Comments on: ‘No waivers, no favors’ reaches new heights

By: LeeAnne

LeeAnne — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:49:45 +0000

Just a comment to all of the travel agents who routinely accuse Chris of being anti-travel-agent. Note that his second suggestion on how to deal with these kinds of issues is to work with a qualified travel agent. So no more attacks on Chris for being down on TA’s! He’s just down on BAD ones.

By: Koala

Koala — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:20:02 +0000

I’m always amazed that airlines try to hit passengers with extra fees who want to fly on an earlier flight. If the flight is going to go out with empty seats, it’s actually in the airlines best interest to accommodate the passengers request to travel early because it frees up a seat on the later flight which might avoid an oversale and denied boarding if too many people show up.

By: Scott

Scott — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 23:37:50 +0000

@Jim_J

Barbara Higgins came from Disney. Since the rest of the corporate wackos at United don’t subscribe to this theory — to put it politely — it is basically meaningless.

Now in this specific instance, there is no detail about the situation. United’s policies is to provide hotels if the overnight was caused by an airline-caused delay (mechanical, crew, etc) but not if the delay was out of the airline’s control (weather, ATC, etc). If this was a case of the former, then there should not have been a problem to begin with. However, if this was the latter, and someone gets a reimbursement for something against policy simply because they e-mailed Higgins, then I think that is inappropriate application. Of course, we don’t know the reality in this case.

By: Mort B

Mort B — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 17:57:44 +0000

There are still some travel services for which changes are not only possible, but even facilitated. On a recent trip to Spain, I had made a reservation on a high-speed train from Madrid to Cordoba, choosing a time which allowed for a possible late arrival of my flight from the U.S. When I arrived at the station in Madrid, I discovered (to my surprise and delight) that I could change my reservation without any fuss, and with a payment of less than 1 Euro in fees.

Bravo la RENFE.

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:42:33 +0000

Wow, I check in early quite often. I have been told on occasion that the hotel was sold out the night before, and that they couldn’t guarantee anything before 3 pm or whatever the standard time is, but they were always at least a little apologetic about it. I’ve found larger hotels a little less accommodating of early checking or late checkout than smaller hotels.

Some Fairmont hotels will actually take my cell number and call me when a room is ready, which is a wonderful service. I’m a top elite with them now because of these kinds of actions.

By: Jim_J

Jim_J — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 14:46:58 +0000

What surprised me about this story is that United Airlines still has a Customer Service department and that Barbara Higgins referred to a passenger as a “guest”. Perhaps the people at United have finally realized who provides the revenue that pays their salaries.

By: kat

kat — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 12:02:35 +0000

Great post. I’ve used many of the positive suggestions you highlighted to some success over the years.

There’s nothing wrong with being politely persistent. Many make the mistake of lashing out, whining or acting unprofessionally, at which point the other party can become defensive and think less of the complaint.

I also noticed that being a subscriber or member of a frequent flyer program can be used as leverage because they are more likely to accommodate long-term, faithful consumers.