Hi all,
I'm happy with the responses that I have gotten so far I would like to ask those of you that follow me and have not read my blogs please do and if your willing call united's direct line with concern of this story. thank you all so much. ask to speak with the specialist of baggage services(435) 634-3000
And here is a little story: I was forced by my company to fly united three days ago. So I'm sitting in the terminal listening to people complain about the service there. During this time the united air rep came on the speaker and announced that the flight would be delayed due to a broken arm rest. so I jump into the conversation with the folks complaining and told them my story. As were boarding the plane one of them hands me her card. She is a journalist for the NY times and she wants to run my story! Yahoo, united airlines if your reading this you might want to replace my instrument. people will hear about this and the bad press will hurt more than replacing what you helped pack and then Broke.
Below is a letter that I received from LA outback a great company that has been dealing with aboriginal made didjeridus for over twelve years.
Allan,
Got the pics. Jeez, there is no way that would have happened unless the didgeridoo suffered a great deal of pressure trying to pass through a cargo bay. I've haven't seen this type of break in over 12 years of shipping didgeridoos. This was not simply mishandled, this had to be mechanical and human error combined. Eucalyptus didgeridoos don't snap in half like a toothpick... ever. That's a lot of force, and I think you've got a case against them hands down. Please feel free to use me as a reference and give them my phone number to contact me if they want a professional opinion about this. I want to help you fight this in any way I can.
Be well, Barry Martin
L.A.Outback
"Walk softly and carry a loud stick."
I got your response on twitter. I'm so sorry to hear what happened to you! I'm even more sorry to hear that United seems to treat everyone the way I was treated - blameless. Here's my United story (as I'm sure we've all got them).
ReplyDeleteJan 1st, I was flying with my stepdaughter to return her home to California from where we live in Oklahoma. It was just her and I (we have an amazing relationship). We had a little mixup first of all with the name because my husband's exwife booked me under married name and my ID still has my maiden name. They wouldn't under any circumstances without having the credit card with me (which belonged to them) change the name. So I had to fly as a person without ID (just going through extra security). I thought that was bad, but wouldn't be the least of my worries for what was to come.
We made it to our layover in Denver. We only had about 30 minutes to catch the next flight. As I checked the boards to see which gate we were supposed to go to, I noticed our flight was cancelled. I got my husband on the phone with customer service to find me new flights and I jumped in the 2 hour customer service line. At one point I saw a sign to check the kiosk if a flight was cancelled. So I let my daughter hold my place in line as I checked the kiosk. They had rescheduled me for the next day. That wasn't going to work for me because 1) I couldn't afford hotel and 2) I already had flights the next day and 3) I had to get my stepdaughter home on time.
I continued to stay in line. Husband calls back and the only thing they could do was put me on three more planes and fly me into San Diego (originally flying to Orange County, but next day air travel was from San Diego, so that was ok). I wasn't thrilled about two more layovers so I stayed in line to see if they could find anything better. Oh the stories I was hearing while standing in line! I knew this wasn't going to turn out well.
I finally get to the front of the line and they tell me the same thing my husband told me. That's the best they can do - to give me two more layovers and put me in San Diego. So I asked if they would at least issue a meal ticket or something in compensation for a cancelled flight and really messing up my day! She said they no longer issued meal tickets and she gave me and my stepdaughter each a $50 to use on a future flight. As if I wanted to fly with them again! Keep in mind, my stepdaughter is 6 years old and not handling this very well either. lol
Finally we leave Denver and make it to Vegas. They had overbooked the flight, but luckily we still got on. Then we arrived at LAX. No sooner than getting off the phone with my husband to let him know we made it to LAX and things were fine, the attendant announces over the intercom that there's a chance the plane won't be able to land in San Diego due to weather. They were offering people a hotel and a flight the next morning if they wanted to stay behind. Or if you took the flight and it couldn't land, they would fly us to Palm Springs or Ontario and we'd be left to our own transportation from there. There wasn't much of a choice for us considering we didn't have transportation from Palm Springs OR Ontario. Before we could make that decision for ourselves, they had already shipped off the plane despite there still being a line at the counter of customers wanting to ask questions about staying or going. So then we were all stuck no matter what. Mostly I was concerned about getting on the flight in the morning because I didn't want it to interfere with my next day flights.
By the time I made it to the counter, I found out just how screwed I was. Apparantly the "hotel stay" was a coupon for a discounted hotel room which was still going to cost me $84 including the discount. My father was on the phone with them trying to book it for me and they wouldn't let him book it without faxing a copy of his id and credit card. It was around 3am central time and my father had no access to a fax machine, but they didn't believe him - as if every household now owns a fax machine. So we couldn't get a room. On top of that, we had to rearrange flights the next day because the first flight out that we were promised had been booked and there was only one seat left and we were two people. So they had to redo all my flights and completely messed all of it up by also booking my stepdaughter who would not be flying back with me. She told me that I needed to deal with that tomorrow and that she didn't have time to fix her own mistake! And yes - as soon as I walked away from the counter, they all clocked out to go home. The supervisor was there too and she wouldn't do anything to help. She was just trying to get everyone to go away so employees could clock out.
I tried to at least go get my daughter's luggage (which cost $15 to check, by the way, even though we only checked one bag less than 50lbs). They were supposed to pull it off the plane, but apparantly didn't. I checked in baggage service claims and they said the luggage had already made it to San Diego. GREAT! My luggage gets better service than I do as a human being!
My stepdaughter and I sat on the baggage claim floor and I just sobbed. I felt like a failure to her despite it not being my fault. They had really screwed us that day and I just couldn't explain it to my daughter in a way she'd understand. Eventually I heard of a bus outside going to San Diego. I told a passing employee about my situation and come to find out, the weather permitted my flight from even leaving LAX so they were having to bus those who tried getting on the plane all the way to San Diego. The employee told me and my daughter to grab our bags and get on the bus. There was plenty of room.
I swear that woman was an angel. No one asked for our tickets or even mentioned that we got on. For that matter, no one really even noticed that we got on (there wasn't even a bus driver to notice). My daughter was able to lay across two seats across the aisle from me and I layed across two seats while we did what we could to sleep our way to San Diego.
So what did United do for me after all of this? NOTHING. I got the $50 flight voucher in Denver and that was it! Of course, I'll never use that $50 voucher.