[smurman]

The below letter I sent to United tells it all:

After planning a last family vacation before our children go their different ways and because it was our last family vacation we spared no expense to make it perfect by taking care to have all expenses handled ahead of time. Our trip started out at 4:30 AM August 1, 2009 at the Arcata/Eureka airport being told by YOUR agent our flight was cancelled. This meant that we would miss our connection flight in San Francisco to Seattle where we were to board a ship for our cruise.

I explained this to your agent and asked him to please check for other flights from Redding, Crescent City, San Francisco and Sacramento. He said there was no available seating on any flight to Seattle in time for our cruise. I asked him if he checked other airlines and he said he would only check United, if we wanted to know availability of other airlines we would have to go ask them ourselves and basically blew us off. Again I told him of the cost of our vacation and begged him for help he said “I feel your pain, next” and gestured to the people behind us. I asked when he knew the flight was cancelled and he said it was the night before when it didn’t come in because of the fog. I asked why we were not called the night before and he said it was because we didn’t book with United directly and went through an agent. What that has to do with the quality of service a customer receives I don’t know.

What I know is: He refused to help us find a flight, was basically rude and didn’t give a care what happened to us or how much money we would lose. I understand an act of God in causing the cancelation but I do not understand why we were not called at the time the cancelation occurred.

Had we been called the night before we would have had enough time to make other arrangements to get to our connecting flight in San Francisco.

We did find another flight on line leaving out of Sacramento on Alaskan Air. After driving 51/2 hours and 310 miles we got there in time to have United issue vouchers for our flight and switch to Alaskan Air. Alaskan Air could only book one of our party because United only switched one ticket not all four. It took Alaskan Air over 45 minutes to get the switch done over the phone; again we almost missed our flight because United screwed up. We barely made our cruise; we were the last ones on board.

Now, we had a vehicle left in Sacramento so one return ticket had to be switched so we could pick up our car. I called your 800 number (another expense because YOUR agent didn’t call us when the flight was cancelled) the United agent said it would cost us $150.00 to switch the ticket plus an additional charge of $77.00 for the extra distance of which I don’t know what math he was using because when I measure Eureka from San Francisco and Sacramento from San Francisco, Eureka is definitely a greater distance. At this point I’m very angry and ask for a supervisor and I get passed on to a person who says he will wave the $150.00 but he can do nothing about the $77.00 charge. I asked to speak to his supervisor and he said he didn’t have one, again I believe I was lied to. I told him how angry I was and wanted to speak to someone else; he said there was nobody else. Because I felt I was left no choice I took the switch and the additional charge of $77.00. The departure of the flight time was too close to the time we would be arriving in port and the cruise line said the flight would probably be missed.

The next day when we were in port I called my agent (another expensive roaming cell phone charge because YOUR agent didn’t make a phone call when our flight was canceled) and explained to her what was happening and she was speechless as to how crappy we had been treated by United. She found us a direct flight out of Seattle at less money, again on Alaskan Air at an acceptable time so the ticket was switched.

I spent 3 days of our cruise under a large amount of stress, multiple cell phone calls with high dollar roaming charges straightening out a mess that was created because YOUR agent didn’t make a call at the time our flight was canceled.

I am still so angry that when I think about it I can feel my blood pressure rise. I will tell my story to anybody that will listen, my children will post on their Facebook pages the tale with a message to pass it along, I will tell all my friends and will encourage all who read my story to boycott United.

For information only: My husband and I are in our mid 50’s and are looking to travel a lot as we look toward retirement, we will not be using United, my son is in the Army and daughter will soon be in the Army, we fly them home whenever they get leave time. We won’t be using United. My youngest daughter is in college in Chicago, we fly her home at least 3 times a year. We won’t be using United. As a matter of fact we won’t ever use United again. I will drive 51/2 hours to Sacramento every time if I have to or take alternative transportation. United will not get one more penny from me or my family again. I will not support a company that treats its customers so badly with no conscience. I have never encountered so many uncaring people in my life from one company. I will be sure to let the stock holders know.