boats sink in Mediterranean!
But forgive me, Angelina almost held up a flight after her upgraded seat was offered to another traveler.
Poor you boohoo
Seriously? This is a travel blog, and is relevant.
The other story is not relevant to this blog.
Since you’re apparently big on current events, perhaps you’ve noticed a string of highly-publicized customer service disasters by the airlines – specifically United. This is just another example of UA’s poor (and inconsistent) customer service.
I personally stopped flying UA three years ago due to innumerable experiences similar to this one.
I suggest you take your comments on current events elsewhere. Your attack on a TRAVEL blogger merely sharing her experience about TRAVEL is uncalled for.
No need to project your misery onto others…
I seriously dislike internet trolls, and there are a few here.
This happened to me as well. Confirmed upgrade. As I swiped my phone to get on the plane, I got a weird beep and they handed me a new boarding pass. Middle seat, economy -. Assigned a seat much much worse than what I had booked, and been upgraded out of. I asked for at least my original economy + seat, but I was told that I was “delaying boarding, and causing a scene. I could get on or not fly.” Lots if after the fact complaining, and I got 10k miles. Wish I had known that was an involuntary downgrade!!
Oh no! So frustrating and unfortunate that you and I had similar experiences! Thanks to other commenters on the blog and discussing with travel friends, I did approach CS center at SFO. An amazing agent helped me and gave me a $500 voucher on the spot, which she explained was the standard compensation for an involuntary downgrade. The rudeness and lack of CS that you and I both seem to have experienced is unacceptable though.
Probably just Karma for not tipping your Uber drivers.
Stop flying United. Put up with this nonsense and it will never stop.
“Maybe I feel that there’s a glimmer of hope that change is coming with the way they treat passengers, but after today, I’m not the slightest bit convinced.”
So an elderly man getting dragged off a flight didn’t give you any indication that United is bad until you personally experienced poor treatment? lol k