Fraudulent website for booking Award Travel
 

I am experiencing a problem with United Airlines over an award ticket booking I recently made. All the details are in the attached documents and I am wondering if there is anything you can do to help me out?

Here are the basics:

I am a United Airlines frequent flyer and have been a member of their Mileage Plus program since 1982. I have flown over 750,000 miles on United. I recently attempted to redeem an award for first class tickets for two round trip to Hawaii for my son's upcoming honeymoon. The web site led me to believe that everything was fine until after I booked the trip and they collected their 160,000 miles and $20 fee for two first class round-trip tickets. I then went back in to assign the seats and discovered first class seats were not available on 3 of the 5 flights involved. I got no resolution on the phone and after sending a complaint via e-mail, they e-mailed me a $100 electronic certificate saying there is nothing they can do to confirm the seats that I booked via their web site. They did say (after the fact) they would put them on a priority waitlist (I have no way of confirming that) and refund the appropriate amount of miles if the seats do not become available.

I maintain that is not the issue. The issue is that when an individual in good faith books a first class trip on their web site that is exactly what they should get. Especially when it is for an important event such as a honeymoon trip.
richeycom

A website is a computer. How does it differentiate (or even know) about honeymoon vs other travel? When you were booking the flights, did you not notice that the segments said "economy" when they displayed as such before accepting them? If you did, you could have not accepted them and then looked for other flights that might have been available that had more segments available in F. It is important to note what a person is purchasing, prior to purchasing. This often solves problems before they arise.

There were no choices available for the individual segments. The entire purchase was booked as a First Class Saver Award and they took the corresponding miles out of my account to pay for two First Class Round Trip Tickets. They also charged a $10 per ticket transaction fee. I was not able to choose seats until after the purchase and only then discovered I could not choose First Class seats on three of the five segments. When I called United twice I was told nothing could be done. Subsequent e-mails to Customer Service resulted in the same answer with the exception I was awarded a $100 flight certificate good towards the purchase of a future flight on United Airlines. I am aware that the web site is an inanimate object. But even when I tried resolving this with human beings via two phone calls and two e-mails I was basically told tough beans. So your argument does not hold water in this case. Sorry.

I think this amounts to false advertising and they have charged for something they cannot deliver. I wonder if the DOT would be interested in this?

Actually I am checking with the Attorney General's office in my state and intend on sending a complaint to the FAA and Department of Justice as well as the CEO of United.

FAA and DoJ cannot help you at all, neither can your state's AG. You need to talk to the Department of Transportation.

Go to the place that has jurisdiction.

Sounds like a plan, I'll give it a shot.
Thanks for the advice.

There is a new link intalled on this website to contact DOT. Click on Quick Links just near the Log Out link and you will get a drop down menu. It looks like it's the third choice from the top.

Thanks for the tip.

Just tried the link and it won't open the page. I'll just go to their web site and see if that will work.

I have been trying for two days off and on to send a complaint via the DOT website. But it appears that the web site for that purpose has been taken off line. Does anyone have any info on that issue?

I don't think you are going to get anywhere even if you got through to the DOT.

If the airline is willing to refund the miles if you don't get the first class seats, that is the best you can get. Not because you did not succeed in getting the first class tickets, means it was false advertising.

The complaint area on the DOT website doesn't seem to be working. Guess the airlines hacked in and disabled it. That's one way to lower the stats for the month. :)

Looks like the link works now, it least it did 60 seconds ago.

Thanks. It was up and running yesterday. They must shut it down for the weekend to save a few bucks to help pay for health care reform. I sent the info to them but they have a disclaimer they don't settle disputes such as this. I still think I am going to file a false advertising complaint with our State AG office.
Thanks everyone for all your help and support on this.