I don’t love United Airlines coach seats, and there’s little on a standalone basis about the carrier that is best in the world other than their mobile app. But collectively things seem to be improving. At least their employees believe it, and sometimes that’s enough.
One 91 year old reader – who is still a working actor – shared a story about United that shows initiative, customer service, and just what United employees can and sometimes will do to take care of a customer.
I am 91 years old. I love that I am still able to work in a challenging, self-created career. I have an active social and political life in my community. But, my attention to details has never been perfect and I think my age aggravates that.
…I mistakenly booked the wrong United Air flight on my return from a visit with Chicago based family to my New Jersey home over this holiday weekend.
…Back in November I thought I was booking a midmorning flight returning from [Chicago O’Hare to Newark on Sunday], 12/29/24. But, distracted that day by some pressing issues, I actually booked a First Class seat on a 9pm-ish flight on 12/29/24 that would have landed me back in Newark well past midnight 12/30.
I didn’t realize what I’d done until I went online on 12/28 to check into my flight. So, I called United’s Customer Service. I explained to the agent I had made the mistake and asked if I could change to a morning or mid-afternoon flight on 12/29/24. The rebooking would cost me more than $1,000. I was so shocked, it was the only part of the price that I recalled. She may have said $1,999 or just $1,000.
I told her politely, that I thought the price was extortionate just to correct an honest mistake…I added that I would have to stay with the original reservation.
There was a momentary silence at her end. Then she said, “I see you are almost 92 years old.” I had not made mention of that fact. But, in the opening dialog of the call, she had confirmed my usual information which included my early 1933 birthday.
She said, “Let me see if there is an alternative. Please stay on the line while I speak with someone.”
Every few minutes, during the next 45 minutes, she reopened the line, asked me by name if I’m still there and repeated the request that I stay with her. Eventually she returned with the news that I was rebooked on a flight that got me back into EWR late on the morning of 12/29/24. No charge for the rebooking.
I took my first flight in 1953. I spent some of my busiest years flying all over the world, sometimes as often as three or four flights a week, for business. I think I may have been on every US airline that existed between then and the late 1970s. I have never once experienced that level of Customer Service.
I wish I had thought to get the name of this United Airline Customer Service rep who showed such proactive and time consuming attention to an old man. I am sincerely grateful to her. I wish I could publicly say her name. I applaud United for having staff like her and internal processes that produce this result.
I’ve asked United to track down the reservations agent who spent nearly an hour and successfully waived change fees for their 91 year old customer who had made a mistake in his booking.
The airline under CEO Scott Kirby has been reinventing itself. Employee morale started trending up under Kirby’s predecessor, Oscar Munoz.
Their ConnectionSaver technology actually helps passengers avoid getting stranded. They’re actually installing seat back screens in a 180 from their earlier approach. And they’ll eventually go from industry worst wifi to best with Starlink.
Soon they’ll be offering wine competitive with the best carriers in the world in business class.
I’d say though that this story is how you win customers, one at a time – except there isn’t that much business left to win, even from a relatively frequent flyer, at age 91. Instead it’s doing the right thing when you think nobody is looking.
In the late 90’s, United ran three-year long ad campaign “Rising.” Employees were no longer supposed to refer to the Friendly Skies. The rising message was meant to communicate to business travelers that United was providing better service than other airlines – only they weren’t, really. The message never caught on, and was scrapped for 2000. Things began turning south for the carrier for unrelated reasons.
While there’s still plenty for travelers to complain about at United, and they do, maybe the rising message was just 27 years too early?
Well, very nice to read this as a reminder that what airlines need more than anything else is GOOD STAFF! I’m Lifetime Gold and reading this story made me very encouraged that United is on the way up!
I love the United app but Thursday it said that both of my bags were en route to a specific baggage claim carousel – I waited and kept updating/checking the app which displayed the same info (one bag had finally shown up). Went to baggage office and it turns out one of my bags was still in Chicago.
$1000 for a rebooking? WTF???
There’s probably more to this story, but changing a United flight on your computer these days usually takes 5 minutes. I am getting ‘old’ too; I make mistakes but mostly I change my mind about an itinerary. Under most circumstances, change fees no longer exist at United. I’ve changed several flights over the past few years with no trouble at all. This IS a heartwarming story of a UA agent going the extra mile for a pax. I’ve always maintained that people chose a career with an airline or hotel because they’re by nature ‘helpers’ and derive great satisfaction from assisting a customer. Other than Delta during/after the virus disaster,, I’ve always had very positive results from any request.
That’s a United employee about to lose their job for leaving $1,000 on the table.
I am pleased about the seat back entertainment. Their safety videos are clever too and worth watching (once).
While Delta still has good to excellent customer service for top-tier elites, United is the only big-three U.S. airline actively improving across all facets of their operation.
@Denver Refugee
Actually, that employee will have received some sort of bonus. Just consider the mileage this blog brought them. Gary, please mention this to UA, another Lifetime Gold.
I love this story! I too had great customer service in Denver from a United employee – Auria M – in Denver. My flight had to turn around headed for Calgary. I wanted to get to Edmonton Canada & had left Riverton Wyoming early that day. When the flight turned around due to mechanical issues, there was no one answering my pleas on the United app & no return phone calls. Thankfully Auria rebooked me on a direct flight to Edmonton that night. Exceptional service! One of the very last seats on that plane & she had to make an extra effort to make sure there was room. United does a fantastic job in my book! I have flown out of Wyoming since 1981 multiple times a year & they always come through.
The story of the 91-year-old man on United brought up my story with United. My wife and I had reservations to Europe in the summer of 2021. My wife died in Dec. 2020. I asked United if I could take my sister instead. They said no, only at the higher current rate. A letter to corporate elicited the same rejection. Yes, all my money and points were credited back to me. When I asked why they couldn’t change a name I got no answer; policy you know. My guess is that they could sell the seats for more money.
Maybe things have change.
Huh, wonder what Tim Dunn has say about this. How dare another airline encroach on providing good customer service, other than Delta.
Timmy would be very upset if Delta gave away such a profit!
Due to not paying attention, we suddenly realized that our flight credit from an earlier cancellation was about expire, and there was no way we could use the substantial (over $700) credit in time. I called customer service, and the customer service rep went out of her way to get us an extension so that we were actually able to use the flight credit on a flight later that year that we were planning anyway. I don’t recall the exact things that she did, but she went to a lot of effort on our behalf and made it happen. I congratulate United on giving their reps the ability to help out the customer this way. Keep up the good work!
It is always nice to hear feel-good stories regarding compassion towards the elderly. I will never forgive AT&T for converting my 99 year old father to AT&T cable service at his age and lack of awareness. My father could barely operate a simple remote control and was not technologically savvy enough to activate the AT&T service and ended up paying for 2 cable services until he passed.
I am happy with the resolution but what does the gentleman’s age have to do with this?
You know like that Young Lady, I too have spent my life flying all over the world, generally in Business or First class internationally (when long haul) and in Coach domestically. But unlike Gary, I have always felt that United was a premium airline and acted as such with its customers. I might add, unlike the mighty Delta, which does have great service in the air, but otherwise squeezes customers in so many ways. See their loyalty program as a prime example. You wouldn’t believe how long it took me to use Pan Am miles transferred in from their bankruptcy to Delta to get a decent mileage deal. So I’m happy to see United getting their mojo back internationally. My recent flight to Barcelona was quite good in Business. Outside of the Asian and top Middle East connector carriers, they’re as as good and mostly better than all the rest.
Living in Houston I fly United a lot. A few months ago, my flight was delayed, but there was another flight going out sooner. I had time and chose to wait the extra hour for my original flight to avoid the hassle of making the change. United sent me a $20 food voucher which I expected, but then, out of the blue, I receive a personal call from a United representative. There was one last seat on the earlier flight and he wanted to make sure that, if I wanted it, he would reserve it for me. Wow! I graciously declined, but that call made a big impression on me!
It is great that the representative took note of the passenger’s age, and took the initiative to process the change. That should be (but unfortunately is not) standard operating procedure. It should not, however, have taken 45 minutes to make that change. The delay shows that the airlines still have a long way to go in terms of customer service and systems.
This is indeed a nice thing to read about United. Although to my thinking, a First Class seat really shouldn’t incur a change fee. It should be part of the First Class experience.
I was flying United Airlines one time, can’t remember where I was flying out of but I upgraded my ticket to first class while I was waiting to board. I had to pay like $90 or so to upgrade. Anyway, we couldn’t fly out for some reason. I don’t know if they rebooked us or what happened. Anyway I couldn’t use that upgrade because we didn’t fly or whatever or we used a different plane or something. Anyway I figured I had just lost my $90. But a week or two later I was just looking at my credit card bill and I saw a credit from United Airlines for $90. They reimbursed me because I couldn’t use that upgrade and I didn’t even ask them to. I was impressed. That was probably 15 years ago I don’t know. But I was impressed with United!
I had a much different experience. Because of a schedule change United offered me a one time free change to my flight. I only changed the first leg of my flight which was a CRJ145 single class aircraft. The next leg was Polaris Business Class. After making the change I saw that I had been downgraded to economy class, NOT what I wanted for a 10 hour flight. I called United preimier desk, explained what had happened only to be told no, they couldn’t fix their system problem. I spoke to a supervisor who told me I could get my business class back but would have to pay nearly a $1000 for me and my wife. Then the supervisor told me I had to do it now or I would lose the seats. While I thought it was extortion, I paid the $1000 and got my seats back. Next day I called again and that person agreed with me and after an hour, reversed the charge.
Of course you hate the coach seats you’re fat.
There should be no charge for making changes, just like the hotel industry. The planes are flying anyway.
I generally get good to great service from UA. Recent trip from DFW to ORD/BOS the connecting flight got pushed back from DFW where I wouldn’t make my connection in ORD. UA agent at the lounge spent about ten minutes looking for an alternative and eventually booked me a 1st ticket on an AA direct flight to BOS. I also found out that 1st ticket holders don’t automatically have access to AA’s lounges.
I prefer UA over AA, I fly in/out of AA’s fortress hub at DFW a lot but I still book UA.
I wished United CEO would recognize it’s Vendor employees who give above and beyond customer service as their regular United employees do. There are several people to represent United Airlines and service their passengers just as well if not better and they never get recognized or given the same benefits as United employees. It’s like working for one of the biggest companies and getting Poop for pay and the worst benefits ever. Vendors have to endure the same training and follow the same core rules, but get treated as second rate employees. They even get treated as second rate by United Employees. United Airlines should and needs to know that this is unfair and ethically and morally wrong. It’s horrible and I hope that the person you were dealing with was not a vendor employee because they would deserve that recognition just as well.
Substantial change fees now for European customers but none in the US. Seems unfair. Also United continues to fly the undafe 737 which crash on a regulare basis. . No equipment filter on the app is a nuisance if you want to avoid these horrible planes.
Peter
London
That’s it: “Doing the right thing when nobody is looking.”
Nothing United ever does will ever make up for them beating up a 70 year old man and dragging him rather than incentivizing people to give up seats. Despicable.
My 74 year old mother made a mistake booking a return flight from Greece for a date in Oct instead of Sept. A very honest but expensive mistake. But I guess 74 isn’t quite old enough to warrant the same level of treatment? This shows that these ridiculous fees CAN be waved they just choose not to 99.9% of the time.
I remember the days of booking tickets with travel agents. It really wasn’t that long ago. The original error probably wouldn’t have been made in the first place because the time of the flight would have been discussed. I have one friend that I know still uses a travel agent. This is a case of an excessive change fee. If United had it so the change fee was $50 or $100, the customer would have probably just eaten the cost and did the change. Instead United lost money on making the change due to labor costs. I think that the result was heartwarming but as far as a business decision, it was questionable.
@Peter Marshall – of course fares are also lower ex-Europe, and greater consumer protections from EU261, so not sure the overall situation is unfair to Europeans
I love this story, but I wonder why this is an unusual event. Every airline should try to help out their customers , and should not have exorbitant change fees in the first place
for those worried about me, I don’t generally read, let alone comment on Gary’s endless lineup of anecdotal stories in the travel industry.
Each of the big 4 serve well over 100 million customers. There are good interactions and there are bad interactions.
On average and based on actual statistics, UA’s service is rated between 2 and 3 depending on the factor you consider – but it is rarely #1 on a consistent basis on any metric from any large-scale statistically-based rating of the airline industry.
Good for the sharp agent who realized they had a very senior flyer who made a mistake and found a way to fix it.
And even better for the 90+ year old customer that is still at it and can use apps and websites for travel planning.
I would have liked to have my flight issues handled by that UA representative. Unfortunately I experienced the complete opposite service. I am/was a Premium Gold level customer with UA. I fly over 10 international flight per year, in addition to domestic travel, and always fly business/first class. I say that to let you know if they treat a client and company that spends that type of money with them then they have zero care about anyone. UA literally left myself and my family, 4 kids, in Venice. Their response was if I could get myself and my family to Germany or London they could get us on a flight back to the US. After 6 months of limited response by UA and in addition to their solution of offering a $100 credit per ticket I have moved on from UA.
Where is Tim?
Since we’re sharing stories about United, I’ll share mine. I’m currently in South Africa on business. When departing DFW 1-Jan-2025, the TSA had only one scanner open for several hundred fliers (I’d estimate 400 or so). I spent 1:20 in line (complaining loudly to the nearby TSA agents about their apparent insensitivity to the fliers). When I finally made it through security, my flight DFW-EWR (with my checked bag aboard!) had just departed. An UA gate agent “Emily”, who was walking away from the gate area, asked me if I was Mr. _______. I said I was. She said that they had already re-booked me on a connecting flight via Houston-Bush (so DFW-IAH-EWR) which would get me to Newark in time for the UA EWR-CPT flight. If possible, please see that “Emily” gets her “attagirl”!
tldr: BOO TSA! YAY UA agent “Emily”
United always rebooks me on earlier flights for free if I arrive early from Europe for my connection (even if not on United), and there is a flight leaving in the next hour or so. These tickets are usually first class, which I understand has same day change allowed. When I was flying Delta as Diamond, they had same day confirmed / standby option, for changing bookings and I used it frequently on DC to NYC or Boston to NYC routes.
@David R Miller
“$1000 for a rebooking? WTF???”
You know there is NO rebooking fee this high! It’s about dynamic pricing! The fare is higher on a flight that doesn’t arrive after midnight.
Today – NYC is putting drivers into the same scenario, it cost more to drive into the city at certain times of the day.
Dynamic pricing is here to stay – I despise it too. But “Same day changes” still remedy this. Basically, the agent and her support lead, decided… why not offer a SDC waiver, the customer may not have had that status, but they found a “win-win” situation. The 90+ actress took it to social media – which neither UA was doing it for – and it’s a positive review for UA.
UA has always “empowered” its frontline staff to find ways to assist honest customers in distress. Don’t call up expecting this service. A 90+ year old said she made a mistake. Every great customer service agent would internally think…. What would I like done for my 90 mother…grandmother… and treats the customers like family!
I purchased a non-refundable ancillary upgrade fee… I didn’t read the fine print! I got the refund, and since then, I have not purchased an upgrade fee! I learned my lesson gently with the help of someone at UA.
The fact that it took 45 minutes for an employee to make a simple booking change to a direct flight between major airports indicates a severe issue with their system.
The advanced age and lack of mental acuity of the passenger is irrelevant to the process. Yet, it leaves me wondering if there is an elder abuse/neglect situation in progress within that family.
Overall, i find the article disturbing.
The exception that proves the rule.