Comments on: A wow experience from United Airlines. Wow. http://blog.agrawals.org/2009/05/04/a-wow-experience-from-united-airlines-wow/ Rocky Agrawal's blog on search, wireless, maps and Web 2.0 Fri, 30 Jul 2010 05:57:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: UAL employed http://blog.agrawals.org/2009/05/04/a-wow-experience-from-united-airlines-wow/#comment-25553 UAL employed Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:59:00 +0000 http://blog.agrawals.org/?p=903#comment-25553 You see folks, United itself has the route structure that captures repeat business even on a small scale. Perspectively, your inconvenience due to mechanicals is basically called flight safety. God forbid if the situation happened when in flight. Concerning vouchers due to delays, judgement calls by station agents using protocol as a required guide are not always fair especially to those passengers inconvenienced. So there you go, We all have the right to be safe and happy but unfortunately at a cost. If the cost is inconvenience, that is cheap. Pay the price, its worth it. You see folks, United itself has the route structure that captures repeat business even on a small scale. Perspectively, your inconvenience due to mechanicals is basically called flight safety. God forbid if the situation happened when in flight. Concerning vouchers due to delays, judgement calls by station agents using protocol as a required guide are not always fair especially to those passengers inconvenienced. So there you go, We all have the right to be safe and happy but unfortunately at a cost. If the cost is inconvenience, that is cheap. Pay the price, its worth it.

]]> By: J van Laar http://blog.agrawals.org/2009/05/04/a-wow-experience-from-united-airlines-wow/#comment-25480 J van Laar Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:30:39 +0000 http://blog.agrawals.org/?p=903#comment-25480 Nice for you that they arranged compensation, but I don't think that United Air (and also US Airways) really care about their costumers. If they did they wouldn't structurally overbook passengers, and use crap equipment. I used to fly 'cheap'to my family in Philly with United or US and have experienced huge delays and problems. Nowadays i just pay the $200 extra and fly with British Airways or Northwestern. Nice for you that they arranged compensation, but I don’t think that United Air (and also US Airways) really care about their costumers. If they did they wouldn’t structurally overbook passengers, and use crap equipment. I used to fly ‘cheap’to my family in Philly with United or US and have experienced huge delays and problems. Nowadays i just pay the $200 extra and fly with British Airways or Northwestern.

]]> By: Ken http://blog.agrawals.org/2009/05/04/a-wow-experience-from-united-airlines-wow/#comment-25375 Ken Mon, 24 Aug 2009 06:53:46 +0000 http://blog.agrawals.org/?p=903#comment-25375 I did a google for United Airlines customer appreciation and ran across your blog. I'm glad you had a good experience, but the way I see it, United screwed up in the first place so I wouldn't award them for trying to fix a problem they shouldn't have had in the first place. My experience was similar. I was on a flight from SFO to HNL for a gig that would start immediately when I landed. We had THREE attempts to take off until we finally left. I think one or both of the failed attempts were due to mechanical problems, which prompted us to return back to the gate and wait for mechanics. The whole delay ended up being 5 hours. The flight itself was supposed to be 5 hours. All we got was an intercom message from someone (maybe it was the pilot or just some other employee) saying they apologize for the delay and that we'd get compensated for the inconvenience. Then he tells us the Customer Appreciation website (you'd think if United had to put a dedicated page JUST for these problems that they must have A LOT of delays and problems all the time, correct?). So I got to the website and get the $250 e-certificate. No option of simply getting a check for those of us who NEVER want to fly on United again... So now a month later, I decided to try and check on some flights to Hawaii again and see what I can get. I see flights for a little under $400 on United's own website. Then I do the search again for the exact flights with the e-cert and guess what? It's NOT $250 less. I see flights that are maybe $50 cheaper. This is the price they say after the supposed discount is applied. Is that BS or what? Come on United! I can understand flights can get delayed... it happens, any company can screw up. But how can you screw your customers again a second time with the attempt to fix the first screw-up? I did a google for United Airlines customer appreciation and ran across your blog. I’m glad you had a good experience, but the way I see it, United screwed up in the first place so I wouldn’t award them for trying to fix a problem they shouldn’t have had in the first place.

My experience was similar. I was on a flight from SFO to HNL for a gig that would start immediately when I landed. We had THREE attempts to take off until we finally left. I think one or both of the failed attempts were due to mechanical problems, which prompted us to return back to the gate and wait for mechanics. The whole delay ended up being 5 hours. The flight itself was supposed to be 5 hours.

All we got was an intercom message from someone (maybe it was the pilot or just some other employee) saying they apologize for the delay and that we’d get compensated for the inconvenience. Then he tells us the Customer Appreciation website (you’d think if United had to put a dedicated page JUST for these problems that they must have A LOT of delays and problems all the time, correct?).

So I got to the website and get the $250 e-certificate. No option of simply getting a check for those of us who NEVER want to fly on United again…
So now a month later, I decided to try and check on some flights to Hawaii again and see what I can get. I see flights for a little under $400 on United’s own website. Then I do the search again for the exact flights with the e-cert and guess what? It’s NOT $250 less. I see flights that are maybe $50 cheaper. This is the price they say after the supposed discount is applied. Is that BS or what?

Come on United! I can understand flights can get delayed… it happens, any company can screw up. But how can you screw your customers again a second time with the attempt to fix the first screw-up?

]]> By: Broken Guitar becomes a Broken Record, Did this Youtube video cost $180M | Byron New Media http://blog.agrawals.org/2009/05/04/a-wow-experience-from-united-airlines-wow/#comment-25363 Broken Guitar becomes a Broken Record, Did this Youtube video cost $180M | Byron New Media Wed, 19 Aug 2009 03:08:07 +0000 http://blog.agrawals.org/?p=903#comment-25363 [...] that the resulting fallout has cost United $180 M or 10% of their market cap. It’s not that United Airlines don’t know how to do customer service really well, Ravesh (see the link) gives them, the thumbs up. However I think it would be fair to [...] [...] that the resulting fallout has cost United $180 M or 10% of their market cap. It’s not that United Airlines don’t know how to do customer service really well, Ravesh (see the link) gives them, the thumbs up. However I think it would be fair to [...]

]]> By: graphics boy http://blog.agrawals.org/2009/05/04/a-wow-experience-from-united-airlines-wow/#comment-25183 graphics boy Sun, 24 May 2009 07:39:31 +0000 http://blog.agrawals.org/?p=903#comment-25183 Interesting post. You have obviously done the research on this. It can be hard to find decent information about this in my experience. i will bookmark this site and check it out again in the future. thanks Interesting post. You have obviously done the research on this. It can be hard to find decent information about this in my experience. i will bookmark this site and check it out again in the future. thanks

]]> By: Nancy http://blog.agrawals.org/2009/05/04/a-wow-experience-from-united-airlines-wow/#comment-25144 Nancy Tue, 05 May 2009 19:31:00 +0000 http://blog.agrawals.org/?p=903#comment-25144 Wish I could say the same! We had an awful experience with United. Started out with me trying to use 15k miles for an upgrade the night before - something went wrong in the system and I called for assistance. Ended up with a "customer service rep", if you can call him that, who REFUSED to let us speak to his supervisor and eventually hung up on us. So I had to add time in the morning to go to a real person at the check in desk to print my boarding pass. Then in Chicago, we were delayed over 4 hours due to mechanical problems. We had four pilots in the back with us explaining that the reason it was all taking so long was because of miscommunication between the jetway people, the mechanics and the pilot. Had they brought an electrical unit on a cart to begin with, the delay would have been only an hour. We got absolutely nothing for the problems. The poor people in coach were suffocating for lack of air and finally a bunch came up front (we were in business) and demanded to be let off the airplane. It was getting ugly. Flight 245 on May 4 from Chicago to Denver. Sure United gave us a new connection to our final destination, but 5 hours after we landed. The folks onboard the plane were great and were embarrassed for the problems. The customer service people in India are absolutely worthless - I have never had a positive experience with them. How does United expect us to do business with them when they offer such poor customer service? Wish I could say the same! We had an awful experience with United. Started out with me trying to use 15k miles for an upgrade the night before – something went wrong in the system and I called for assistance. Ended up with a “customer service rep”, if you can call him that, who REFUSED to let us speak to his supervisor and eventually hung up on us. So I had to add time in the morning to go to a real person at the check in desk to print my boarding pass. Then in Chicago, we were delayed over 4 hours due to mechanical problems. We had four pilots in the back with us explaining that the reason it was all taking so long was because of miscommunication between the jetway people, the mechanics and the pilot. Had they brought an electrical unit on a cart to begin with, the delay would have been only an hour. We got absolutely nothing for the problems. The poor people in coach were suffocating for lack of air and finally a bunch came up front (we were in business) and demanded to be let off the airplane. It was getting ugly. Flight 245 on May 4 from Chicago to Denver. Sure United gave us a new connection to our final destination, but 5 hours after we landed. The folks onboard the plane were great and were embarrassed for the problems. The customer service people in India are absolutely worthless – I have never had a positive experience with them. How does United expect us to do business with them when they offer such poor customer service?

]]> By: john http://blog.agrawals.org/2009/05/04/a-wow-experience-from-united-airlines-wow/#comment-25143 john Tue, 05 May 2009 17:55:26 +0000 http://blog.agrawals.org/?p=903#comment-25143 What an inspiring story of when companies actually take their customers seriously and treat them how they would like to be treated. What an inspiring story of when companies actually take their customers seriously and treat them how they would like to be treated.

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