United Airlines complaint regarding canceled return flight and poor customer service

This is the complaint I filed Sunday with United Airlines. I will post the airline’s response later. I want to know what United Airlines is going to do to compensate my wife, Mimi J. Buttry, Mileage Plus # 02008369073, for the shameful treatment she has received during a trip this weekend to Jacksonville, Fla. She booked the trip Feb. 3, to fly a round-trip to Jacksonville from Washington Dulles, confirmation # JH6PXC, paying $461.40, a substantial fare. She was planning to attend a family gathering in Florida, flying out Thursday, March 11, and returning Sunday, March 14. The only development in this story that was not United’s fault was that our daughter-in-law went into labor March 10 with our first grandchild. I called twice, the evening of March 10 and early the morning of March 11, to inquire about pushing her flight back to later in the day. Your booking agents and supervisors offered no flexibility, refusing to change the flight without exorbitant charges. Both times the agents said she would be able to get a flight on standby later in the day. Just a few hours before the flights would leave, your agents and supervisors represented the later flights as having seats available. As the labor continued, Mimi decided she was going to stay to see our new granddaughter, no matter what. She was born shortly after 11 and we were able to see her at about noon, too late to catch Mimi’s 12:21 flight. I drove Mimi straight to Dulles, so she could get a standby seat on the 4:30 flight. At the airport, she learned from a rude agent that the later flights had been overbooked, as well as the first morning flight (which your agents had also tried to rebook her on at exorbitant rates). She was not going to be able to fly to Jacksonville on her original ticket until Friday night. I quickly booked a one-way flight on Delta for the next morning. I called United for the third time in 24 hours and learned that her return flight had been canceled. In the only satisfactory encounter with United through this whole ordeal, a supervisor reinstated her return ticket, refunded the luggage charge for the original flight and sent her a voucher for a discount on a future flight (he said he could not award a credit for the flight she missed). He apologized for the rudeness of the agent at Dulles and tried to compensate for (though he never acknowledged) the obvious fact that United representatives had lied about the possibility of standing by on later flights and, in fact, had tried to charge outrageous sums for seats on flights that were already overbooked (don’t expect me to believe those flights overflowed in the last few hours before their scheduled departure). That was a thoroughly frustrating experience, but at least we had made the choice to miss the originally scheduled flight. Everything that happened today was United’s fault. Her return flight was canceled because of a mechanical problem. And your airline was unable or unwilling to get another aircraft to Jacksonville to meet your obligations. Your agents in Jacksonville offered nothing better than a US Airways flight connecting through Charlotte the following evening, a delay of more than 24 hours. I got on the phone and was able to book a Monday morning United flight through Chicago, though your agent could not assign a seat, saying she would have to do that at the airport. Your staff was unable or unwilling to find any way to get her back to Washington (Reagan or BWI would have been fine). I found flights online that appeared to have seats available on American and Southwest flights, but your agents insisted those flights were all full. Interestingly, though, they ignored the fact that the US Airways flight they rebooked Mimi on was also full. Mimi found that when she went to the US Airways counter to check in. They said the flight was sold out but for some reason United kept rebooking people on it. US. Airways rebooked her for another flight directly to Washington Reagan. Though that flight was later than her flights through Chicago, she decided to take the flight to Reagan. She has endured many other United nightmares at O’Hare and didn’t want any further dealings with your airline this weekend. I couldn’t check her into that flight online and the huge lines at your counters and kiosks in the airport told her that you were probably overbooking more flights and had not staffed adequately to handle the mess that your failures made in Jacksonville yesterday. If we had more choice in airlines, neither of us would ever fly your airline again. This is not our first horrible experience with United, though it may be the worst. Please let me know how you intend to compensate Mimi for your failure/refusal to provide the services we purchased and for the inconvenience and unpleasantness your employees caused her this weekend. Some combination of the following measures is in order: ,[object Object]

A full refund of the fare for this lost weekend

United Airlines complaint regarding canceled return flight and poor customer service

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