United Airlines’ Responses to Complaint Just Don’t Fly

When Ron Reeves, an Encino resident, went to lodge a complaint in late September against United Airlines for a trip that had gone badly, he was advised by the airline that he could go to its Web site, https://www.united.com/complain, and file it there, online.

At the site, Reeves also was able to read the complaints of others. So, when he and I discussed the experience that he, his father and a relative had in flying from Ontario, Calif., to Greensboro, N.C., he suggested I take a look at the site too.

But when I did, all I found was this message from United: “No, you did not make a mistake. We’ve redesigned our Web site. Unfortunately, the URL you requested is no longer valid. Visit us at https:///www.united.com. . .”

Lo and behold, the new site provides no way to even make a complaint.

Why was that, exactly? And what could United say to Reeves’ complaint? Answers to those questions proved hard to get.

But first, here’s what happened to the Reeves party:

In a Sept. 28 letter to Rono J. Dutta, the airline president, Reeves called what happened Sept. 11-12 “the most unpleasant traveling experience I have ever had.”

The flight’s first leg, to Chicago’s O’Hare airport, went well. However, upon arrival, “We were told they were having ‘technical difficulties’ (with the next aircraft) and it would be corrected or a replacement plane would be available in 45 minutes.”

This was about 2:15 p.m. When, after three delays, a storm occurred at about 6 p.m., “the airport started shutting down.

“I watched our luggage sit out in the rain, uncovered and unguarded,” Reeves wrote. “When I mentioned this to the gate personnel, I was told the crew had been pulled off the runway and it wasn’t her job. If my luggage or the contents were ruined . . . I [could] report [it] at my final destination.”

The airport soon reopened, but at 7 p.m., the Greensboro flight was canceled. “We were herded into the long customer service line, and after nearly two hours of waiting . . . the staff claimed that since this was a weather-related problem, United was off the hook. And there were no flights available before 1 p.m. the next day.”

“But the original delay was unrelated to weather, I reminded the staff. My fellow passengers backed me up.” Now, Reeves wrote, attitudes changed, the Greensboro passengers were taken aside and a manager put them on “morning flights that seemed to have suddenly appeared out of nowhere.”

The Reeves party was booked on an 8:35 a.m. flight and was also given “one voucher for $40 toward a hotel stay for the three of us, and told we wouldn’t find a room, since everything was filling up.”

When an exhaustive round of phone calls to hotels confirmed that, Reeves wrote, “downstairs on another airport level I stumbled across cots being set up for other stranded passengers at the baggage return. No one from United ever let us know these cots would be available.”

But sleep proved impossible. “We lay on cots under an escalator and listened to other airlines arriving and departing throughout the night. At approximately 5 a.m. . . . we were ordered by airport security to get out because they had to clean.”

This was not the end of the horror. After first being told their plane was overbooked, the Reeves party was loaded on board the 8:35 a.m. flight, only to find that no pilots had shown up. “We were told we would have to get off the plane due to, and I quote, ‘technical difficulties.’ ”

After standing in line for another 90 minutes, “I explained to the counter representative that I wanted to get on a flight that morning,” he wrote. “I knew other airlines were flying to Greensboro; I could hear the announcements.

“I was told there was nothing that could be done. That’s when I snapped. I lost my temper and demanded to speak to the manager. . . .

“She assured me there was no reason to get upset. I told her I hadn’t even begun to get upset, and I demanded that my party be put on a plane. . . . I told her, in a raised voice, I was not leaving the counter until I was booked. . . .

“Magically, we were given Flight No. 446, which had been delayed. We were flown to Atlanta to catch Delta Flight No. 1258 to Greensboro.

As it turned out, Delta finally delivered their luggage, which had not followed them, the next day.

Reeves asked United’s president for “nothing short of a complete refund of all monies paid . . . $1,311.”

I began a full week ago to try to get a United response, speaking to the airline’s PR office in Chicago, where I was referred to Matt Triaca.

Triaca said he would check into it and get back to me Monday. But Monday, when I called his line, a recording said Triaca had left for a week in Hong Kong. His manager, Andy Plews, explained, “He dropped the ball with you. He’s known about his trip to Hong Kong for a couple of weeks.”

A United spokeswoman, Chris Nardela, took over. She said the complaint was under review by United Customer Service and maybe some compensation for Reeves would be forthcoming.

But her eventual statement was, I felt, disappointing.

“Our records show the official reason for the cancellation of [the] flight [to Greensboro] was weather,” it said, referring to “severe thunderstorms,” but noting that only 56 flights were diverted, which at huge O’Hare airport is not so many, meaning but a short shutdown.

“With regard to Mr. Reeves’ luggage . . . it is our priority to protect the lives of our employees during severe weather involving lightning,” it said.

This, though, doesn’t explain why Reeves’ luggage was a day late.

“We do intend to follow up directly with Mr. Reeves with an apology,” United added. That, too, is disappointing. An apology seems insufficient in this case.

And, finally, there was no answer as to why the complaint form had vanished from United’s Web site.

United, the largest carrier in the country, and the largest into and out of the L.A. area, should do better.

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Ken Reich can be contacted with your accounts of true consumer adventure at (213) 237-7060 or by e-mail at ken.reich@latimes.com