Dear United Customer Service,

I’m tired, I’m angry and I’m armed with a blog.

We were supposed to be at a conference in Knoxville, Tenn. today, instead, we were stranded at O’Hare for almost seven hours.

It wasn’t because of weather, it wasn’t due to a mechanical issue and it wasn’t our fault.

We were at the very back of the plane from SFO to ORD. I mean the very back, as in the last row of seats before the lavatory. When we landed (25 minutes late) I asked the flight attendant if she could radio ahead and let our connecting flight know we were on our way. She said, “You’ll make it, you’ll be off of here in 10 minutes.” Then, I asked her if she could help us get to the front of the plane any faster. She just said, “You’ll make it.”

Well, we didn’t make it from Gate C to Gate F. We got to the gate about nine minutes before our flight was scheduled to take off. The agent at the gate wasn’t very helpful either. She said the doors were closed, and although she hesitated, she didn’t even try contacting the plane. Then she told us the next flight to TYS was departing at 1:38 PM. It was 6:54 AM. I was so furious I had to walk away from the counter. She printed us boarding passes for the 1:38 flight and we headed upstairs to have a little chat with customer service.

And what did United Customer Service do for us? NOTHING. Not a damn thing. We didn’t get a food voucher, a hotel voucher, a discount on our next flight, nothing. Hell, we didn’t even get an “I’m sorry.” Oh, but good news! Our bag was on the 6:01 AM flight and would be waiting for us in Knoxville.

Great, can my bag sit on the panel in my place? I didn’t really get a chance to debrief it on all my talking points, but I’m sure it would do me right.

At least the customer service agent wasn’t bitchy, the flight attendant and the gate agent were. The customer service agent said she could get us on a 7 AM flight back to SFO, but because our tickets were non-refundable we could only get credit for a future United flight.

*sigh*

So, why should United care about one or two little customers like us?

I’ll tell you why, because we add up.

And the more of us you piss off, the worse it’s going to get for your company, United. Some of us that you piss off will “air” our grievances online, and then you end up with a story in mainstream media, like this one, “United passengers air their bitter grievances” with highlights that include the following:

  • United had the industry’s highest rate of passenger complaints to the Department of Transportation for all of 2006: 1.36 complaints for every 100,000 passengers boarded.
  • In the University of Michigan’s 2007 American Customer Satisfaction Index, United scored at the bottom of the industry.
  • The most recent Airline Quality Rating, done by Wichita State University and the University of Nebraska, ranked United No. 8 of 18 big and small airlines for 2006.

So United, if you want to stay in business for the foreseeable future, I suggest you work on improving your customer service skills.