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I'm a
bargain-hunter. I spent a lot of time
researching the various engines that purport to
find the cheapest That's why I
created this site. After I spent days
tracking down and organizing info on the cheapest
airfares, it made sense to share it so others
wouldn't have to repeat my research from scratch. I
also found that picking the right sites to search
for airfares on is only half the battle -- it's
just as important to know how to pick the right
travel dates, too If you were to try to find all the stuff I now
list on this site on your own it would take you a
while -- but now you don't have to, since it's all
right here. So while I'm sure this site can save
you some money, I also hope it saves you some time.
Happy flying! -- M. Bluejay,
editor
If you liked my guide to
Cheap Airfare, you might like some of my other
sites: Step-by-step guide for first-time homebuyers.
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now) An illustrated guide for bicyclists. Might save your
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Realism Cult This doesn't have anything to do with cheap
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you think more people ought to know about it. If you liked my guide to Cheap Airfare, you might like some of my other sites:
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Poor Customer Service at United AirlinesWhen a company makes a mistake it's easy to forgive them. When they make two, it's harder. When they make twenty, it's impossible. Here is a classic example of poor service from a commercial airline.
On Nov. 13, 2004 I flew from Chicago to my home in Austin on United Airlines. My bag did not arrive with me. I went to the United baggage office at the airport and informed the clerk ("JR"). She immediately started asking me several questions and filling out a form. During this uncomfortable time I had no idea what was going to happen. It would have been better had she started by saying something both reassuring and helpful such as, "Okay, I'm going to get some information from you so I can locate your bag. It's unusual that a bag is ever lost for good -- probably it's still just at the last airport because it didn't make it on the plane somehow. Once it gets here to Austin we'll send a courier to deliver it to your home, probably either later tonight or tomorrow...." But instead she just asked a bunch of questions, wrote the answers down and fiddled with the computer while I wondered what was going on and what would happen. She finally told me that the bag was in Chicago because it had been retained by the Transportation Administration for some reason, that they could get it on that evening's last flight to Austin, and that it could probably be delivered to me by midnight. She said they would call first.
Upon arriving home I realized that United would not be able to call me because my telephone equipment was in my bag. I went to a neighbor's house to call United to inform them of that, and was disappointed to be greeted with a voice-activated menu system. Such systems are slow, cumbersome, and annoying -- they often hinder rather than help you. In this case, it was of course impossible for me to describe my problem to a computer and so I needed to talk to a real person, but in their infinite wisdom United decided to force customers to talk to the useless computerized agent instead. There was no way to bypass it. I hit the zero key several times but the computerized agent kept telling me it didn't understand my selection. I had to tell the computer "delayed bag", and then "Austin, Texas", and then my last name, and then confirm that it had gotten my last name right, and then listen to the computer tell me it had no idea where my bag was but that it had the bag on a "priority trace". This directly conflicts with what JR told me at the airport, which was that the bag was in Chicago. Finally the computer said I could talk to a real person by saying "agent", though when I did so it toyed with me further by saying, "I think you said 'agent'. Is that correct? If yes, then say 'yes'..."
I then explained that I was calling because United wouldn't be able to contact me about delivery since my phone equipment was in my bag. The agent then asked me for all the information I had just given the computerized agent. Their system is so lame that it doesn't even relay the information I already gave.
I asked the agent to replace the phone number they had on file for me with my neighbor's phone number. The agent then said she felt my bag would still arrive later that evening. It didn't. I went to my neighbor's house after the flight was to have arrived to call United again and I went through the same ordeal as earlier: The computerized agent again forced me to talk to IT rather than to a real person, it told me again that my bag had not been located, I again had to tell it a couple of times that I wanted to talk to a real agent, and it again didn't relay my information to the real agent. When I got the agent on the line she put me on hold so she could call the Chicago airport. After several minutes she came back and said that Chicago didn't answer. She tried again. When she came back she said she thinks they located the bag but that the tag had been ripped off, and said that Chicago described the contents as including "dress shirts and casual shirts". (Duh.) That the Chicago office would think that that is actually a helpful description rather than a patently retarded description is disappointing.
I informed the agent that I did indeed have casual shirts and dress shirts though I had no idea how that would differentiate my bag from every other bag on the planet. I described the contents in better detail and also the distinctive features on the outside of the bag. I asked what information they had about the description so I could verify it was correct. The agent said that it was listed as a wheelable bag with a retractable handle. This is wrong, and I never described the bag as such. I then looked at the report filled out by the agent in Austin and saw that she took it upon herself to list the bag as having a retractable handle, though she never asked me whether it had a retractable handle and I never volunteered that it did.
I told the agent that my bag didn't have a retractable handle and that the Austin agent must have assumed so when she filled out the report, since she never asked me. The phone agent corrected the information in the system but completely failed to apologize for the fact that the original agent entered the wrong information. This is the First Rule of Customer Service: Apologize for Mistakes, especially when the customer brings it to your attention. But United failed to do this every single time. Let's separate United's mistakes from the bag being detained in the first place. The fact that my bag was initially delayed might have been out of United's control. They did apologize for the fact that my bag was delayed on my first call, though that doesn't concern me because I presume the initial delay was not caused by United's incompetence. However, when I ran into problems because of United's mishandling of the inquiry, it simply added insult to injury when the fact I received poor service was ignored.
At this point something else became clear: Despite the computerized phone agent's assurance that they had the bag on a "priority trace", it was clear that nobody was taking an active role in trying to locate the bag. Rather, Austin just felt that the bag was in Chicago somewhere and that it would turn up in Austin when Chicago was done with it. I thus consider the phone agent's assurance as outright deception.
The agent said the next flight would hit Austin around 1:00pm the next day and that my bag would likely be located and arrive on that flight. The next morning I again went to my neighbor's to call United, and was again subjected to the computerized agent which would not let me bypass it, slowly demanded information, falsely told me that my bag had not been located, finally let me talk to a human agent. I spoke with an Indian agent who told me that the bag had been located in Chicago, would arrive on the afternoon flight, and should be delivered to my home by about 2:00pm. She tried to confirm that they should call the phone number they had listed before delivery, and I said no, because that was my neighbor's phone, since I had to call United from my neighbor's house since my telephone equipment was in my bag. The agent asked, "So you want to change the delivery address?" I said, "NO! Please deliver to the same address you have down for me. You just can't call me there because my phone is in my missing bag." She then asked me to call back about the time the bag was supposed to be delivered. I replied, "I can't do that, because I have to leave my home in order to call you, and I might miss the courier." She said, "I don't understand what you mean. Why would you have to leave your home in order to call?" I paused for several seconds because I was stumped at trying to think of a simpler way to repeat myself, but then she chimed in with, "Oh, you can't call because your phone is in your bag." Bingo! She said they would have the courier deliver it without calling first.
By 3:00pm my bag had still not arrived. My neighbor was not home so I walked to a public telephone to call United. Before I left I put a bright green note on my front door that said, "Luggage Courier: I will return in five minutes. -- M. Bluejay". When I got to the store and called United I was again subjected to the computerized agent which would not let me bypass it, slowly demanded information, falsely told me that my bag had not been located, finally let me talk to a human agent only after a multi-step process, and did not relay the information I had given it to the human agent. I told the agent that I had expected my bag to arrive an hour ago. She replied that there was a four-hour window for delivery. This was news to me, since no previous agent had mentioned that. I told her that if that was the case then previous agents failed to mention that important fact. Typically, the agent did not even acknowledge my concern.
I returned home and waited When someone leaves me a voicemail message the message is emailed to me so I'm able to hear messages even without a phone. At 4:30pm I received a voicemail message from the courier, John, asking me to call him. This tells me that United did not change my number to my neighbor's number as I asked, since they would have no way to reach me at my home number. My neighbor was still not home so I walked back to the public telephone to call the courier. Thankfully I did not have to go through a computerized agent. The courier said that he had been at my house but no one answered the door. The only time I was away was when I had gone to the public telephone earlier for a few minutes to call United, and that must have been when he had been there. Had United's phone system and representatives handled calls quicker then I wouldn't have been at the pay phone for so long and I likely would not have missed the courier. I asked the courier if he had not seen the bright green note on the door that said I would return in five minutes? He said he had not. I would count this as another, blatant mistake but the courier is independent and not employed directly by United. I knew United had given him a number I told them not to use, but did they at least give him my neighbor's number too, which I said I wanted to be the contact number? They did not, they gave him only the bad number.
As I write this I am still waiting for my bag.
UPDATE: At 9:20pm, the courier arrived and delivered my bag -- with a broken handle. United must have known the handle was broken before they handed it to the courier, but United made no effort to contact me to offer compensation or replacement. Perhaps they are hoping that my bad experience in dealing with them will discourage me from continuing this comedy of errors by calling them to file a claim.
P.S. I filed a complaint on United's website, referring them to this page since all the details are here. If United responds to this article, expect them to miss the point by focusing on the fact that my bag was delayed rather than understanding my *real* complaint, which is how they mishandled the problem with my missing bag.
United's Response On Nov. 17 I received the following email from United: Dear Mr. Bluejay,
United's Second Response After I received the notice above I went to United's website and pasted the contents of this web page into their contact form. Below is the response I got. Above I predicted that if United replied I expected them to miss the point and to focus on the fact that my bag was delayed rather than understanding that my *real* complaint is how they mishandled my inquiries on the matter and how their customer service is lacking. That's exactly what they did. Dear Mr. Bluejay,
United's Third Response A few days after this I received voicemail message from a United manager in Austin. I called her back a few days later and she apologized for my experience and, appropriately, seemed to understand that my issue was not that my bag had been delayed so much as it was the way they handled that problem. I had been waiting for the opportunity to talk to United so that if they asked me what it was I wanted, I would say, "Please see the specific grievances listed in my complaint, and make sure that other customers don't have the same experience," -- which is what I did. The manager acknowledged this and also said that she would research my case to see what kind of compensation she could offer me, and then get back to me on that. I explained that I was more interested in United's addressing its customer service problems than in remuneration, but that I would consider any offer they wanted to make.
On Dec. 28th, 2004 after over a month of waiting I decided to try to contact the United manager to pick up where we had left off. I thought I would call the Austin office and ask to talk to a manager, but when I picked up the phone book I discovered that United didn't bother to get a listing in the alphabetical white pages -- not even a nationwide customer service number (unlike their competitors, which are listed clearly). I checked the previous year's directory and they're not in there, either. Of course nothing surprises me about United anymore.
I found the customer service number on their website (though inconveniently not on their home page -- it was two clicks away from home), 877-228-1327. I dialed and waited the typical ten minutes before I could talk to somebody. Victor Pedroza answered, I explained that I was left hanging by a manager in Austin, and asked for the phone number of the Austin office. Mr. Pedroza refused to provide it, saying my only recourse was to write a letter to the Austin office. I asked whether he thought that was reasonable -- after all I've been through, and after being left hanging by United, was this really the best they could do? If they were going to insist on being stingy with the phone number to the Austin office, could they not leave a message with a manager to get back to me? Was this really the best they could do? Yes, this was really the best they could do.
At this point I gave up. I could spend time printing out and mailing a copy of this page but there's no point. It's pretty clear that United simply doesn't care. As it stands, after all of the above I have nothing to show for my efforts -- neither any kind of meaningful indication from United that they will truly make any effort to improve their customer service operations, nor any kind of compensation for my bad experience as a customer. Indeed, my most recent experience with United underscores that nothing has changed. |
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airfares,
and I found that they're definitely not all the
same. For example: Did you know that if you search
Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, or LowestFare, you
won't see flights offered by Southwest Airlines --
even though Southwest has some of the best U.S.
fares around? If you book on one of these sites for
a route that Southwest serves there's a good chance
you'll pay too much -- probably not what you were
expecting if you went to a site called "Lowest
Fare"!
