United Airlines- Any Ideas?

[jasonxctf]

So a few weeks ago, the family and I flew from Chicago to South Carolina on United. 9:15AM departure. No pilots arrive, at all. They eventually have to call the "on-call" pilots who take over 2 hours to get to the airport. We then board around noon, taxi and then get notified of a maintenance issue, so back to the gate. Sit at the gate for another 1-2 hours and finally take off at 2:00pm. Basically 5 hours late. I reach out to United's Customer Care Department, asking for a partial flight credit and they basically tell me to "pound sand" as they dont give credits any longer unless their delays exceed 8 hours!!!

Has anyone had recent experience with United in getting refunds for situations like this? In years past, I had no problems getting small token credits ($100-200/ticket) for maintenance or de-boarding delays of 2-3 hours or so.

This is much worse!!!

[Balta1701]

Ask for a credit and not a refund?

[jasonxctf]

I did. They said no credits unless delayed more than 8 hours. 

[greg775]

On 7/31/2020 at 4:23 PM, jasonxctf said:

So a few weeks ago, the family and I flew from Chicago to South Carolina on United. 9:15AM departure. No pilots arrive, at all. They eventually have to call the "on-call" pilots who take over 2 hours to get to the airport. We then board around noon, taxi and then get notified of a maintenance issue, so back to the gate. Sit at the gate for another 1-2 hours and finally take off at 2:00pm. Basically 5 hours late. I reach out to United's Customer Care Department, asking for a partial flight credit and they basically tell me to "pound sand" as they dont give credits any longer unless their delays exceed 8 hours!!!

Has anyone had recent experience with United in getting refunds for situations like this? In years past, I had no problems getting small token credits ($100-200/ticket) for maintenance or de-boarding delays of 2-3 hours or so.

This is much worse!!!

Sounds dumb, but write a letter on real paper and mail it to whoever is their president/CEO now. I did that once and got credit. they can do whatever they want in these instances and are going to give a "sorry, but ..." to your email and a "sorry, but ..." to your phone call.

What happened to you is so infuriating. it's the worst part of travel. To catch a 9:15 am flight nowadays u get about 4 hours sleep the night before and there is a hurried atmosphere in getting to the gate 50 minutes early, etc. Then you get delayed soooooo long you will be so tired when u finally get to south carolina.

Sucks.

[Jerksticks]

Easy Karen, they probably just laid off tens of thousands of people and have no idea how to project future revenues and expenses.  They got you there, call them and thank them. 

[greg775]

5 hours ago, Jerksticks said:

Easy Karen, they probably just laid off tens of thousands of people and have no idea how to project future revenues and expenses.  They got you there, call them and thank them. 

Actually during a time when people aren't flying much they would probably be more apt to please the customer than in a normal year when all flights are full all the time. ... I love the Karen videos, I really do, but I feel sorry for my cousin Karen. She is a 30-something, very kind and not a big fat pig, and the nicest person you could imagine. She's the polar opposite of the Karen we know nowadays.

Sad her name gets mocked now. I do love those videos. It especially amazes me how many Karens get mad at people for pulling over to the side of a road in a neighborhood, or going to a pool, or trying to get in a building to visit somebody, or being told to wear a mask. We've got some spoiled, very entitled, mean peeps in the USA. And most of the Karens you see on the videos are overweight and ugly and very scary.

Edited August 3, 2020 by greg775

[he gone.]

the situation sucks, but very highly doubt you'll get anything out of it. as someone who travels (ed?) a bunch for business, a 4-5 hour delay, although not enjoyable, wouldn't make my top 25. sucks that it was their fault and not weather related, but such is life. chalk it up as a small inconvenience in a world of many inconveniences today.  

[jasonxctf]

yeah i get it. I'm surprised too... you would think a small token gesture of say $50/ticket would be given. It encourages someone to continue flying with them since they've got that credit to use. At the same point, the credit is small enough where it doesnt really hurt United in any way. 

Instead you've just got someone belly aching about a bad United Airlines experience to whomever asks "how was your trip?"

Guess lack of Airline competition causes these types of situations too.   

[greg775]

27 minutes ago, jasonxctf said:

Instead you've just got someone belly aching about a bad United Airlines experience to whomever asks "how was your trip?"

Maybe it's just coincidence but I've personally had two horrific experiences with United. Really no problems worth mentioning with SWA. I've found SWA to at least care a little bit. Only reason I'd take United is if I had to. SWA rules.

Edited August 3, 2020 by greg775

[he gone.]

1 hour ago, jasonxctf said:

yeah i get it. I'm surprised too... you would think a small token gesture of say $50/ticket would be given. It encourages someone to continue flying with them since they've got that credit to use. At the same point, the credit is small enough where it doesnt really hurt United in any way. 

Instead you've just got someone belly aching about a bad United Airlines experience to whomever asks "how was your trip?"

Guess lack of Airline competition causes these types of situations too.   

Competition is your answer. You've got a handful of choices and on your next flight if United is $200 and American is $300 you'll be right back on the United plane. I have a few colleauges that are very big into their airline loyalty programs and I never get it. I'll go with whatever is the cheapest, direct flights, and time of flight in that order.