[spacetaxi101]

RE: Passenger Complaint regarding June 16, 2010; Booking Confirmation # NF6347/ UA Flight # 475 Departure time 6:19 AM
The incident is regarding the actions of one United Airlines employee’s actions in particular-and, in some ways, the lack of actions-in stranding me at Charlotte Airport on the morning of the 16th.
Explanation
Upon arrival at Charlotte Airport ticket confirmation desk, I attempted to “log in” to have my ticket confirmed for Flight #475 to Chicago O’Hare airport. I slipped my credit card into the ticket machine, but my name was not recognized on the flight, even though I had a paid-for confirmed seat on the plane and was holding a fully-booked itinerary. As a result, a receipt for the flight was printed, but a boarding pass was not.
Believing the receipt was sufficient to enter the airport, I was turned back at the license check and had to wait in line for a boarding pass. Again I attempted to print a boarding pass, and again a receipt was produced, sans a boarding pass, forcing me to wait for a counter employee to help. After I paid the bag fee, the employee confirmed me on the flight and handed me a boarding pass, which showed I had questions about. When I queried the employee, she mentioned that they would confirm me for a seat at the gate itself.
After having no further problems entering the gate area, I walked to the terminal and kindly asked the employee manning the desk-Marylou Sprouse- to confirmmy seat number and to print a boarding pass, since I had misplaced mine. She glanced at me and rudely told me to “please find a seat and wait with the other passengers”, and went back to whatever she was doing, ignoring me. I then sat down and waited.
Time wore on and the plane arrived at the terminal, and, growing concerned, I again asked Ms. Sprouse to confirm my seat. Again, she told me to find a seat and wait, this time with obvious heightened irritation. I observed another gentleman also requesting Ms. Sprouse multiple times to help him confirm his seat number, with the same result as myself-she told him to sit down and wait as well. Throughout the entire wait, Ms. Sprouse repeatedly hurried away from her station, often for a goodly length of time, as lines formed at her terminal desk. It appeared that other employees would occasionally fill in for her, though the desk was often unmanned. She would eventually return, only to leave again, once or twice hurrying off in front of flight passengers seeking help. The passengers would then disburse, forced to wait for her arrival again.
Stunned, I watched as the terminal door was slammed shut, and Ms. Sprouse disappeared. Furious, I confronted an employee at the terminal door who had been scanning in passengers’ seat confirmation tickets, told her about Ms. Spouse’s actions and attitude, and the fact that I felt as if I had missed my flight solely due to her actions, which, even now, I am convinced it was.
The door employee asked if I would like to talk to a manager, and I mentioned that I would. The manager arrived, and I explained the circumstances surrounding my missed flight, Ms. Sprouse’s actions and attitude, and the fact that, as a result of me trusting that no phone calls would be required once I had arrived in the airport, I had packed my cell phone in my checked-in bag. Thus, I was unable to inform the person who was supposed to be picking me up in Seattle (Flight 475 connected with Flight 31 at O’Hare Airport in Chicago, eventually to Seattle), and I would eventually be stranded in Seattle Airport.
Sympathizing with me, the UA door employee asked if I had the number of the Organization (it was a retreat for cancer survivors called First Descents) who was picking me up at Seattle, and, luckily having the precognition of writing the Organization’s business number on my Itinerary, I produced the number, so was able to arrange a later pick-up time utilizing the UA employee’s personal cell phone. Both the door employee and manager were very kind, but the manager, attempted to placate me-I was outwardly calm but seething within-by mentioned to me that “sometimes the tickets don’t print out correctly and the terminal desk employees get confused”. I do not believe that this was the case. Ms. Sprouse’s actions were abhorrent, her “don’t bother me with minor details” brush-off actions were disgustingly unprofessional. She caused me to be stranded at Charlotte Airport, and, if I hadn’t prepared for by physically writing down the First Descent Organization’s phone number, and if the UA boarding pass employee hadn’t been helpful enough to lend me her cell phone, I would have been stranded in Seattle’s airport with no one to pick me up and take me to my destination when my bags arrived in Seattle.
The manager did email me a “gift” within a day of two in the form of a voucher saving me money off of a future flight if I booked it within a certain amount of time, but all the receipt of such a thing did was give me a derisive laugh. I’ve been federally disabled for very serious reasons almost five years now, and was on a free trip paid for by a group of cancer advocates. I can barely afford to purchase the expensive food in any given airport, let alone afford flight charges along with added baggage fees. I’ve been forced to budget to be able to pay my bills since I was diagnosed with Stage III brain cancer June ‘06. The flight was to be booked within the month, thus assuring the airline that any “Joe Schmoe” would be forced to ignore the “pat on the head” gift, due to either having other obligations or, like me, not be able to afford it even with the money I would have saved on a flight.