The United Airlines Way of Service

I am writing this article out of sheer frustration and to voice what I have experienced. I know I cannot reach the top management, to explain to them what it feels like to be treated this horribly but I want to let whoever reads this article know.

My husband and I had an amazing vacation in Malaysia for the last 2 weeks. Nothing could have ruined it. Until we landed in Narita airport in Tokyo and got on a United Airlines flight bound for Newark NJ. Our flight was at 5:55 pm and all passengers were asked to board the plane. It was heavily snowing and there was no way the flight could have taken off. But we still boarded the flight. After 5 hours of sitting in the plane and telling us that some form of deicing will be done the captain let us know that the flight is cancelled. It took a further one hour to let people out. We were simply handed a piece of paper asking to call a United customer care number to rebook our flights. No hotels will be provided and food vouchers will be given out.

All hell broke loose after that. It took hours to get through to customer service and to rebook a flight. No food was available at the airport, all shops were closed. It was a complete shutdown. Not surprisingly though the business class passengers were the first to get out and the first ones to be taken to the lounge where they got a good night’s sleep and proper meals. The rest of the ‘crowd’ were simply left on their own. Flimsy sleeping bags were handed out and a small pack of dry crackers per person. I ask you Mr. Oscar Munoz would you sleep in those sleeping bags on the floor of an airport with nothing to have but crackers?

Because we were asked to leave the gate area and collect our luggage we did not have any access to lounges. Doors were shut on our face with not a single agent outside to help us in any way. I understand that this was a weather situation but is it not the duty of the organization to work with the Japanese authority to take care of their customers? There was a plane full of food that United would have provided its passengers with during the flight. Could they not have at least served that food to the passengers they let off? What would it have really cost them to do so? Is it so important to be a gold star member or a business class passenger to get simple facilities? Are we not human or only money defines our needs and how we feel?

After crying, begging and shouting we finally got a flight the next day at 10:40 am on ANA with whom United code shares but that flight was delayed until 1:50 pm. I believe we were amongst some of the lucky people to get out of there while thousands are still stranded. Funnily enough though half hour plane was empty. I wonder how ineffective and inefficient you need to be to fly a plane in this situation that’s half empty while people are waiting outside to get on one. Some people travelling to Toronto swore that they would never get on a United flight again. I personally will not consider United ever again. Despite being mileage plus card holders we have so far never gotten a single benefit and this is certainly not worth it.

Our flight to Washington DC (because we could not get a direct flight to Newark) finally landed at 2 pm the next day. The next connecting flight was at 5:30 pm which already had an air traffic control delay of 1 hour. The agent was unable to tell us how many more hours will there be a delay for so we decided to rent a car and drive back to NJ ourselves. But lo and behold! United showed its ineffectiveness once more by losing one of our luggage within just 20 minutes of putting them on the conveyer belt at immigration and walking to the main terminal to collect it. It is unfortunate that we had to shout once again to have someone locate the luggage. I have never seen behavior such as this. The United agent in the lost and found service first told us ‘first of all this is a courtesy that we are bringing your bags to the main terminal. You would have had to pay a fee to do this but we are doing this for free’. I cannot even begin to explain how angry or frustrated I felt after over 24 hours of no sleep and food, to have to explain to more people what they did wrong and to be asked for fees? Who would be compensating us for what we have gone through? For the ineffectiveness of the organization who would compensate us? This was the first time we ever took an international flight on United. And this will be the last time. No wonder US airline companies especially United have such bad reputation all over the world. It’s because they can only think of money and their yearly targets and cost reductions. Those cost reductions however come at the cost of losing more leg space but always in the economy class, having smaller and smaller meals but only in the economy class, having uncomfortable and tiny seats but only in the economy class and the worse possible customer service but only for the economy class. I work in Finance myself, I know how these cost cuts work. To the corporations and especially to United – what would you do without your general customer base? How will you meet your yearly financial targets without us? No wonder you will never be a world class leader in the industry.