United: The tickets you bought were too cheap so we cancelled your vacation

mikea

mikea

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Even for evil airline stories, this one may shock you. How about:

* Holding $5,000 in tickets from a family for six months, then telling them the day before that the flight has been canceled;
* When confronted with the fact that the flight hasn't been canceled, telling the family that the reservation has been lost;
* Finally admitting that they've bumped the family from the flight and were lying about the cancelation and the lost reservation;
* Offering replacement seats on multiple planes and days, splitting the family up on different flights and depositing them at different islands;
* Offering to get them there 5 days into a 7 day vacation, part of which was scheduled to spend time with a family member who was dying in a hospice in Hawaii;
* Refusing to write a letter on the family's behalf so that they can collect their insurance payment on the house they rented but never used.

http://consumerist.com/5036740/unit...ation-then-wont-admit-it-to-insurance-company
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The day before they were to depart, Anita's daughter, Deanna Kawasaki, received an e-mail from United telling her she could check in her party online. But the site would not let her.

When she called United to see what the trouble was, she was told the flight had been canceled.

But that made no sense. Her stepfather had just confirmed his seat, using a different reservation number, so the flight obviously wasn't canceled.

United threw out another explanation – a computer “lost” their reservations. That made no sense, either. If her reservations weren't in the computer, why did she get an e-mail telling her to check in?

At last, United confessed. There was indeed a flight, but they'd been bumped from it. Their assigned seats had been sold to someone else.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/braun/20080813-9999-1m13braun.html
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Musta been a GA plane blocking the seats.:mad:

United is teh eeeval.
 
There are frivolous lawsuits, and then there's this. Don't know that they're even contemplating suing, though many have certainly suggested it. There's not much United can do to make up for not being able to be there to see the father/ex before he passed, but they certainly shouldn't have to eat the cost of the house. As long as the airlines know it's cheaper to treat the customers like dirt than to actually live up to their contracts, they're going to continue doing this. Punitive damages seem to be fair in this sort of case, though I don't know that they are feasible.
 
I hope united get sued into bankruptcy for this.
 
I'm certain this was not any kind of glitch. I gotta believe a HUMAN in "load optimization" or whatever they call it gets involved, hitting a few keys on the ol' keyboard.

The flight is overbooked. They have some, maybe a group or 2, and some singles, willing to pay say, $1200 a seat...and there's this family of 5 who booked seats for $500. Gotta optimize the revenue. Optimize.

What to do? What to do?

Lessee, we have to bump some of these. Of course, let's bump the cheap tickets. Do we **** off 5 customers, or just one group of them? Tap, tappity-tap. The one thing I love about this job is I'm not the one who has to talk to them.
 
Ugg. I've got tickets on United for a family trip in December.
Booked them a couple of months ago too. hmmmmm...
 
You guys are scaring me. I've got tickets for a first time trip over seas to Spain in November. Having never traveled internationally, I'm a little apprehensive anyway...but when I read stories like this it REALLY makes me nervous. Mine are with AA/Iberia but from what I hear they aren't much better. Headed to a cruise leaving from Barcelona. We booked the arrival for a day and half before the cruise departure time to hopefully leave room for any delays, here's hoping we make it. :fcross:
 
Sounds familiar...

I personally experienced that treatment 10 years ago with TWA on a flight from L.A. to Tel Aviv.

The airline grossly overbooked the flight and 40 (!) passengers got stuck in JFK.

There was nobody we could talk to (nobody was in charge of this mess apparently). No manager, no senior representative...

The TWA representatives at the counters were rude and obnoxious.
They lied to us and came up with all kind of lame excuses.

In order to calm us down, we were issued "bonus" tickets to the destination of our choice (what are you complaining about ? You got yourself a great deal !)

We had to wait at the terminal for another 18 hours before we could board another aircraft.

I dumped the 'bonus" tickets into the first rubbish bin I found.

But, like I said, GA is to blame for all that :yes:
 
ausrere said:
You guys are scaring me. I've got tickets for a first time trip over seas to Spain in November. Having never traveled internationally, I'm a little apprehensive anyway...but when I read stories like this it REALLY makes me nervous. Mine are with AA/Iberia but from what I hear they aren't much better. Headed to a cruise leaving from Barcelona. We booked the arrival for a day and half before the cruise departure time to hopefully leave room for any delays, here's hoping we make it. :fcross:
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Lisa, I'd personally take my pile of business away from AA if that happened to you. There are a bunch of PLT and EXP fliers with AA on this board -- if you are having any issues as you prepare to go abroad, don't hesitate to contact any of us (speaking for the group...), and especially me.

Cheers,

-Andrew
 
astanley said:
Lisa, I'd personally take my pile of business away from AA if that happened to you. There are a bunch of PLT and EXP fliers with AA on this board -- if you are having any issues as you prepare to go abroad, don't hesitate to contact any of us (speaking for the group...), and especially me.

Cheers,

-Andrew
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Thanks Andrew! There's 10 of us going, so the roar would be pretty loud if we have problems. You'll probably hear it. :)

I've personally never had any problems with AA or Southwest. Flown both a lot to and from California, but never outside the US. It's going to be a adventure all the way as it is, with or without airline troubles.
 
ausrere said:
Thanks Andrew! There's 10 of us going, so the roar would be pretty loud if we have problems. You'll probably hear it. :)
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Roar away. It won't matter.

Remember when US Airways stranded my 16 year old daughter's soccer team at an airport over 200 miles away at 11:00 pm and told them, "Too bad. There's nothing we can do." The agents all left the airport and left the team stranded. Nobody at US Airways thought it was a bad thing to do. What's the problem? Three parents drove all night to pick them up to get them home.

I've not been on a commercial carrier since. I refuse to go anywhere I'm forced to fly on an airline. Screw 'em all. They all deserve what they're getting.
 
ausrere said:
You guys are scaring me. I've got tickets for a first time trip over seas to Spain in November. :fcross:
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Me, too. I am flying on AA and Iberia free frequent flyer tix LGA-MIA-MAD and back 8/26 - 9/1. (Surprise! no ff tix left direct JFK-MAD. :( ) I'll let you know how it goes. My kids are joining me in MAD but their itinerary starts at ORD, also goes through MIA. They are flying AA all the way. AA and IB have flights leaving Miami for Madrid one hour apart.... one of those flights is going to get cancelled if they are not fully booked. :fcross: :fcross: :fcross: :fcross:

-Skip
 
Mike I wish it were just UA but I think its most of them. My Brother in Law and Sister in Law book flights on USAir from Philly to MIA for a weekend getaway. Fri-Sun. When the got to PHL USAir over booked and bumped them and could not give them any other flight than a flight to Miami The next day saturday. They declined because they were only going for the weekend. They refunded my Sister in Laws Ticket but won't refund my brother in law because they say he was a no show. What Bunk!
 
gibbons said:
Roar away. It won't matter.
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Oh I know. I didn't say it would matter. Only that it could be heard. My family isn't exactly known for being soft spoken. Must be the German blood or something. :)
 
Skip Miller said:
Me, too. I am flying on AA and Iberia free frequent flyer tix LGA-MIA-MAD and back 8/26 - 9/1.
-Skip
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We are going DFW-JFK-BCN on 11/06, back on 11/15. No free tix though. Do let me know how it goes. Thanks!
 
On an AA flight from Rome my SO had a little bad time.

She made it to Rome no problem and caught up with me in Sorrento. We headed back to the US together. I had given her a biz class ticket and I was flying coach, hoping for a VIP upgrade.

On the flight home our plane was canceled out of London so they started putting people on different flights where they could fit them. We were on separate reservations and we hoped for the best.

Turns out they got us on the same flight. Good news.

As we checked in AA apologized to me, the EXP frequent flier and upgraded me to Biz class.

When Karen checked in they apologized to her and said all they had was coach seat and downgraded her. HHHmmmmm
 
smigaldi said:
As we checked in AA apologized to me, the EXP frequent flier and upgraded me to Biz class.

When Karen checked in they apologized to her and said all they had was coach seat and downgraded her. HHHmmmmm
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And you let her sit there instead of offering to swap?

You live dangerously, Scott!
 
ausrere said:
You guys are scaring me. I've got tickets for a first time trip over seas to Spain in November. Having never traveled internationally, I'm a little apprehensive anyway...but when I read stories like this it REALLY makes me nervous. Mine are with AA/Iberia but from what I hear they aren't much better. Headed to a cruise leaving from Barcelona. We booked the arrival for a day and half before the cruise departure time to hopefully leave room for any delays, here's hoping we make it. :fcross:
Click to expand...

astanley said:
Lisa, I'd personally take my pile of business away from AA if that happened to you. There are a bunch of PLT and EXP fliers with AA on this board -- if you are having any issues as you prepare to go abroad, don't hesitate to contact any of us (speaking for the group...), and especially me.

Cheers,

-Andrew
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What Andrew said. I'm one of the AA PLTs here. Chances are, you will be fine, especially if someone in your group is PLT or EXP.

I do a LOT of international travel on AA, DL, and CO.

Minimize chances of bumping by calling a couple of days in advance and reconfirming the flights (shouldn't be necessary, but ALL airlines do schedule changes and connections can get screwed up in the process....). Verify the times and check-in at the 24 hour mark. If you've got a seat assignment and boarding pass, it's much harder for them to bump you. Yes, I've heard about AA changing seat assignments on folks recently. Show up at the airport early. Be nice :) to the gate agents - on AA the gate agents still have a lot of control... and can do folks favors.

Iberia's a different animal - and all bets are off (even with a code-share). If you follow the procedure, though, things should work out. If the "ticket stock" (e.g. the first three digits of the ticket number) are AA, they should take care of you in the event that things go awry.

And if all else fails, the Ft. Worth corporate office is an easy drive from Austin ;)
 
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This year's international travel has been on SAS and US Air. SAS has consistently treated me well. I wish they went more places I go. US Air wasn't bad from SEA to Milan (through PHL), but that cheap ticket my company bought came at a price - red eye from SEA to PHL on Friday night, 10 hour layover at PHL and another overnight flight to Milan. Yuck. Fortunately, US Air is a Star Alliance partner and I'm *Gold through United, so I could use their lounge. Made the wait a bit more comfortable. I've got UA (mostly) for a trip to Osaka in October (1 leg on ANA). UA is tolerable for one reason - Economy Plus seating. That extra 4 to 5 inches of legroom can be a life saver.

Try and get exit row seats, and if there are two exit rows together, get the rear one. The front row won't recline.

Have fun.
 
Would trip insurance cover this kind of airline tampering with your reserved tickets? I don't usually buy trip insurance (except for overseas trips)... but if I bought tickets for all five in my family and had a vacation messed up the way those folks did, I'd feel better about it (barely) if I could at least recoup the expenses.
 
TangoWhiskey said:
Would trip insurance cover this kind of airline tampering with your reserved tickets? I don't usually buy trip insurance (except for overseas trips)... but if I bought tickets for all five in my family and had a vacation messed up the way those folks did, I'd feel better about it (barely) if I could at least recoup the expenses.
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Read the article. They had trip insurance. The insurance wants a letter from United about the flight being canceled (or whatevah) but United won't provide a letter.
 
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I think many of us have this type of story. Witness my online booking of a great fare on Delta, my credit card (which had no balance on it) was mysteriously "denied" by email, and when I logged back on thirty minutes later to try again the fare had increased by 50%.

Certainly their experience was the pinnacle of BS though.
 
:confused::confused:The gloom and doom is piling up for the friendly skies.
 
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