United in Poor Customer Service

I have done a lot of travelling in my time, and had some frustrating experiences along the way. (My trip to the Philippines was an insane story, but that’s for another time.)

My travel back and forth from Alaska so far has been tiring and adventurous, but positive. When I had to get back to Utah in December, Delta was golden. They went above and beyond to be helpful in getting me home at a moment’s notice. They were accommodating, they were caring, and they were sensitive. They are solidly set on having great customer service.

Then there is the other end of the spectrum. And that is where United Airlines hangs by their fingernails—about as uncooperative and uncaring as a company can get.

When planning our return trip for the boys and myself, I made the mistake of trying to save a few dollars by flying on United. Big mistake! And one that I won’t make again.

I planned our return trip to coincide with Rachelle’s arrival home. Monday morning, we were to take a snow mobile from Alakanuk to Emmonak, and then fly by bush plane to St. Marys and on to Anchorage. Monday night at midnight, we would catch the United flight from Anchorage and eventually end up in Salt Lake, arriving at the Salt Lake airport about 3 hours before Rachelle flew in from France. (We would have been in a total of six airports by the time we arrived.)

Rachelle ended up changing her return trip for six weeks later, so I called to see if I could change our tickets and stay here longer with Keri. Apparently, United outsources their “customer service” (a term used very loosely here) to India. I could hardly understand a word the guy said when he told me that it would cost a total of $450 to change ($150 per ticket). Well, forget that. We’ll just go ahead with our original plans.

Since the trip home is so expensive (you total three tickets, and it really adds up—we are paying for Keri’s in May), I got it in two parts. I paid for the Anchorage to SLC in March, and then went to book the bush part in April. (The bush part is as expensive, or more so than the Anchorage to SLC part.) But when I went to book the bush part of the trip and pulled up our confirmation, I realized to my horror that the flight didn’t leave at midnight on Monday night—it left a few minutes after midnight on Monday morning. That wouldn’t be such a big deal, except that there are no “direct” flights from our part of the bush to Anchorage over the weekend.

So we were left with three alternatives:
1. Take the long way to Anchorage, increasing the total fare by $300
2. Fly into Anchorage on Friday, and pay for a hotel and food for two days, and then “hang out” at the airport all day Sunday
3. Change our flight out of Anchorage for a total penalty fee of $450

I tried a fourth alternative: phone United and plead our case. See if they will work with us. Again, I reached India.

I knew it would take some doing, so I asked for a supervisor right off the bat. When I explained our situation and what I had mistakenly done, the guy actually laughed before he said, “Well, you can change it for $150 fee per ticket.”

Yup. I have definitely learned my lesson. I will NEVER fly United again.