GAH!!! Soo much trouble trying to book a flight

[shdwstrm]

Hey all!

I have spent the last 24 hours fighting to get my flight tickets to Orlando.

My friend and I are flying through United because she, and her husband, have 600 dollars in vouchers because of customer dissatisfaction from a flight earlier this year. The vouchers expire next February, so we wanted to use them for the flight on our Disney trip. Sounds good right??? Well I have had nothing but problems.

First off I called United to book the flights because you can't use the vouchers for online purchases. I went through everything with the girl until I had to give my address... then she realized that I was a Canadian purchasing tickets for a domestic flight. I had to be sent over to international bookings.

I go through all of the processes again through international bookings, and make a reservation. The girl was a bit confused that I was booking a domestic flight tho so I had to explain that I was Canadian but I was going to travel to the US and fly to Disney that way. We get to the voucher redemption... Can't do it over the phone... ARGH! I am advised that I either have to go to a United ticket counter (Basically travel all the way to the Toronto Airport, or hop the border and deal with a load of junk there,) OR go to a travek agent and they could process the tickets there. Either way, I'd have to have myself, my friend who's acoompanying me on the trip and her husband present with photo ID to redeem the vouchers. Needless to say, we chose the travel agency

So I call my friend and arrange for her and her husband to meet me at the travel agency. We get there, explain the situation to the agent and let her take over. She waits for over 20 mins to speak to a representative on the phone and asks them to queue the reservation info to her computer and she could process it.... NOPE! She can't do it.... My travel agent is thoughly confused as this has not happened before... Lucky Me! Now the only way to redeem the vouchers is to psysically mail them along with copies of photo ID to Dearborn, MI and hope to heck they process it right and send me the tickets back.

I'm told to send the information along with a pre-paid envelope for them to send the tickets back to me. I head over to Canada Post, hoping ths woukd be fairly easy.. WRONG! They can send the package via registered mail, which I wanted, but they have no way of doing a pre-paid envelope. The only thing they could offer was a regular envelope and me use some US stamps I had purchased a couple weeks ago (for Owl Mail at WWOHP.) I am not trusting my flight tickets to regular mail, thank you very much. I was told that UPS could do a registered return envelope as they are a US based company, so off to the UPS Store I go.

So I finally am able to get this information in registered envelopes with a return envelope, but it cost me an arm and a leg!!! I only had next day delivery options so to send the info down was $47.22 and then to have the return envelope it was 58.87 (there's a surcharge for it apparently.) So I walked out of the USP Store, $106.09 lighter and still with no tickets in my hand.

I made sure when I sent the info down to also send along a letter explaining the situation and my EXTREME displeasure.

Here's hoping they get things straighted out and I get my tickets soon. If I don't... I'm gonna pull a Cruella, drive like a madwoman to Dearborn, MI, and rip a strip off someone.

Sorry for the insanely long message, but I just HAD to vent!

I'll keep everyone informed

 

[Tower]

Just proof positive that your customer dissatisfaction was justified. United is not the greatest in customer service if you're not one of their 'Elite' flyers.

 

[Sue M]

what a mess. Hope it all works out for you.

 

[canadaman]

Sounds like you could be getting customer disatisfaction vouchers with this flight as well........

 

[Camilo]

Wow, I'm sorry to hear this.
Please ensure you write to them again with all the details.
Camilo

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

First off I called United to book the flights because you can't use the vouchers for online purchases.

Yes, this is how booking with United vouchers always works, no matter where you live.

We get to the voucher redemption... Can't do it over the phone

Booking United using vouchers over the phone is usually not a problem. You don't have to go to a ticket agent. However, if your friends have PAPER vouchers, yes, you must book your ticket with a ticket agent so he/she can see the vouchers. If you have an electronic voucher, such as your United FF account is credited, no problem booking via phone. If this is the case, United is just following their own policy (and other airlines do the same thing).

Did you try hanging up when the ticket agents were giving you such grief and trying again with someone else?

Be warned that if you use vouchers to book a flight and you have to change a flight, the value of the vouchers is gone. You can only use them once.

 

[monkey30]

Oh the things we do to save money! What a PITA! I hope it all works out for you! That is a huge savings!

 

[dis_guy]

I've often flown with United when they have to bump passengers because of overbooking. On one occasion I volunteered but was told that the compensation was only for US citizens as you couldn't use the free flights from outside the US. I realize your friend's comp. wasn't a bump but I can see how your difficulties show that United is not set up for dealing with us Canadians. I hope this changes after the big merger is completed.

 

[shdwstrm]

Hey all Quick update

I got an e-mail about 20 mins ago from United with my intinerary and my e-tickets.... E-Tickets! Why was I told to send a self adressed envelope if I was going to be sent e-tickets... Sigh!!!! If I had known that, I would have sent them through Canada Post instead of paying and arm and a leg through UPS. I'm gonna wait a few days and keep checking the return envelope tracking number. If I haven't heard anything by Friday, I'm going to complain that I spent all this money to have tickets in hand (as I was told to do so by the United representative) only to be sent an e-ticket. Sooo the saga continues!

 

[bankr63]

Why was I told to send a self adressed envelope if I was going to be sent e-tickets... Sigh!!!!

So they can send you a set of vouchers due to your dissatisfaction so that you can do this all over again next year?

 

[shdwstrm]

So they can send you a set of vouchers due to your dissatisfaction so that you can do this all over again next year?

Probably...yeesh!

 

[shdwstrm]

Update:

So I sent an e-mail complaint to United (since you can only send complaints my e-mail or snail mail..geez) back on the 15th. I got an auto response saying that the current response time for e-mail is 10days. It's now been 15 days and nothing. I'm really ticked. SOOOO I e-mailed them again to complain about the initial issue and that they haven't responded to my first e-mail within the 10 days response time... ARGH!! I am not flying with United again if THIS is how crummy their customer service is.

 

[drag n' fly]

I swore I will never fly United again. Never in my life have we received such atrocious customer service. We actually paid 400 extra dollars this upcoming trip just so we did not have to fly with them....and yes they are that bad.

Good luck and at least you know what you expect from them from now on

 

[roxysmum123]

This is why I hate flying. Not because I don't like to fly, but because I don't like to deal with airlines. Necessary evil I guess. I say cut your losses and just be happy you have your tickets, your complains will fall on deaf ears anyways.

Also, I'm in Ancaster too, high five!

 

[Ted in Halifax]

... and they break guitars ...

 

[dis_guy]

... and they break guitars ...

Oh yeah, they do! Just in case there is still someone who hasn't seen it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

Don't miss songs two and three as well.

 

[shdwstrm]

Update!!

So I finally got a response to my original complaint e-mail.... They offered me a 20% off certificate for 1 ticket to be used within 1 year. I don't get to travel that much so this ulitimately proves useless to me.

I e-mailed them back telling them that I clearly told them I did not want another voucher, and the same applies to this certificate for the reasons that I just stated above. I then told them that I amd still standing firm by my original request for compensation. To have the seats on my reservation be upgraded to Economy Plus at no extra chage to me.

Geez these guys are a bunch of idiots!!!!

 

[pxlbarrel]

<sigh> I detest United. The only time I fly United is if they're code sharing with Air Canada and it's actually an Air Canada flight ... and even then it's a pain trying to get the seat assignments.

A few years ago I was in Nashville and when I got to the airport to get my flight back to Toronto (connecting through Chicago), I was met by some friends who were in a slightly excitable state. They were flying back to Toronto by way of Dulles (Washington D.C.). United, in their infinite wisdom had cancelled EVERY flight leaving Nashville that connected in Chicago or Dulles.... and then had only 2 ticket agents available to handle everybody's flight changes. By the time we got to the counter, all the flights that could have gotten us to Toronto had taken off. They managed to find a flight for us to Pittsburgh on U.S. Air and from there, we would fly to Toronto. Sounds good, eh? Well, as we ran to catch that plane, we got flagged at security because of our sudden flight changes. I had carry on luggage so hand inspection of my stuff was fast. As I ran to the gate, my friends were still at security yelling at me to make sure the plane didn't take off without them. We all managed to get on that flight at the very last minute ... no thanks to United.

We got to Pittsburgh and realized our connecting flight to Toronto was at the very opposite end of the terminal and was about to leave without us. We ran and ran and ran to the gate ... only to find out that flight was cancelled. We were now facing the prospect of being stuck in Pittsburgh and two of us had to work the next morning. We told the ticket agent to put us on a plane to Buffalo and we would figure the rest out when we got to Buffalo.... so she did. The gate was located .... right next to the gate we had just gotten off the plane.... so off we ran BACK to the original gate.

We got to Buffalo and the only way back to Toronto was to get a taxi cab. $200 later, we were at Pearson.... at 3 am. Nobody's at Pearson at 3 am. LOL

Now, this is why I hate United. I checked to see if my original United connecting flight out of Chicago had left for Toronto that night or not. Not only had it left, it left late and got into Toronto ... at 1 am. Even if my flight from Nashville to Chicago had been delayed by 2 or 3 hours, I would still have caught my connecting flight to Toronto. I could not understand why they thought it was preferable to be stuck in Nashville where there were fewer flights out than in Chicago where there were endless flights back to Toronto ... even if I had to wait till the next day.

I called United and complained and complained. They don't compensate for weather. I said, "What weather????" The weather forecast for Chicago, Toronto and Dulles were clear. Just weather ... bah. I said I would never use them again ... EVER... I want compensation. They said they wouldn't compensate me. hahaha ... I said ... for customer service, you should just give me the vouchers ... since I'll never use them, you're not out any money and you'll look good in customer service you idiots. LOL She gave me vouchers ... and I never used them.

I hate United.