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Dave Carroll’s “United Breaks Guitars” song and video EECB appears to be having the desired effect. Check out this tweet from United. [Twitter] (Thanks to Chris!) Update: Dave Carroll responds.
When United Airlines broke Dave Carroll’s $3500 Taylor guitar in the the spring of 2008, he contacted them to ask for compensation. After all, he and other passengers watched from the plane as United baggage handlers actually threw his guitar around on the tarmac. United said they wouldn’t pay for the damages, so Carroll wrote this catchy song about how much United sucks. We think it should go in United’s next ad campaign.
If you’re looking for the most legroom, look to the low fare carriers because the big airlines are cramming more and more seats into coach, says the WSJ.
United and US Airways will soon charge an extra $5 to check bags at the airport, charging $20 for the first bag and $30 for the second. Since it will still cost $15 and $25 respectively to pay for checked bags online, United thinks they can herald the chance to “prepay & save!,” while US Airways boasts that they now have a “lower fee online!”
United couldn’t have been more understanding and helpful after reader Chris’ wife had a seizure as they flew from Sullivan’s Island, SC to Winnipeg. The flight attendants onboard offered to divert the flight to Chicago, but the couple decided instead to power through. United’s staff met them at the gate along with paramedics, and offered to rebook them on the flight of their choice. If they wanted to stay the night, United said they’d be happy to pay for a hotel room. Chris’ takeaway perfectly captures the spirit behind our Above and Beyond posts: “Even if United is a horrible company,” he writes, “there are still nice people there, and sometimes even big companies surprise you.” Chris writes:
Reader Matt is annoyed with United Airlines. On a flight from Minneapolis to Denver the passengers were crammed into coach — but there were entire unsold rows in the “$39 extra” section.
Starting today, United Airlines has a new policy. If you can’t fit into a single seat, you need to buy another one or stay behind.
Jason is one of those people who loses things all the time. He must be like Santa Claus to the people working for United at the San Francisco International Airport, because when he passes through their terminal, he leaves awesome presents behind. We can’t say for certain that a United employee stole his iPhone, but the last he heard of its whereabouts, it had been found by United crew members and was on its way to their Lost and Found—which won’t return his calls or emails.
We all know that just because a rep on the phone promises you something, that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily true. But in Alan’s case, two different United reps both confirmed, repeatedly—he asked several times before completing the purchase and again before canceling—that he could cancel his tickets within 24 hours of purchase without paying a fee. A week after he canceled, he was hit with a $150 non-refundable fee that one United rep admitted was a new policy that wasn’t in writing—but United still refused to reverse it.
United may be trying out a new revenue idea: the don’t-set-my-bags-ablaze fee. Shannon Tadel’s luggage was incinerated as she boarded a plane in Syracuse, NY on December 1st, 2008. The cool thing about this sort of story is she got to see the inside of a cockpit! The not so cool part is what happened next:
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Not content to just outsource their customer service, United is shutting down its phone center in India in April, instead relying wholly on written complaints. They claim they’ll be able to better respond to written complaints, but we know it’s just as easy to paste irrelevant advice and insincere apologies as it is to speak them.
No longer distracted by high oil prices, airlines now claim that they’re starting to focus on customer service. Two of them, American and United, think that their biggest issue is dirty planes. Wouldn’t it be great if that were true?
Reader Thomas’s scheduled travel on United Air on Christmas Eve went pretty much how you’d expect: his flight left four hours early, and his rebooked flight at 4 a.m. was overbooked. The horror, inside.
And let’s not forget the exorbitant booking fee for using miles for one of our tickets. The actual FLIGHT was only $280 round trip per ticket, but with the booking fee TO USE THE MILES TO PURCHASE A TICKET, we wound up paying over $500.
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United Airlines is offering 20% off the 1st checked bag fee if you check-in online and pay the fee at United’s Web site (www.united.com) before January 31, 2009. They’ve also decided not to double the 2nd check bag fee as previously planned. [Cheapflights]
We understand that airlines have to bend over backwards to attract and retain lucrative business travelers. We get it. Sadly, it seems that some airlines are running out of obsequious language that manages not to be insulting to the “rest of us.”
Airline fees are a controversial topic these days, so we look a look at the fees that airlines were charging and picked the top 3 most and least “fee crazy” airlines. Avoiding fees is hard, so why not try to avoid the airlines that charge them instead?
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