United Airlines Execs Scam

    A bit of easy activism for you on a weekend--if you needed more evidence of the corruption of corporate America, just check out United Airlines. Here's an airline in bankruptcy, it reaches a deal to jettison its pension plans and dumps those liabilites on the government, which means a lot of workers will not get the pensions they thought they would get--and, yet, the executive have, once again, enriched themselves...in secret.

    In a March 17th letter sent  by Greg Davidowitch, president of the airline's flight attendants, to United CEO Glenn Tilton, Davidowitch slams, rightly so, the "clandestine" salary increase and apparently still-planned bonuses Tilton gave to himselm and three other top executives. I suppose it's naive, these days, to be stunned at the outright immoral behavior of these modern-day Robber Barons. But, when these flight attendants are working, because of wage and benefit concessions, at 1991 pay rates and paying more for health care, it is obscene for these execs to be essentially looting the company.

    I use the word looting explicitly--it's only a fine legal distinction between the people who were convicted of breaking the law when they looted companies like WorldCom and people like the United pirates who certainly break any semblance of moral probity. Now, let me tell you how I really feel...

    So, anyway, get out there and sign the petition being circulated by the Communications Workers of America (the flight attendants belong to CWA) to demand that the United gang give back the money.

Comments

[Nunzio Gambino]

Those fuckers. I hate those guys. They need to give back those bonuses. UA should disolve their mileage program, and then maybe the judge will come to life when he loses his mileage points.

[S]

I worked for United for 27 years and just retired. All of what has been heard and said is real. You have a tired older judge with absolutely no vision and has been trying to get off the United BK case. You have a management and supervisors (6 deep) team with no concept. Taking no responsibilities and being paid top dollars? What have they done(?) or offered that the rest of us could have not done (even first year student of Econ could have come up with the pension dismissal) if we wanted to screw our thousands of long term employees. First, it was Steven Wolfe that took millions, now a incompetent "senior management team". If sense can be made out of it, there is a minimum of 300 supervisors, middle management, and senior managers that should be fired saving somewhere around $29,000,000.00 per year. That right 29 million dollars and you would not miss them. For management that may read this: over the next five years with inflation, COL, etc that comes to around 1.8 billion dollars. You took away from your long term employee a 3 billion dollars pensions. Are you happy with your selves? To save more look to top management for greed and slippery dealing with self serving, hidden agenda there's another 10-15 million a year. The airlines could be profitable with less management tiers but cannot fly with flight attendants. We are the real people being hurt. Management stays in their tower, pilots lock themselves in the cockpit and gate agent hand problems back the purser. Flight attendants are the marketers, problem solver, deal with angry passengers, security, servants, cleaning crew, child care, etc. The flight attendants take on the responsibility of United Airlines. Based on time in the air, at the gate, between flights, layover/ground time our hourly pay my come down to $15.00 before taxes. The Mechanics and flight attendants insure the flights are safe. We are revenue generating employees and we are getting the shaft. The senior management are an disgrace and embracement.

[Kendy]

I will not be flying United again. This is not a problem that should be a concern to only those working in the Airline industry. Keep in mind government bail outs of the airlines and also American trends, tend to make this an issue for all of us.

[Derek S]

United Airlines FREE Ticket
If United Airlines offers you a Free Ticket if you give up your seat because they overbooked the flight...Think twice before you accept. In March of this year I was flying home from a company business trip. While I was waiting for my flight to board the "Friendly" voice came over the P.A. system asking for volunteers to give up their seats because they overbooked the flight. I jumped up from my seat and made it over to the counter (first in line). The United Airlines representative advised she would give me a "Free" roundtrip ticket anywhere United Airlines flew (domestic 48 states) and can be used anytime within 1 year from issue date. Jumping at the offer (knowning that my wife would like travel with me on business trips) I accepted the offer. The whole time I was sitting in the airport waiting for the next available flight I kept reminding myself of the rewards I would have next time when my wife could travel with me. So the wait didn't seem that bad.

June of this year I was sent out again on a business trip. This time it was off to Georgia. My wife wanted to go and see the history landmarks. So I called United Airlines to make arrangements for my wife to travel along using my "Free" roundtrip airline ticket. I spoke with reservations and informed them that I had this "Free" ticket and written on the voucher was "Transferable". Knowing this I knew my wife could use this ticket. After providing my "Mileage Plus" membership card and dates and times of travel I was informed that I could NOT use this "Free" ticket. Puzzled I asked, Why? I was informed that the "Free" tickets/vouchers were to be used in a "Q" class rating of travel. "Q" class rating, what is that I asked? I was informed that "Q" class was a form of economy seating. Furthermore, he goes onto say all the economy "Q" class seating were taken on the plane. With this I quickly got on the computer and checked the flight for open seats. While still having reservations on the phone I noticed the plane was only half full. As a matter of fact from mid-section to the rear of the plane was empty. I asked him why she couldn't sit in an empty seat. He states those weren't economy seats. I know your asking yourself the same question...a seat is a seat. As long as its not First Class....coach is coach. Well in the United Airlines hand book I guess not. Each seat as he explained has a classification assigned to it. Crazy I know. But it appears just to be another way of United getting out of fulfilling their "Free" ticket obligations.

Upset with this information I hung up and called customer service. Yep you guessed it. I got someone on the phone who couldn't speak ENGLISH. After several attempted to explain my situation I got frustrated and hung up. Calling back a second time in hopes of reaching someone that spoke ENGLISH. Once again received another person who could barely speak the english language. I asked where they were located and they said, INDIA. India I asked? Why would United Airlines outsource their customer relations to India. Wow, I was amazed. Frustrated I called reservations again and was told the same information. I then asked well is there another flight my wife could get on in the same day that this ticket would be good for? He stated NO. The nearest flight for her would be on the 20th. The same day I returned from my trip. I asked now why would my wife want to go on a business trip with me only to leave for the trip when I was returning. Yet another way of United Airlines getting out of their responsibility of "Free" ticket rewards.

Conclusion: I went out of my way to assist United Airlines when they overbooked their flight. Now that the flight was cleared United has turned its shoulder on me and won't honor their "Free" ticket. SHAME ON YOU UNITED AIRLINES. SO I GUESS YOUR NOT THE "FRIENDLY SKIES".

[Carl]

United Airlines used to be the Class of the airline industry. They treated their customers with respect and their employees with a good income and benefits. Thus, American families could travel and be able to not live off welfare.

For some reason, things have changed CEOs get richer and the workers get the shaft. No wonder they are frustrated with customers and their employer. It is very hard for me to call their customer service without getting Mary or Jim, both with an Indian accent. :O

I cannot stand talking to someone with a foreign accent when I call an American company. Either move to India or hire Americans that can speach fluent English, the language of America.

I had a problem with UA. I bought a ticked on the phone with a coupon from Entertainment 2006. I was told I had to mail it in and ensure it got there before a deadline. After thinking about that, I called back and made another reservation, cancelled the first one and was told to take my coupon to the airport for immediate ticketing with that coupon. There was not enough time for the mail.

I did that. Four days later, I recieved a confirmation letter from the first cancelled reservation. I called and spoke with a real American in Chicago, yes I was in awe. Steve said Shiela didn't cancel the first ticket. So he did and I would have my refund in 7-10 business days. 30 went by and I called back, to India. I think they said something about 30 safety checks on refunds. I emailed my request and was told 2 times that someone would call me shortly. 30 more days and no phone call. I called the Refund Department again, recently. I was told the refund was denied and a letter had been sent out. Guess what, no letter.

I find it totally unacceptable for United Airlines representatives to tell me to do something, then the company keeps all my money and doesn't refund it as promised by those representatives.

I am a frequent flyer, but cannot use those miles as they have only 3-4 seats per flight for miles use.

United Airlines is now the bottom of the scum pit. They are not the Friendly Skies. I would rather fly Aeroflot. I will NOT be a customer of United Airlines in the future and suggest would be customers to BEWARE of their poor business practices.

See you in small claims court United!!

[Cheri]

I just had a problem with my husbands name on his ticket. The reservation department said they could not help. They said we needed to buy another ticket. The customer service department said they would "file a report". They admitted that no one would ever get back to me. None of these people would give me a number for management - they did say that, "managment does not take calls". It was a infuriating, futile experience. They have the worse customer service in the industry. I will never fly with them again. I hope other's will learn from this and not book with them either. By the way - had it just been a misspelling issue, (not our fault) we would have been charged 110 dollars - and we had electronic tickets.

[Rich Feller]

I was furloughed from UAL 5 years ago after 30 years of service.It's apparent that something is going to happen....UAL?CAL,UAL/DAL something is going to happen and the only people that will walk away with a smile are upper management. The only way for any employee group to have something to work for is to stop all the constant internal bickering and form a unified group to protect yourselves. You all need to get into a room and discuss all the issues that effect you, everything is on the table for discussion. Once you have a unified plan then you can attempt to protect yourselves. The consequences are that management will dictate to you and YOU WILL HAVE NO CHOICE!
Don't think that you can successfully with hold your services because that stragety has no t worked...to many people will take your job flying air planes, fixing airplanes or servicing them. Outsourcing and "wet-leasing" will take up the load. The government and the general public will NOT CARE, until something happens...but by that time upper mangement will be sitting with their feet up laughing all the way to the bank.

[Rebekah]

Nearly a year ago a flight attendant spilled red wine on me during a United flight from London to San Francisco. The woman apologized and gave me a card to fill out with my address etc. so that UA could send me a check for the dry cleaning. To my surprise, I received a $200 Discount Certificate to be used within a year. I recently made called to use my Discount Certificate and found that I would need to mail the certificate or drop it by a United ticket counter to complete my reservations. There was a balance that would be due over an above the value of the certificate and I provided my credit card details over the phone to the reservations agent (from India). I opted to take the Discount Certificate to the ticket counter at the Phoenix Skyharbor airport and did not bring my credit card with me. I was informed by the woman behind the desk, that I would have to provide another card even though they had my card information on file. (Rob Eely, the man I made the reservation with over the phone never mentioned this to me.) My mother happened to be with me and offered to let me use her card, so I did. I called the Reservations line (in India) today to see if I would be able to change the payment so that it would be on my card and was informed that I would need to wait until the trip was complete and pay $35 to process the change. I asked to speak with his manager, who told me there was nothing she could do for me and gave me a telephone number to call. When I dialed the number the line was busy! No recording, just a busy signal. I called the Reservations line back, went through the automated system for the 2nd time and rather than enter all my details asked to be transferred to an agent. The nice recorded voice said in an American accent that he would transfer me and suddenly I heard a busy signal again!! I called back a 3rd time and happened to reach Marlon Phan a customer service rep in the Philippines. I informed him of the situation and my frustration in trying to use the Discount Certificate, which was given to me by UA in an effort to make up for their spilling red wine on me. He suggested that I just pay my mother back. Well yes that would be simpler than dealing with them, but now it's a matter of principal!! I asked why their policy was to get a credit card from the customer rather than using the one on file when applying the Discount Certificate in person when they would have gladly used the credit card information on file if I had mailed the Certificate to them. His only response was because I was there they would need to swipe the card. It was obvious that I was getting nowhere with him, so I asked for a number to call in the US. He gave me a number for Customer Relations, which according to him is based in Chicago so I dialed 877-228-1327 and pressed the option to speak to someone about a complaint. A recording informed me that their call volume was too high at the moment and that I would need to call back later. Ha!! No doubt other people calling about the lack of customer service they are getting from the "robots" UA is outsourcing their customer service to in foreign countries!! So I tried once more to reach someone by selecting to the option to speak with someone regarding a reservation and received a busy signal again. They would have been better off paying for my dry cleaning than giving me this Discount Certificate. It's going to cost them a lot more than $200 to win me back after this.

P.S. Are there any airlines or other American companies that don't outsource their customer service? If so, I am going to make it a point to do business with them.

[Dottie Tsitos]

Once again United Airlines plays games with traveler's lives.

Today we will contact every possible legal and media force in the United State regarding the irresponsible and unethical practice United utilizes to limit and discourage customers from using their mileage plus miles for tickets.

In February of 2007, my daughter-in-law, Dottie Tsitos, purchased her ticket for Athens, Greece from Dulles Airport, VA. With her would be traveling her young daughter, Alina, less than two years old, and her son Kade Tsitos, five years old. With her miles she purchased her itinerary and was given the confirmation number of TCF2MU for united and the coop confirmation for Austrian Airlines: Z I A X 9 E
I, Pamela Tsitos, being handicapped, purchased a ticket for the same itinerary with my mileage plus miles: United confirmation: ZQVKD4 (Austrian Air confirmation ZRVZV2) and with money we purchased a ticket for Kade, again five years old, United confirmation KJX19S (Austrian confirmation ZTO2ZA).

At the time we made all the arrangements: FEBRUARY 2007, we were not given specific information on upgrades to business class and I was not told that I could not upgrade my ticket because it was to be with Austrian air. On the contrary I was told I could do so at a later date when I had more miles. Again I am handicapped.

I , Pamela Tsitos, use exclusively the United Credit card in order to obtain miles. I will cancel that card today as the miles are of no value and a bogus scam on the part of United.

United Airlines has secretly canceled, with no warning, no notification, the reservation of Dottie Tsitos. We only found out that information yesterday because I called Austrian Air to get seats assigned in view of my inability to walk well.
Now, isn't it interesting that one old handicapped woman and a five year old are supposed to travel from DC to Athens, Greece without the child's mother or sister!!!! Dottie Tsitos would not have found out about this information until she went to check in at the airport on July 5, 2007!

This information will go to the Washington Post today and to every human being we know. United has a reputation of doing this and the consequences only affect the lives of the customer. This is a scam to foce the public to purchase overpriced tickets or cancel their trip.
You should be punished by law for misrepresentation, manipulation of the rules and regulation of mileage plus tickets and fraud.

[Sachiko]

What FREIENDLY SKIES? United needs to improve their flight attendants' education.
I flew from Hawaii to Japan and met the scarist flight attendant in my life. I am 4' 11" and could not reach the overhead compartment. So I asked this flight attendant to put my bag there and she screamed at me saying if I could not place my stuff there I should have put it as a checked baggage. She also said if she kept helping passengers like this, her back would get injured and it was not her job to do this. So, as a Japanese who is used to courteous attitudes of Japanese flight attendants, I said, "Is it not your job to help passengers?" She got very angry and commanded me to sit in my seat and said that she did not feel comfortable with me sitting if front of her, I was sitting at an Exit row, and she would move me. By then I got very scared and asked for her name. I was determined to report it to UA. She hesitated to give her name card then, but eventually she did. I then asked the Chief Parcer to move me where I did not have to deal with her. Fortunately, he helped me out and I felt much safer.
I was traumatized with this this experience for a while and thought that there was no way that I would use UA again in my life. I tell everyone about my experience and I would not recommend UA at all.
Does UA educate flight attendants at all? OR is it all about making money on CEO side and all kinds of workers rights on workers side? What about customers?
What "FREIDLY SKIES" are you talking about?

[Radhika]

I had a bad experience with UA. I reached Chicago O'Hare and saw a long line infront of UA counters. I had my flight at 5.50 p.m and usually an hour and half with a confirmed reservation would be okay. I had one bag to check in. I realized it would take me more than 40 minutes to get to the counter so I approached the UA agent and said i have to checkin and she cut me off straight saying everyone is in the same situation. I had no choice and when I approached the counter and slide my card for eticket (this airport has e ticketing for carry on only outside and any one with baggage has to go thru lines)guess what? It wouldn't allow me to print my ticket as the baggage claim is closed just 1 minute before. I tried to get help from each UA agent/supervisor and no one helped. I had to get into a big fight with them and ultimately they said all they can do is give me standby to another airport. They had two flights canceled before our the one after is delayed. All flights are over booked and any back to back flights too they said are not available. He asked if I can pay $ 100 each extra he can find something on Tuesday. It appeared to me as some kind of scam. The agent also asked me if I had the UA milege plus and hearing no he said there is nothing he can do. I was given a standby for next day. Next day its the same story. I called the customer service and I lost my temper. They finally said they could confirm my tickets to another nonstop plane to another destination but cannot get to the destination I have reservations for. I was exhausted and decided to take it and thought to myself I will never ever travel by this airline.

[MLPET]

I WATCHED FLIGHT ATTENDANTS DROP FOOD ON THE FLOOR AND PICK IT UP AND PUT IT BACK ON THE CUSTOMERS PLATES,IN FIRST AND BUSINESS CLASS CABINS. I WATCHED PLANES TAKE OFF WITH TAPE HOLDING SOME OF THIER PARTS TOGETHER.(OUTSIDE THE PLANE)I 'VE SEEN PASSENGERS BOARD A PLANE AFTER ANOTHER PASSENGER LOST CONTROL OF THEIR BLADDER IN THE SAME SEAT THE NEXT PASSENGER SAT IN , AFTER MINIMAL CLEANING OF THE SEAT! I'VE SEEN LAVATORIES SO FULL OF WASTE,THAT THE FLIGHT ATTENDANTS HAD TO LOCK THEM UP FOR THE FLIGHT BECAUSE THE COMPANY DIDN'T HAVE TIME TO SERVICE IT.I'VE WATCHED FLIGHTS GET CANCELLED THE LAST MINUTE BECAUSE THE CREW SCHEDULING SCREWED UP SO BADLY! I'VE WATCHED PLANES TAKE OFF WITH OUT THE NECESSARY SUPPLIES TO SERVICE THE PASSENGERS.PASSENGERS WERE LIED TO. I'VE WATCHED MARRIED EMPLOYEES GOING INTO HOTEL ROOMS WITH OTHER MARRIED OR SINGLE EMPLOYEES AND NOT THIER PARTNERS!I'VE WATCHED 65-75 YEAR OLD FLIGHT ATTENDANTS TRY TO DO A JOB THEY'RE JUST TOO OLD TO DO ANY LONGER.BUT THE HARDEST TO ENDURE IS WATCHING THE COMPANY ENCOURAGE OVERZEALOUS SUPERVISORS TO HUNT DOWN AND CONSTRUCTIVELY FIRE HARD WORKING EMPLOYEES WHO DO THIER JOB GREAT, BUT UNFORTUNATLY ARE IN THE TOP PAY SCALE. THEN HIRE NEW EMPLOYEES FOR LESS THAN HALF PRICE AND AT THE SAME TIME WATCH THE MANAGMENT TAKE MORE AND MORE INCLUDING REST HOURS PER DAY,SALERIES,BENEFITS AND PUT THE MONEY IN THIER OWN POCKETS.THIS WAS MY FIRST CORPORATE EXPERIENCE AND IT WILL BE MY LAST!IT'S NO WONDER THIS AIRLINE WAS IN BANKRUPTCY FOR YEARS. AS "UNITED" AS THEY SAY THEY ARE IS AS SEPERATED AS THEY REALLY ARE.WE HARDLY FLEW THEM WHEN I WAS EMPLOYEED BY THEM AND WE DON'T ADVISE ANYONE ELSE TO FLY ON THEM EITHER.

[PisseD]

Do not fly United. They have obviously hired the people that rode the little busses to school (or live in India). Try to redeem your "award" miles for anything other than a large jar of Vaseline. You'll need it - helps to ease the pain encountered when dealing with their "friendly" customer service representatives (whose ancestors worked in the concentration camps).

I love United Airlines. I hope they win the corporate award for bankrupt companies that are allowed to continue to screw the flying public.

Stay in school - that way you won't ever be forced to work for United airlines.

Love,

The flying public

[Tim]

Odd to say that I am glad to read that so many of you received the shaft from United like we did. "Hey United"..you suck, your planes suck, your CEO sucks and your customer service realllllyyy sucks". You can keep your free ticket and take back your mileage we have accrued.
My wife's mother had a confirmed ticket and seat assignment for a flight from Dulles to NY-JFK. She was bumped (not asked, but told she had to leave the plane )along with 17 others due to luggage-poundage overload.Nice job checking bags United. Next flight was 4 hours later, they sent her to LaGuardia instead of JFK, she had to pay her own way back to the Rockaways with no luggage.. that made it to JFK..it finally found it's way to her..five days later, hours on the phone to what must have been Bangladesh-probably the worst customer service event I have ever witnessed. She is 74. Travelling alone. Rarely travels at all.Trying to get her baggage from the dummies at United was incredible. "Hey United"...never mind you don't listen and never will. You stink and always will.

[jack]

what's needed is a secret fund to "take care" of these problem execs. I am willing to donate.

[Carol]

How about an updated nightmare from United! These people are unbelievable!!!
United Still Struggling With Cancelations
By Kyle Peterson,
Reuters
Posted: 2008-01-02 17:15:37
CHICAGO (Jan. 2) - United Airlines canceled dozens of flights on Wednesday, adding to the more than 1,100 cancellations since December 23 that the No. 2 U.S. carrier blamed on weather but its pilots blamed on insufficient staffing.
"Weather for December was the worst in our history," McCarthy said. She said United was "uniquely impacted" by fog and snow storms in its hub cities of Chicago and Denver.

United's pilots union, however, said the airline was simply understaffed during the hectic holiday travel season. Other experts also doubted UAL's explanation but declined to speculate on the airline's staffing needs.

"Management is feeling the pressure from consumers and the pilots to explain what happened," said Joe Schwieterman, transportation expert at DePaul University.

Between December 23 and December 31, United canceled 1,033 flights, compared with 243 cancellations by American, which also has a hub in Chicago, FlightStats said.

My daughters nightmare began Thursday Jan. 3, 2008. We brought her to
the Albany International Airport (NY) to catch a 6am flight back to Reno.
She was to arrive at Reno/Tahoe International the same day at 2:58pm.
She called me at 9am, and several times after that, saying they hadn’t
left yet, and no one was telling them anything. The last time she called me was 1:31 pm, and they were still waiting to take off. They hadn’t offered the passengers anything to eat, drink, no pillows, or blankets.....nothing to make the ridiculous 8 hour delay more comfortable!
The plane finally took off around 2pm, and arrived in Washington (Dulles). After layover there, and arriving at Denver International, way off schedule she missed her original flight to Reno. At one point she was even told they would fly into San Francisco, then to Reno. But she never heard anything about it from then on.
she was rescheduled to arrive in Reno around 10pm, then shortly after told all flights to Reno were canceled. In the midst of all this I had called United Customer Service a few times to find out what was going on and what could be done. As did many of the other passengers. The people I spoke to were
useless at best! I asked for an update, I asked if they could call the airports to get information and was told they could do neither! They could not help me one little bit! How ridiculous to have customer service that can’t help a customer, altho come to find out, they're CS aren't even in the USA. No surprise there!
At this point my daughter had asked everyone she could what she was supposed to do, they just kept sending her from one desk to another and none of them would help her or had any answers, so by this time she was hysterical beyond consoling so I advised her to go to the United desk and ask for a
voucher or something to stay in a hotel. She called back saying they
were not accommodating any of the passengers for overnight, and at that
point all flights on Friday Jan. 4th to Reno were canceled as well. So
that meant she was stranded in Denver for another day. Then they told her she had reached her final destination.
By then I was livid.......got back on the phone with United Customer service and told the man i was speaking to that I was NOT going to hang up, I would call back every five mins if I had to, and he WAS going to help me find her a flight and a room, and if he was incapable, to let me speak to a manager or a supervisor. He said he would speak to a supervisor and put me on hold. Came back a bit later and asked if i wanted him to make a reservation with US Air for her, leaving at 5:35 Friday morning I said yes, he gave me all the information, told me to have her just go to the US Air desk for her flight in the morning. She
was finally able to convince one of the people at the United desk to give her a hotel room for the night, went to look for her luggage and it was sent to San Francisco. But ok, we figured the worst was behind us. Not even!
She got back to the airport in the morning and went right to the US Air desk as I was told to do, but the confirmation # he gave me was for United, not US Air, so when she went to the US Air desk, she was told she had to go to the United desk, stand in line yet again, get her ticket then back to the US Air, which she did, ran to the gate and was told it was 9 mins to departure and she was not
allowed to board! This put her as a no show, so she had to sit in
Denver all morning as a stand by. She finally got home about 5pm
today. As I understand it, there were storms preventing them from
flying into Denver last night, but had she not had to sit in Albany for
8 hours first, and missed all her connecting flights she would have had
no problem at all.
Everything that transpired and happened to her and all the other passengers in that 36 hr period is an outrage!!
The first lady (CS) I spoke to when all this began, even argued with me the plane had already left the ground, while I had my daughter on my cell phone at the same time saying they still didn’t have any idea when they would take off.
Then another lady (CS) told me she had landed in Reno!
I am totally amazed, that United Airlines operates with such incompetence at the airports, and I don’t care if this sounds prejudiced, or bigoted……….when companies out source to those countries that can barely speak English, for customer service, I don’t want to deal with them. I don’t know much about big business, but common sense says that in order for something to go smoothly, everyone involved needs to be able to work together. The representatives are mindless puppets. They read what’s in front of them and are incapable of dealing with anything off the page. Why outsource at all? There are thousands of people or physically disabled adults out there willing to work from home. Why not hire them!? There’s no overhead, no taxes to deal with accept on their end, sounds pretty simple to me. At least they will be US citizens with more than half a brain!
My daughter will never fly United again. I will pay the extra money for any other airlines, and if i have my way, thru my right to Freedom of Speech, so
will alot of other people.

Carol

[Carol]

How about an updated nightmare from United! These people are unbelievable!!!
United Still Struggling With Cancelations
By Kyle Peterson,
Reuters
Posted: 2008-01-02 17:15:37
CHICAGO (Jan. 2) - United Airlines canceled dozens of flights on Wednesday, adding to the more than 1,100 cancellations since December 23 that the No. 2 U.S. carrier blamed on weather but its pilots blamed on insufficient staffing.
"Weather for December was the worst in our history," McCarthy said. She said United was "uniquely impacted" by fog and snow storms in its hub cities of Chicago and Denver.

United's pilots union, however, said the airline was simply understaffed during the hectic holiday travel season. Other experts also doubted UAL's explanation but declined to speculate on the airline's staffing needs.

"Management is feeling the pressure from consumers and the pilots to explain what happened," said Joe Schwieterman, transportation expert at DePaul University.

Between December 23 and December 31, United canceled 1,033 flights, compared with 243 cancellations by American, which also has a hub in Chicago, FlightStats said.

My daughters nightmare began Thursday Jan. 3, 2008. We brought her to
the Albany International Airport (NY) to catch a 6am flight back to Reno.
She was to arrive at Reno/Tahoe International the same day at 2:58pm.
She called me at 9am, and several times after that, saying they hadn’t
left yet, and no one was telling them anything. The last time she called me was 1:31 pm, and they were still waiting to take off. They hadn’t offered the passengers anything to eat, drink, no pillows, or blankets.....nothing to make the ridiculous 8 hour delay more comfortable!
The plane finally took off around 2pm, and arrived in Washington (Dulles). After layover there, and arriving at Denver International, way off schedule she missed her original flight to Reno. At one point she was even told they would fly into San Francisco, then to Reno. But she never heard anything about it from then on.
she was rescheduled to arrive in Reno around 10pm, then shortly after told all flights to Reno were canceled. In the midst of all this I had called United Customer Service a few times to find out what was going on and what could be done. As did many of the other passengers. The people I spoke to were
useless at best! I asked for an update, I asked if they could call the airports to get information and was told they could do neither! They could not help me one little bit! How ridiculous to have customer service that can’t help a customer, altho come to find out, they're CS aren't even in the USA. No surprise there!
At this point my daughter had asked everyone she could what she was supposed to do, they just kept sending her from one desk to another and none of them would help her or had any answers, so by this time she was hysterical beyond consoling so I advised her to go to the United desk and ask for a
voucher or something to stay in a hotel. She called back saying they
were not accommodating any of the passengers for overnight, and at that
point all flights on Friday Jan. 4th to Reno were canceled as well. So
that meant she was stranded in Denver for another day. Then they told her she had reached her final destination.
By then I was livid.......got back on the phone with United Customer service and told the man i was speaking to that I was NOT going to hang up, I would call back every five mins if I had to, and he WAS going to help me find her a flight and a room, and if he was incapable, to let me speak to a manager or a supervisor. He said he would speak to a supervisor and put me on hold. Came back a bit later and asked if i wanted him to make a reservation with US Air for her, leaving at 5:35 Friday morning I said yes, he gave me all the information, told me to have her just go to the US Air desk for her flight in the morning. She
was finally able to convince one of the people at the United desk to give her a hotel room for the night, went to look for her luggage and it was sent to San Francisco. But ok, we figured the worst was behind us. Not even!
She got back to the airport in the morning and went right to the US Air desk as I was told to do, but the confirmation # he gave me was for United, not US Air, so when she went to the US Air desk, she was told she had to go to the United desk, stand in line yet again, get her ticket then back to the US Air, which she did, ran to the gate and was told it was 9 mins to departure and she was not
allowed to board! This put her as a no show, so she had to sit in
Denver all morning as a stand by. She finally got home about 5pm
today. As I understand it, there were storms preventing them from
flying into Denver last night, but had she not had to sit in Albany for
8 hours first, and missed all her connecting flights she would have had
no problem at all.
Everything that transpired and happened to her and all the other passengers in that 36 hr period is an outrage!!
The first lady (CS) I spoke to when all this began, even argued with me the plane had already left the ground, while I had my daughter on my cell phone at the same time saying they still didn’t have any idea when they would take off.
Then another lady (CS) told me she had landed in Reno!
I am totally amazed, that United Airlines operates with such incompetence at the airports, and I don’t care if this sounds prejudiced, or bigoted……….when companies out source to those countries that can barely speak English, for customer service, I don’t want to deal with them. I don’t know much about big business, but common sense says that in order for something to go smoothly, everyone involved needs to be able to work together. The representatives are mindless puppets. They read what’s in front of them and are incapable of dealing with anything off the page. Why outsource at all? There are thousands of people or physically disabled adults out there willing to work from home. Why not hire them!? There’s no overhead, no taxes to deal with accept on their end, sounds pretty simple to me. At least they will be US citizens with more than half a brain!
My daughter will never fly United again. I will pay the extra money for any other airlines, and if i have my way, thru my right to Freedom of Speech, so
will alot of other people.

Carol

[Carol]

How about an updated nightmare from United! These people are unbelievable!!!
United Still Struggling With Cancelations
By Kyle Peterson,
Reuters
Posted: 2008-01-02 17:15:37
CHICAGO (Jan. 2) - United Airlines canceled dozens of flights on Wednesday, adding to the more than 1,100 cancellations since December 23 that the No. 2 U.S. carrier blamed on weather but its pilots blamed on insufficient staffing.
"Weather for December was the worst in our history," McCarthy said. She said United was "uniquely impacted" by fog and snow storms in its hub cities of Chicago and Denver.

United's pilots union, however, said the airline was simply understaffed during the hectic holiday travel season. Other experts also doubted UAL's explanation but declined to speculate on the airline's staffing needs.

"Management is feeling the pressure from consumers and the pilots to explain what happened," said Joe Schwieterman, transportation expert at DePaul University.

Between December 23 and December 31, United canceled 1,033 flights, compared with 243 cancellations by American, which also has a hub in Chicago, FlightStats said.

My daughters nightmare began Thursday Jan. 3, 2008. We brought her to
the Albany International Airport (NY) to catch a 6am flight back to Reno.
She was to arrive at Reno/Tahoe International the same day at 2:58pm.
She called me at 9am, and several times after that, saying they hadn’t
left yet, and no one was telling them anything. The last time she called me was 1:31 pm, and they were still waiting to take off. They hadn’t offered the passengers anything to eat, drink, no pillows, or blankets.....nothing to make the ridiculous 8 hour delay more comfortable!
The plane finally took off around 2pm, and arrived in Washington (Dulles). After layover there, and arriving at Denver International, way off schedule she missed her original flight to Reno. At one point she was even told they would fly into San Francisco, then to Reno. But she never heard anything about it from then on.
she was rescheduled to arrive in Reno around 10pm, then shortly after told all flights to Reno were canceled. In the midst of all this I had called United Customer Service a few times to find out what was going on and what could be done. As did many of the other passengers. The people I spoke to were
useless at best! I asked for an update, I asked if they could call the airports to get information and was told they could do neither! They could not help me one little bit! How ridiculous to have customer service that can’t help a customer, altho come to find out, they're CS aren't even in the USA. No surprise there!
At this point my daughter had asked everyone she could what she was supposed to do, they just kept sending her from one desk to another and none of them would help her or had any answers, so by this time she was hysterical beyond consoling so I advised her to go to the United desk and ask for a
voucher or something to stay in a hotel. She called back saying they
were not accommodating any of the passengers for overnight, and at that
point all flights on Friday Jan. 4th to Reno were canceled as well. So
that meant she was stranded in Denver for another day. Then they told her she had reached her final destination.
By then I was livid.......got back on the phone with United Customer service and told the man i was speaking to that I was NOT going to hang up, I would call back every five mins if I had to, and he WAS going to help me find her a flight and a room, and if he was incapable, to let me speak to a manager or a supervisor. He said he would speak to a supervisor and put me on hold. Came back a bit later and asked if i wanted him to make a reservation with US Air for her, leaving at 5:35 Friday morning I said yes, he gave me all the information, told me to have her just go to the US Air desk for her flight in the morning. She
was finally able to convince one of the people at the United desk to give her a hotel room for the night, went to look for her luggage and it was sent to San Francisco. But ok, we figured the worst was behind us. Not even!
She got back to the airport in the morning and went right to the US Air desk as I was told to do, but the confirmation # he gave me was for United, not US Air, so when she went to the US Air desk, she was told she had to go to the United desk, stand in line yet again, get her ticket then back to the US Air, which she did, ran to the gate and was told it was 9 mins to departure and she was not
allowed to board! This put her as a no show, so she had to sit in
Denver all morning as a stand by. She finally got home about 5pm
today. As I understand it, there were storms preventing them from
flying into Denver last night, but had she not had to sit in Albany for
8 hours first, and missed all her connecting flights she would have had
no problem at all.
Everything that transpired and happened to her and all the other passengers in that 36 hr period is an outrage!!
The first lady (CS) I spoke to when all this began, even argued with me the plane had already left the ground, while I had my daughter on my cell phone at the same time saying they still didn’t have any idea when they would take off.
Then another lady (CS) told me she had landed in Reno!
I am totally amazed, that United Airlines operates with such incompetence at the airports, and I don’t care if this sounds prejudiced, or bigoted……….when companies out source to those countries that can barely speak English, for customer service, I don’t want to deal with them. I don’t know much about big business, but common sense says that in order for something to go smoothly, everyone involved needs to be able to work together. The representatives are mindless puppets. They read what’s in front of them and are incapable of dealing with anything off the page. Why outsource at all? There are thousands of people or physically disabled adults out there willing to work from home. Why not hire them!? There’s no overhead, no taxes to deal with accept on their end, sounds pretty simple to me. At least they will be US citizens with more than half a brain!
My daughter will never fly United again. I will pay the extra money for any other airlines, and if i have my way, thru my right to Freedom of Speech, so
will alot of other people.

Carol

[Bob]

You mindless freaks posting this thread three times and blaming people outside this country for the miseries of the mismanaged company. The people in this country are too fat and lazy and they want everything for free. People go stand in the lines for southwest airlines instead, that airline does not outsource to india but I am sure you lazy bums will complain about that airline too...

[carl]

does anyone know the location of the glenn tilton family cemetery. it is my understanding that many retired ual employees would love to drop by and leave a symbol of their respect.....

[tv bracket]

I have never heard there is a law to catch that kind of mean setup. Top management secretly enriching them self while causing their company to go bankrupt should be a government focus. It relates to overall economy stability. I just can't understand why the government would even passively accept the pension plan transition without doing further action.

[ChamoRider]

After the experience and the "Customer Service" I was dealt regarding a recent encountered with one of United's 'promotional offers', I too feel they have removed "Customer Friendly" from their business philosophy.

[Fluggesellschaften Check-in]

My god! How many evidences of the corruption of corporate America are still to come.

[shawn]

I'm so sad right now. Everything that is going on with America and we outsource "everything" to save a penny and screw Americans even worse! I'm sitting on the phone right now with United Airlines... been an hour 1/2 and they can't refund me because they can't find my original ticket confirmation which was cancelled the same day. We can't communicate because we can't even understand each other. I've called back 6 times now and always get someone in India who is very nice... but doesn't know shit and can't speak English!!! I'll try looking up Airlines that "DO NOT" oursource for my next reservation!!!

[Credit Repair Services]

I hope other's will learn from this and not book with them either.