AIRLINE RENIGS ON REIMBURSEMENT; FLYING AFTER THEM TO RECOUP

Anyone who’s read my posts about airlines—American, to be specific—knows that it’s not acceptable to use the upper hand to abuse passengers. While today’s villain is United Airlines , here we go again, flying into that vast land of corporate “we don’t care”. But, as you will see, “we don’t care” can be overcome if you use the right strategy.

A friend had a problem with United Airlines. After a couple of attempts to rectify the problem without result, he asked me if I could try to obtain a resolution. I agreed to give it a try. 

Because Jon had gone through normal channels without resolution, I decided that I needed to escalate. I used the internet to locate email addresses for Executive contacts at United Airlines. Armed with Jon’s documentation of his flights, United promises and United poor customer service, I wrote to United’s Executive staff. See below for my email, which includes the two unhelpful emails that Jon had received in response to his efforts, as well as my summary for Executive about how those emails from MileagePlus Service Center failed to address the issue.
_______________________________________________________________
Dear Ms. M... and Ms. G...,
I am a consumer advocate. Your passenger, Jon X, has asked me to work with United Airlines to rectify a significant problem that has not resolved through normal customer service channels. Please see his documents below. 

A brief summary:

On 1/22/17, Mr. X was to fly United from Aspen to Newark. Due to circumstances beyond his control which would have caused an unplanned overnight stay in Chicago at a time when he had home and work responsibilities, he called United Airlines Support from Check In at the Aspen airport. He was connected to an offshore agent. The agent got him on an American Airlines flight from Aspen to Dallas. The agent arranged this first leg of the trip. Due to time constraints, the agent asked Mr. X to book the Dallas to New York leg of the flight himself, and also assured Mr. X that he would receive a full refund for payment for that American flight by requesting this after he returned home. 

On 1/30, Mr. X submitted an online request for the $1194.20 refund for the cost of the flight change, per the direction of United’s agent. On 2/3, he received an email denying reimbursement. He tried again, and on 2/5, was told via email that such requests could not be resolved by email and that he had to call The MileagePlus Service Center. When he spoke with a United Airlines supervisor, he was again told that he would not receive the promised refund. Please see emails below from your MileagePlus Service Centers:

February 3, 2017
Dear Mr. X, 

Your email was forwarded to MileagePlus for assistance. We are unable to process your request for a mileage refund. We show you flew on American Airlines from Aspen to Dallas on your award ticket. Used MileagePlus awards are not eligible for a refund. 

We're glad we could help. Don't hesitate to contact us again if there's anything else we can do. 

Regards, 

Elaine 

MileagePlus®Service Center

February 5, 2017
Dear Mr. X 

Thanks for your reply. 

I’m sorry, but we're unable to process your request via e-mail. Please call the MileagePlus Service Center and a representative will assist you.

Regards,

Gloria 

MileagePlus®Service Center

There are several customer service problems here: 

* Mr. X was instructed by the first offshore United representative to book the second leg of his American flight and was assured that he would be reimbursed. This is either misinformation, or the representatives responding by email were indifferent to that information. Either way, Mr. X is left in the lurch, having only poor customer service to show for his experience.

* Service Center representative, Elaine, missed the point of Mr. XXX’s request. The issue wasn’t “Used MileagePlus awards are not eligible for a refund”, but rather, the request for reimbursement was based on the offshore representative’s assurances in the face of a necessary and, at the time, what appeared to be a United sanctioned change. She moves farther off point (and into “the deep end”) when she says “We’re glad we could help.” If this is her idea of help, you have a bigger problem than just Mr. X’s issue.

*Service Center representative, Gloria, punted—rather than take action or assist Mr. X in a substantive way, she simply referred him to a call center. If she really had any sense of customer service, she would have done something to facilitate action.

* In the third attempt, the telephone representative was not helpful, either. 

So, Mr. X was shunted and punted from person to person, without resolution. These Customer Service interactions are unacceptable.

We are well aware of the customer abuse issues that United has shown the public over recent months. While this is not physical abuse, as in the inappropriate physical removal of a passenger, it is still customer abuse. In testimony before Congress, your CEO, Oscar Munoz, said that United would promise to do better by its customers. United should take this opportunity to “do better” and compensate Mr. X as promised originally. And, this is an opportunity to work with your Customer Service staff to help them to understand how to really offer customer service, rather than rote replies and indifference to the issues. 

Please review this email and the associated documents, and make this situation right by reimbursing Mr. X as originally promised.

I would be happy to speak with either of you or with your designee to resolve this problem, as it should have been resolved months ago.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Mauree Miller

Consumer Advocate

Consumerplaybook.com

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The result—United communicated with Jon immediately, and within a week, he had his reimbursement. 

HOW I ACCOMPLISHED MY GOAL:
1) I had complete documentation of the issue. Aside from the details of Jon’s trip, the embarrassingly poor response from Customer Service underscored the fact that United Airlines had really botched a legitimate customer issue.

2) United Airlines had recently created a high profile customer abuse issue (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/04/11/united-ceo-employees-followed-procedures-flier-belligerent/100317166/ . While the abuse here was not the physical abuse that received much media attention, it was appropriate and timely to use that incident to point out another different, yet very real, customer abuse issue.

WHEN YOU HAVE A LEGITIMATE ISSUE BUT AREN’T GETTING THE RIGHT RESPONSE, KEEP YOUR DOCUMENTATION AND ESCALATE TO GET THE RIGHT ANSWER. AND, IT DOESN’T HURT TO USE EXTRA AMMUNITION ON PRIOR MISDEEDS TO EMPHASIZE YOUR POINT