9:00 am 7/18/12
Dear United,
I am
a youth pastor who recently purchased tickets for thirteen passengers to fly
from Dallas, Texas to Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Our itinerary called for us to leave
Dallas on Thursday, July 12 at 6:40am on flight UA 1096. Our flight was delayed
out of Dallas by weather and by the time we arrived in Houston, 7 of us had
missed our connecting flight to San Jose, Costa Rica.
When
we reached the front of the line at the service counter we inquired about space
on the delayed flight to Panama City (flight UA 1032) that the other 6 members
of our group were on. The man behind the counter worked for a while and
eventually handed me 20-25 ticket shaped slips of paper and told us to hurry to
the departure gate and he would bring us tickets. In the process he took two of
our baggage claim tags and failed to return them, which has become a problem
since we haven't seen our bags in a week.
When
we arrived at the departure gate the gate agent was immediately angry with the
service counter person. He was quick to communicate this anger and tried to get
us on the flight, which we were still not on. He eventually succeeded, but in
the process, someone deleted six of our tickets final destinations of Santa
Cruz, Bolivia. As you can imagine, this becomes important later on.
When
we finally boarded the delayed plane (flight UA 1032), there was still a little
over an hour for us to make our connecting flight from Panama City to Santa
Cruz. I was sitting in the last row and what happened next was misguided and
terrible customer service at its worst. The flight attendant wanted to make
sure we had hot meals on our flight. The kitchen delivered 10 meals. For 100+
people. The flight attendant was told to serve the breakfast that had been
sitting on the plane for 6+ hours while we waited for a crew. She refused and
demanded lunch for the flight. This went on for the next 65-75 minutes as she
grew more and more frustrated and told anyone who called or came by that
passengers would revolt if we didn't have hot food. Her attempts at good
customer service cost us our seats to Santa Cruz, the last remaining ones for
10 days. Believe it or not, but the goal of flying is not to eat a hot meal,
but to arrive at your destination. She lost sight of that and caused what
happened next.
As
we arrived in Panama City to watch our flight back away (Why wasn't someone
holding the flight for 5 minutes for the 13 passengers who had been delayed all
day? That would have been GOOD customer service), a customer service rep named
Jean Rodriguez started to help us. He had us on an immediate connecting flight
to Lima, Peru and then on to Santa Cruz the next day. As he quickly explained
our new itinerary to me he read off 7 names. Which would have been great if we
didn't have 13 people in our group. For the next 2+ hours he attempted to
figure out our flights. He was unable to get it figured out but promised to
continue working on it for the next day. He then proceeded to get us each hotel
and food vouchers, take us to the front of the line for customs, get our bags,
and help us through baggage check. He took us right to our bus to travel to the
hotel and saw us all in before he left. He was the only bright spot in the
service we received from United.
The
next morning we arrived back at the Panama City airport and went to the United
counter. After a bit of time, the service rep told us everything was arranged
for us to fly to Lima, Peru with Copa Airlines and then on to Santa Cruz,
Bolivia with Taka Airlines. When I received my ticket from Copa just a few
minutes later, I did not receive a boarding pass for the 2nd flight. When I
asked about this, I was told we would receive those tickets at the Taka counter
in Lima. So we boarded our flight and arrived in Lima, Peru around 3:15pm. The
Taka counter in the terminal didn't open until 6:30pm, so we went and found a
place to sit in the terminal. When we went to the counter 3 hours later, the
Taka counter agent could not locate us on her flight. When I told her the story
she looked to her coworker and told her in Spanish(We had only spoken English
in our conversation), "Oh no, this is so difficult to tell them." She
then told me that United had booked us on their flight without confirmation.
The flight was overbooked before we had been added to it. And so were the
flights for the next few days. Essentially, you (United) were now asking a
group of 13 people, with 11 teenagers, to fly stand by for a few days! You
booked us to a country that made it impossible for us to reach our destination!
As
we got on the phone to try and figure out our problem we were repeatedly told
by United agents on the phone to go to the customer service counter to figure
out the problem. The problem being that United does not have a counter in the
terminal at Lima. And we could not leave the terminal because we did not have
passport stamps. We ended up spending 32.5 hours in the airport without having
a United person ever come talk to us in person. We were repeatedly told by Copa
Airlines, airport personnel and United people on the phone, that someone was
coming to meet with us. Time after time after time passed without us meeting
anyone. I finally called United and asked them to get us back to Houston. We
would give up trying to go to Santa Cruz (I will tell you about our plans
there, which you destroyed, shortly) and return to the US. We soon had
reservations on flight UA 855 back to Houston and then on to Dallas with
American Airlines (but booked by United). In Peru, we were repeatedly told that
things were not peoples responsibility to deal with. It was our responsibility
to figure it out. I disagree. It was United's job to do whatever it took to
help us figure out the problem that they placed us in. We were the ONLY ones
taking responsibility.
When
we finally arrived back in Dallas on Sunday July 15, we went to the United
baggage claim to file baggage claims on luggage that we hadn't seen for 48-72
hours. To say the agent there was rude would be an understatement. He told us
it wasn't his problem because we flew American (without checked bags) for the
last leg of the flight. Again, this would have been a time to show GREAT
customer service by apologizing for what had happened and taking ownership and
fixing things. Instead we were passed off to American baggage claim, which was
probably for the best because they have worked hard to recover our bags (5 of
13 as of the writing of this letter!).
The
lack of help, care, or knowledge of what was needed for our people in our 4 day
airport tour was, and is, appalling. I teach my students that they have to take
responsibility for their actions. Even when someone else makes them upset, they
still have to choose and are responsible for their response. Your company did
not exhibit this basic characteristic during our travel. You continually pushed
us to secondary carriers to fix the problem (Copa, Taka, American) or pushed us
to someone else in your company (Houston counter, repeated phone calls to
United and in the Lima airport). We definitely heard the message that we, as
your customers, do not actually matter. I wish I could say that it was an
isolated issue, but it was so prevalent that I can only assume you do not put
your customers first nor train your employees to do so. My students have a
running joke now about passing off responsibility for everything they don't
want to do. They just compare themselves to you. I didn't have to point this
out to them, they saw it and recognized the injustice of it all on their own.
We
are asking for a full refund of our tickets($20311.42), the cost of 10 yellow
fever shots ($113/each=$1130) that were obtained just for this trip and
compensation for our baggage that has not yet been returned. I would also ask
for future travel vouchers for each traveler. I will not ask for reimbursement
for passports, which most of the students obtained for this trip. Some of them
will probably use them in the years to come.
Our
group was headed to Santa Cruz, Bolivia, to work with kids in a daycare in one
of the most impoverished neighborhoods in the city. The 11 students going were
getting a unique opportunity to serve others and have their worldview changed.
We worked together for months beforehand preparing, raising funds, and getting
shots and passports and everything else that was necessary.
Kansas
Senator Jerry Moran is willing to get involved in this matter if needed to help
it come to an adequate solution. I have included the names of each traveler as
well as the corresponding ticket/reservation number.
Sincerely,
Jesse Blasdel
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