United Airlines, I hate you deeply.

[Arthur Dent]

Does a company like United actually get anything positive out of being on Facebook?

[G. Keenan]

Does a company like United actually get anything positive out of being on Facebook?

Who knows, maybe a list of people to potentially sell some day to advertisers.

It is messed up that Facebook is now the best way to get your complaint heard, but thank God for it, otherwise it would be impossible. They've designed the system to make it as unwieldy for you to complain as possible.

To their credit the reps I spoke to were friendly, but ultimately unable to do much of anything for me. Today's flight has empty freakin' seats for instance and I've already paid them for a flight, so what's the difference if I fly today or tomorrow? Sure, maybe between then and now somebody else could buy that ticket, so maybe offer me standby or something in that case. Didn't seem to be an option.

Another rant, the various US airlines are absolute crap on international flights compared to most of their foreign competitors. The fact that you are allowed only one checked bag and beer/wine is extra on such a long, expensive flight is just absurd.

[Spider John]

Have you told this story to their facebook page?

I'm prepared to go full Michael on their Facebook page. First I'll send their "customer relations" a letter which you can only do via email or in a letter, ha, and if that doesn't resolve it to my satisfaction I'm blowing their Facebook page up.

Wouldn't you get a quicker response, maybe while you're still in the states, by just cutting to the chase and busting them on FB?

[sighyoung]

This calls for a facebook meltdown. No question.

How sad is it that in today's society our best method for publicly venting and getting the most viewers possible is to [expletive] at the company on their Facebook page?

For the record, I completely agree with everyone on here that it needs to be done. I hate United for the reasons I stated above, and will never ever fly with them on my own dime. I happily pay extra to fly Delta/Northwest.

I think think it's sad that this is the society we're in now - if a big company pisses you off, your best way at getting the situation resolved expeditiously is to chew their ass out on Facebook where the 25M+ who "like" that company can read about it.

Here's an interesting take on why customer service is so bad: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial ... surowiecki

[Numbers]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... g-him.html

I've been through this by the way, I believe it's chronicled in my worst flight ever thread from back in the summer.
Anyway, one of the last lines of this article the company says "'I mean, leaving a passenger with no alternative but to stand for almost seven hours - if that’s true, then this might be one of those rare cases when a full refund is in order.'"
Doesn't sound hopeful for keenan's refund

[Secret Weapon]

I had a major issue with Charter, and after trying to deal with their customer service on the phone with no luck and only pissing me off more, I remembered from here that Facebook was the way to go. So I sent them a message on Facebook explaining the whole situation, and it was resolved within the hour. It seems companies have their more responsible customer relations people working their Facebook pages rather than answering the phones.

[jim]

I still don't understand why you would leave one hemisphere when summer is beginning to go to another where it's long gone .. but that's another story.

So why wasn't there anyone at the United booth at all? Was there supposed to be and they were just taking a siesta?

[maddash]

So why wasn't there anyone at the United booth at all? Was there supposed to be and they were just taking a siesta?

I'm guessing there was a mix up and they checked GK in on the flight when he was first at the counter. Once the rest of the flight was checked in while he was sorting out his thing in customs, they assumed the flight was fully checked in and closed the counter. That's the only explanation that makes sense - never heard of an airline closing a counter so early before a flight when not everyone had checked in.

[G. Keenan]

So why wasn't there anyone at the United booth at all? Was there supposed to be and they were just taking a siesta?

I'm guessing there was a mix up and they checked GK in on the flight when he was first at the counter. Once the rest of the flight was checked in while he was sorting out his thing in customs, they assumed the flight was fully checked in and closed the counter. That's the only explanation that makes sense - never heard of an airline closing a counter so early before a flight when not everyone had checked in.

No, I was never checked in, never issued a boarding pass. I finally found that out when I talked to a rep in the US.

I have no idea why there was nobody there. I suppose that some of them moved to the gate to manage the boarding process but they could have left one or two employees there to check in the stragglers or at least tell people they were [expletive] out of luck, to suck it, and come back tomorrow.

[maddash]

So why wasn't there anyone at the United booth at all? Was there supposed to be and they were just taking a siesta?

I'm guessing there was a mix up and they checked GK in on the flight when he was first at the counter. Once the rest of the flight was checked in while he was sorting out his thing in customs, they assumed the flight was fully checked in and closed the counter. That's the only explanation that makes sense - never heard of an airline closing a counter so early before a flight when not everyone had checked in.

No, I was never checked in, never issued a boarding pass. I finally found that out when I talked to a rep in the US.

I have no idea why there was nobody there. I suppose that some of them moved to the gate to manage the boarding process but they could have left one or two employees there to check in the stragglers or at least tell people they were [expletive] out of luck, to suck it, and come back tomorrow.

I thought you said the call center in India showed you as checked in?

If they closed the counter for an international flight more than an hour before departure and knew people still weren't checked in, then there should be no problem at all getting a refund from United. 60 minutes is the minimum check in time for almost every airline - even for international flights - and you said you still had 60+ before when you returned to the counter.