Media in the New Millennium

I was a pretty big fan of the science fiction show “Quantum Leap,” on which the main character, Dr. Sam Beckett, “leaped” from body to body and life to life at the whim of a computer. He never knew where he was going, when he was going to get there or when he was going to leave again.

Honestly, that’s pretty much what it’s like to fly on United Airlines these days.

At least Sam Beckett had Al to guide him around. I just had some rude United employees to make things worse.

Anyone who’s travelled much knows you have to be patient. Things happen that are really not anyone’s fault — weather delays, plane delays from other cities, etc. But when did the United employees simply stop caring about their customers? I just returned from a week of travel and it was a perfect balance — not a single hotel, car rental company or other travel vendor made a single mistake. United, on the other hand, did not have a single leg of my travels on which something didn’t go wrong.

At least they’re consistent.

All that said, mistakes get made and I understand that. It’s how you handle them that matters. For the most part, no one even offered an “I’m sorry.” Those two little words go a long way toward making a customer feel better. (The one bright spot: the flight crew of UA flight 5315 from DC to Kansas City was outstanding. They were so good they almost made me forget about the jerks on the ground… almost!)

Perhaps the worst part is the people you are forced to speak with when you call “customer service.” I’m not going to get into whether or not offshoring jobs is a good or a bad thing in general in this post. I would, however, ask that the occupants of whatever continent taking my call be competent, polite and friendly. On two occasions, I’ve been offered a seat on a flight that left three hours before my call (I wonder what would have happened had I accepted? Would I have “leapt” home earlier?). I’ve had someone insist on explaining fare rules to me when it had nothing to do with my issue, and I’ve been told — after asking to speak to a supervisor — that the supervisor would tell me the same thing. I don’t care, just do what I ask, please (and, in the end, the supervisor didn’t give me the same answer).

During this trip alone, United agreed to send me $250 in travel vouchers for the myriad of foul-ups I endured. The question is: is it worth being held hostage by United for another trip just to save $250?

I used to be a big fan of United and was a Premier Executive level flyer for many, many years (not this year, and boy do I feel the difference!). At the end of the day, every customer who buys a ticket is important and should be treated as such. Sadly, I just cancelled a flight later this month and rebooked on Frontier. United lost a customer that’s flown hundreds of thousands of miles, and I really don’t think they care.

As Dr. Beckett would say, “Oh, boy.”

[digg=http://digg.com/travel_places/Flying_United_is_Like_Being_on_Quantum_Leap]

Share on Facebook