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I will never fly United again.
Feb. 7th, 2007 01:44 pmThis morning I woke up early enough to finish up my homework (albeit not do any of my reading...) and balance my checkbook (aka my PDA), and when I went to my bank account online, I noticed United Airlines charged me $100 more than I thought they would for my first-class seat to SFO from LAX on 3/30. It's a one-way trip, since Dad said we'd road-trip back in time for Passover, and various people have explained to me that round-trip is a discount, thus one-way can be more expensive than if you'd just divide a round-trip base fare by two.
But I had this $100 certificate from the last fiasco I had with United (when Scott and I were flying back to LAX, our flight got cancelled AT THE LAST MINUTE, and the flight we got changed to not only got re-routed, but was delayed for FIVE HOURS), and I entered the certificate code as specified in the email I got from the customer service representative that issued it to me (this was via email, which is my preferred method of customer service, even though I myself work in an in-person customer center *AND* a call-center). United.com then showed me the flights eligible for the discount, and their prices. I noticed that many of the one-way trips to SFO for Economy were much cheaper than my $100, and I wanted to make full-use of the certificate, since it expired on 1/31 (in terms of time to book, not time to travel). So Dad suggested I look at first-class, and I decided to give it a go. So I picked seat 1A on a flight from LAX to SFO on 3/30, departing late in the evening.
The certificate details were a bit jargon-filled, but they seemed to say that my credit card would simply be charged the DIFEFRENCE between my final price (including taxes), and that the certificate would be divided evenly between the base fare and any applicable taxes or fees (not not ALL taxes or fees). Fine, fine. But it didn't say anything about the price I was quoted being the price AFTER the $100 certificate was applied. That makes *NO* sense.
See, round-trip, an economy-seat flight from LAX to SFO was around $48 with taxes, each way. One-way, it was around $56. First-class would bump it up to $65 or so. That's what I expected to pay after my certificate kicked in. But if the prices I was quoted were AFTER the discount was taken (and never once did I get ANY sort of indication that the certificate had already been applied, not even AFTER I'd paid and got several "receipts"), and the United Representative I talked to this morning WASN'T talking out of his ass, then the base fare was really $148 ONE-WAY (as part of a round-trip flight), or $156 ONE-WAY (standalone)! WHAT THE HELL? There is no way that's possible for a flight that's only 397 miles, or an hour and 10 minutes.
And when I've looked at the email receipts they sent me, all of them say the base fare (before taxes) is $144.19, not $255.60, as the guy quoted me on the phone. Seriously now, WHAT THE HELL? I sent an email to the Refund Dept. not asking for a full refund (because then my certificate would have been useless), but for the $100 that they charged me on top of the fee that seemed to have been outlined on the receipts and all the prices.
Unless someone can explain to me why a ONE-WAY, FIRST-CLASS ticket from LAX to SFO would be $255 BEFORE TAX, I refuse to believe that they actually used my certificate. Because seriously, with that kind of money, I could fly to MEXICO or something. Even though the receipts say my flight was part of the "100 Dollar Promotion" I see no indication of where that money was actually used. And I'm mad, and after this and all the other hassles I've had to go through with United (whether it's been to SFO or LAX, from Japan or from home), I refuse to fly United again.
They have shitty customer service that is SLOW, RUDE, PRESUMPTUOUS, and UNHELPFUL. They have a disorganized, badly-designed website that has been down on multiple occasions, and is useless for finding information about specific coupons or discounts IN NORMAL ENGLISH. And they've pretty much scammed me, which makes me especially mad.
Don't fly United.
But I had this $100 certificate from the last fiasco I had with United (when Scott and I were flying back to LAX, our flight got cancelled AT THE LAST MINUTE, and the flight we got changed to not only got re-routed, but was delayed for FIVE HOURS), and I entered the certificate code as specified in the email I got from the customer service representative that issued it to me (this was via email, which is my preferred method of customer service, even though I myself work in an in-person customer center *AND* a call-center). United.com then showed me the flights eligible for the discount, and their prices. I noticed that many of the one-way trips to SFO for Economy were much cheaper than my $100, and I wanted to make full-use of the certificate, since it expired on 1/31 (in terms of time to book, not time to travel). So Dad suggested I look at first-class, and I decided to give it a go. So I picked seat 1A on a flight from LAX to SFO on 3/30, departing late in the evening.
The certificate details were a bit jargon-filled, but they seemed to say that my credit card would simply be charged the DIFEFRENCE between my final price (including taxes), and that the certificate would be divided evenly between the base fare and any applicable taxes or fees (not not ALL taxes or fees). Fine, fine. But it didn't say anything about the price I was quoted being the price AFTER the $100 certificate was applied. That makes *NO* sense.
See, round-trip, an economy-seat flight from LAX to SFO was around $48 with taxes, each way. One-way, it was around $56. First-class would bump it up to $65 or so. That's what I expected to pay after my certificate kicked in. But if the prices I was quoted were AFTER the discount was taken (and never once did I get ANY sort of indication that the certificate had already been applied, not even AFTER I'd paid and got several "receipts"), and the United Representative I talked to this morning WASN'T talking out of his ass, then the base fare was really $148 ONE-WAY (as part of a round-trip flight), or $156 ONE-WAY (standalone)! WHAT THE HELL? There is no way that's possible for a flight that's only 397 miles, or an hour and 10 minutes.
And when I've looked at the email receipts they sent me, all of them say the base fare (before taxes) is $144.19, not $255.60, as the guy quoted me on the phone. Seriously now, WHAT THE HELL? I sent an email to the Refund Dept. not asking for a full refund (because then my certificate would have been useless), but for the $100 that they charged me on top of the fee that seemed to have been outlined on the receipts and all the prices.
Unless someone can explain to me why a ONE-WAY, FIRST-CLASS ticket from LAX to SFO would be $255 BEFORE TAX, I refuse to believe that they actually used my certificate. Because seriously, with that kind of money, I could fly to MEXICO or something. Even though the receipts say my flight was part of the "100 Dollar Promotion" I see no indication of where that money was actually used. And I'm mad, and after this and all the other hassles I've had to go through with United (whether it's been to SFO or LAX, from Japan or from home), I refuse to fly United again.
They have shitty customer service that is SLOW, RUDE, PRESUMPTUOUS, and UNHELPFUL. They have a disorganized, badly-designed website that has been down on multiple occasions, and is useless for finding information about specific coupons or discounts IN NORMAL ENGLISH. And they've pretty much scammed me, which makes me especially mad.
Don't fly United.
