Apparently, lying to customers is an integral part of United’s strategy for dealing with frustrated travelers. A fter Laura complained to us about United delaying her flight, losing her bags and then unblinkingly lying to her, we received this email from Brian,who details another experience in which United lied to a customer about a lost bag.

But it’s not just United who is up for flagellation this time around. It turns out Continental was the carrier that actually lost the bag to begin with. When it was recovered, they shipped it to United… who proceeded to lose it all over again. They told Brian Continental never sent it. But when Brian called Continental, the bitter CSR bitch who answered the phone responded to his reasonable request for a tracking number with sass, then attitude and finally by hanging up on him when he asked for a supervisor!

We love it. Brian’s story after the jump. Note: woman to the right isn’t the CSR bitch in question, but a nice Chinese lady waiting for her lost bag in Chiang-Mai. We’ve posted it for her chipper smile and the eerie and impossible cock of her head.

Longish time reader, first time writer. I suppose I’ve been lucky in not getting blatantly screwed over. Of course, all good things must come to an end.

I recently flew from Southern Texas to Ottawa, Canada, with two layovers in Houston and Chicago. The first leg of the flight was to be on Continental, with ensuing flights on United.

I checked two bags. Only one of them made it. When I went to the baggage issue desk in Ottawa, they assured me that I’d have my bag within 24 hours. This was a bit of a concern for me, since 36 hours after arriving in Ottawa I was leaving on another trip, and needed a lot of the stuff in my bag. I asked if they could ship to another address if it was going to be more than 24 hours and they couldn’t, but assured me repeatedly that these things never take more than 24 hours, giving me a number to call, just in case.

A day later, I called United since the bag had yet to arrive, and got some rather unpleasant news. Apparently, United had only ever received one bag from Continental! I repeated that assessment back to the phone rep just to make sure: I didn’t want to call Continental all worried if they had done all they were supposed to do by getting United my bag. I called Continental and they claimed United had received both bags, and that my bag had been found and was on its way to me, complete with Fedex tracking number! Now, why United hadn’t spared me the trouble and just told me this up front I could chalk up to ignorance, foolishness, or poor customer service. When the lady with Continental refused to give me the tracking number, and then gave me huge lip when I asked her why not. I had been reasonable, and I could understand if she wasn’t authorized to give that information out(or even if she had just said that politely to get rid of me), but she was just giving me buckets of attitude over the matter. I asked for her supervisor and she refused, at which point she hung up in my eye. I called United again and they gave me the tracking number, the bag didn’t arrive in time, and now I’ve got the hassle of having my stuff shipped from there to here at my own expense.

United wasn’t that terrible to me, they just lost my bag and told me they had never received it when I called about it. Continental did their part, but when I called them they were completely rude. I really can’t see myself flying with either of them again.

Previously: United To Reps: “Delayed Their Flight? Lost Their Baggage? Lie to Them.”

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