- Report: #1274422
Complaint Review: united airlines - Nationwide
Reported By:
FairConsumer_405 -
Seattle, Washington, usa
Submitted:
Updated:
-
Author Confirmed
Why?
united airlines
Nationwide, USA
Web:
www.united.com
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united airlines delayed, cancelled, 5 hour wait, chicago, iL Nationwide
I had the pleasure of witness a level of incompetence at a level that borders on criminal. Then just to make sure I got the message about what type of airline United operates, I was literally walked away from without so much as a sir, I will be right back we need to board another plane which I would have understood. What I can not understand is what kind of organization makes it preferable to let a representative walk away without that low level of respect. So lets go back over things... this is after a night of light sleet/freezing rain and rain with temps around 32 degrees << relevant later/ Summary is below if you just need the highlights. Summary: United gave us 2 different reasons for delays to my flight, 1 crew not on time, then a plane blocking the gate, only to finally rest on
Summary: United gave us 2 different reasons for delays to my flight, 1 crew not on time, then a plane blocking the gate, only to finally rest on third choice of freezing rain that was always present before the flight time.
United, showed no compassion nor empathy for its passengers no victims today, during a time where boards were inaccurate, agents ignored language barriers and proceeded to treat victims with a "go away, get out of my face" attitude.
United, rushed us onto a flight with a single boarding announcement with regards to group boarding etc. This left many confused about where to be as another flight filled the gate we were moved to. We didnt know it was time to board until we heard the final boarding call as the second announcement United forced my family to sit on
United forced my family to sit on a HOT plane on a tarmac for 5 hours, with a wide array of justifications, none of which were not "united" as I recall. Then left us in a windy tunnel waiting for luggage that was sent to baggage claim where we could not retrieve it. United made sure to remind us that it didn't really matter that we had been on that plane longer than it would have taken to fly across the country. Again there was a here go to this cheap hotel close by and get out of my face << this was not
United made sure to remind us that it didn't really matter that we had been on that plane longer than it would have taken to fly across the country. Again there was a here go to this cheap hotel close by and get out of my face << this was not side but the sentiment was clear and after getting it from more than 3 people I got the message, im slow but I get there. multiple phone calls were dropped when we tried to call, the 800 number, no one announced a agent number etc so im sure this will be ignored.
we were told by rep, who at one point was telling a customer "don't look at this board, listen to what im telling you". The man had very light English so you could tell he was having trouble understanding but this long haired, light brown highlights and fair skinned African-American lady could have cared less, it was apparent in her demeanor, her tone and body language. (strike 1)
we were told by rep, who at one point was telling a customer "don't look at this board, listen to what im telling you". The man had very light English so you could tell he was having trouble understanding but this long haired, light brown highlights and fair skinned African-American lady could have cared less, it was apparent in her demeanor, her tone and body language. (strike 1)
we were told ~5am we were waiting on a crew that couldn't get to the airport on time even though we had at least 60 other people that made it with no problem then we were told we had to wait for the plane at that gate to be moved for our plane to be parked there, this was maybe 6am... (strike 2), if we can get there your people should be there as well
Next we were told to change gates, rushed and only communicated overhead once left a few people wondering as they returned. It was not said but the assumption was we were moving so they could park our plane there without having to move the other plane... after 45 more mins it was apparent that there was some other delay... (strike 3), poor/lack of communication
~6:45 We were then told by the same unpleasant unempathetic individual that there was now freezing rain falling and we couldn't take off in that weather. This was the same weather that had been present since the night before... (horrible communication, freezing rain had been off and on all night this was not something new. (strike 4), inconsistencies in communication,
~7:45-8:20 We were told again in a rushed poorly communicated fashion that we needed to board the plane, the communication here was so bad the lady called groups 1, 2 and 3 within 5 mins of each other and another flight began to line up as well. The next thing we heard was this is the final boarding for the flight, we made the shift along with maybe 15 -20 others to board the plane. (strike 5), poor communication, rushed process no consideration of consequences of those actions
then the real fun starts: ~8:30 - 12:30 we are sitting on the tarmac, waiting to be deiced, then we get a partial deice, and the ice truck leaves... and never returns, during this time other passengers noted at least 2 other planes land unboarded / reboarded and depart one was southwest. The plane got very warm at times, with people sweating and repeatedly asking for the temperature to be made more comfortable.... no action, just a constant "ok, I will let them know" I never understood who "them was... but I didnt ask. (strike 5), completely uncalled for, if we were not ready to go through the deicing process, why did we board? why wouldnt a captain make a call at a say 2 hour mark if things were not progressing as planned?
~12:30-1:45 We are informed that the flight crew can't make the trip because of time restrictions and we had to deplane. We are still on the plane and can not deplane because we can't get to the sky bridge.. power was reported as the issue.. Prior to this we had been told it would be very complicated and difficult to deplane but if needed we could. Then when there was a chance for the crew to get off the plane the process to deplane started. (strike 6), this should have been called long before the crew was the reason, this says to me the victims, meh but when the crew is affected.. yea thats when we move.
~1:45 We are finally off the plane, we were told they would bring our bags up to the sky bridge so now we are waiting in a very windy cold damp sky bridge for 20 mins before someone says your bags are at baggage claim... Keep in mind we cant go get them and still return to work on our flights because of security, I know there could be an assumption of duh we know that but based on the level of competence I saw with untied today I didnt want to assume someone knew this. (strike 6), miscommunication that lead to use sitting in the ~30-degree wind unnecessarily.
~2:30 - 4:pm I get to speak with a rep (Briana) that tried to find additional flights, she had to get a lot of assistance from a Hispanic lady that spoke Spanish but after maybe a hour she had my family booked on a new flight with an arrival time of 2am into Seattle, so thanks for blowing a day of work, school and earning for me for Monday, awesome!. She at one point left (once I asked what else are you doing besides trying to put me in a horrible hotel close by), how do I get there? how to I get food and clothing for my family ? The Hispanic lady was clearly helping another man and we had 4 other people waiting. Then she leaves, a guy came over and sais someone needed her to do something.. she didn't address the man she was helping directly, myself or anyone else in the line she just left in the most disrespectful manner possible. (strike 7, horrible communication customer service)
I asked to speak to a manager, no one could find one. (strike 8) ~4:30 our bags made it to baggage claim as we were told a few HOURS before.
3 Updates & Rebuttals
final entry
#2Author of original report
Mon, December 28, 2015
lets just say that United agreed that it was a horrible experience and sent me some compensation that I think is fair. Im sorry I am huge on service and for my $$$ I expect some respect and curtesies that some people dont. Those that like being trreated likw this and paying for it can have fun. I am simply not that person. My compensation covered the cost of my plane tickets(family of 4) +
Chase
Alabama,USA
United is United in Incompentence
#3Consumer Comment
Mon, December 28, 2015
sir. I firmly agree. This airlines doesn't border on criminal behavior toward people they continue to get away with criminal behavor. I have had 5 departure times in 5 hours. Are they so incompetent that they canot make a better business decision. now I see why my friends don't want to fly United.
Robert
Irvine,California,
USA
Typical Self-Centered PITA customer.
#4Consumer Comment
Wed, December 16, 2015
This, or should I say people like you, is one of many reasons that I am glad I no longer have to deal with the "public" as I had to many moons ago.
Seriously, the way you come off here you seem to think that they did this to YOU intentionally. As if you think they had nothing better to do than to stick a plane full of angry, stressed out, tired, passengers in a closed in space for 5 hours just to get their "jollies". No, I can pretty much guarantee you that the crew was just as anxious to either get under way or get off the plane so they didn't have to listen to passengers counting up strikes just foaming at the mouth to get a hold of supervisors as soon as you got off the plane.
Yes, you had a flight delay that looks like the primary cause was weather...get the h*** over it.
Now as to your "strikes", a majority of them all appear to be a matter of perspective...
Strike 1 - Guess what, most of the "boards" are automated based on what "should" be happening. However, the local staff may have additional details. So yes, if they say ignore the boards...ignore the boards.
Strike 2 - Unrealistic. Just because YOU made it to the airport with 60 other people does not automatically require that everyone else does. After all since you were going across country, the plane probably held at least 100-180+. So I guess to you the others who didn't make it were just SOL..right?
Strike 3 - More assumptions...not fact
Strike 4 - You yourself admited that the rain was "off and on". So I guess having they try to do something like take off between rain cells didn't cross your mind. I bet if they didn't get you on the plane and you saw planes taking off you would be complaining that they didn't try.
Strike 5 - Standard Boarding of flights is anywhere from 30-45 minutes, so your description of the boarding process doesn't seem any more rushed than a normal flight on any airline.
Strike 6 - Again it is amazing how your degree in Airport Operations is coming into play. After all you have the whole thing figured out. One thing I find very interesting is that in the 4 hours you were on the plane you report seeing 2 planes taking off. Even if it was double and there were 4 planes taking off..that is one every 30 minutes. I would bet that is signicantly less than normal.
Strike 7 - You talk about a how a lady just left in the most disrepectful manner possible. Well what does that mean? I see that as having someone curing you up and down, flipping you off, disperaging your entire family and screaming at the top of their lungs....so is that what you are saying happened.
Look I get it your plane got severly delayed/cancelled due to weather. Of course it sucks, but the reality is that most of your report is really fully of "assumptions", "feelings" and not really fact.
Oh by the way No I do not work for them, in fact I don't even fly them for various reasons. I am basically just commenting on your "over the top" report.
