[SFOGirl]

Here is my letter to United regarding "Jim"

I travel on United very frequently and generally the service is very good. The way I was treated today by your employee at the Palm Springs Airport, "Jim" has changed my entire opinion of United.
Jim is a gate agent. I encountered him at 6pm tonight at Gate 19 of the Palm Springs Airport. I was confirmed on flight UA6398 (Confirmation Number MN97JC) that was scheduled to leave Palm Springs at 4:59PM. (It was delayed until after 6pm due to weather in San Francisco). When I checked in at the Palm Springs Airport in the afternoon, I was very early and given the option of getting on the Standby list for the earlier flight to San Francisco. I accepted this option during the check in process at the Kiosk. A confirmed Boarding Pass and Departure Management Card printed. (I have both available to send to you as you complete your review of what your employee did to me here.)
I was unable to get on the early flight as it was full. So I waited the extra hour for my flight to SFO. When I went to board, I realized that I didn't have a seat assignment on my Boarding Pass. I stood in front of Jim at his gate counter and tried to tell him I needed a seat on my CONFIRMED FLIGHT but he ignored me. I was the last person in line to board - he for whatever reason refused to even look at me (I'm an attractive businesswoman - what his issue was, I have no idea) He proceeded to look around me and yell "Are there any standby passengers? You have one minute and I have one seat." I was at this point frantically trying to get his attention as he proceeded to not even check in the final passenger (a young blond woman) and waived her through to the plane. It was honestly as if I was completely invisible. At this point, he looked at me and said "Flight full." I showed him my Boarding Pass and he ignored it - insisting only on reading the Departure Management Card for the waitlisted flight and REFUSING to look at my confirmed BOARDING PASS. He kept saying "You are not confirmed on any flight to San Francisco today" I read him my confirmation number, but he just turned on his heel and walked away. Then he ran outside and waited for the flight to pulll away. I stood there dumbfounded the entire time. I have no idea why one of your employees would do this? To a confirmed Premier Passenger?
When he finally returned, I asked him why he did what he did and he refused to answer and then picked up the phone to call his supervisor (as I had been asking him to do - granted, he did that much). At one point he asked if I had a printed Boarding Pass or Management Card (Huh? How would I have gotten all the way to the gate without anything to get me through Security?) I asked him repeatedely if there were any other flights to San Francisco so I could get home to my newborn baby and he just stood staring and obviously confused as to how to do his job. Finally he told me I could walk all the way back to the main checkin counter and talk to his supervisor, "Sarah". I asked him no fewer than 10 times for his name so I could discuss his behavior and he refused to give me his name. (Refused to give his name? How are you training these people?!)
Sarah was marginally helpful and did get me on another flight, but did nothing to apolgize, explain what happened or acknowledge that her employee had caused me a major problem.
I implore you to get this Jim person serious training so that he can start doing his job correctly. Or better - find someone who can.
As an aside, as I sat waiting by Gate 19 for several hours, I saw "Jim" have encounters with several other passengers and even called Security on a very pleasant middle aged woman who asked him to print her boarding pass for her. You have a VERY serious problem with this employee and I implore you to do something about this.
Depending on your response (I expect a full refund for this flight that your employee couldn't figure out how to get me on, despite my confirmed status) I may or may not continue to fly United. I am tempted to take this story to the press as it is so outrageous, so I hope that you do something to persuade me not to.

Sincerely,
A very concerned frequent flier