[andor jobb de papos]

Andor Jobb de Papos
Emlenton, Pennsylvania 16373
United States of America


June 20, 2007

Via Certified Mail – Return Receipt Required

Mrs. Pamela Coslet
United Airlines
General Manager - Customer Relations
WHQPW
United Airlines
PO Box 66100
Chicago, IL 60666

Dear Mrs. Coslet,

To begin with may I preface my remarks by saying that it has been absolutely impossible for me during the past four days to speak with or to gain pertinent information from any person of authority within UAL concerning our travel problems and the classification of the crisis that led to United’s cancellation of our original flight with you on June 17th. It has not been possible to obtain information vital to us - through direct conversation with UAL employees at various ticket counters, through UAL phone links, through our travel agency – Melrose Agency - regarding the reason for United Flight 7469’s non-departure from Pittsburgh’s International Airport on Sunday, June 17, 2007 and the consequently important information concerning how best to ameliorate the problems caused in our itinerary because our original UAL flight did not take off.

As a member of the press I am usually able to easily find a manner in which to contact information sources and I must say that the chain of information that took me to the recovery of your name and title took this professional over three hours of intensive research. I was also, finally, able to get the name of Mr. Glenn Tilon which is also a closely guarded secret in your Customer Services stronghold. It is obvious from the manner in which you prevent people with legitimate concerns to access a living, responsible agent that you must have a complaint level that prohibits conventional methods of dialogue and solution.

My wife (Jae Brown) and I were ticketed (0167024176710/11) with United Airlines for a flight on June 17, 2007 from Greater PITT AP via flight #UA7469 with connections to #UA861 to Sao Paulo from Dulles. Flight 7469 did not take off and we were told a variety of stories - 'the pilot did not show up for the second night in a row' and 'there was a computer glitch'. We were told that we could not be booked for a flight to Sao Paulo via Pittsburgh until Tuesday evening June 19th. At that point it was 9PM and although we had begged to speak to someone in a supervisory capacity we were told that 'the supervisor has gone home' (we listened and watched while the hapless attendant tried for over fifteen minutes to establish phone/paging device to contact him/her).

There being nothing more to be accomplished late on a Sunday night we accepted United's vouchers for a hotel, dinner and breakfast with the understanding that we would receive duplicate vouchers for the following day. (By that time my wife, who has very limited strength due to medical problems, was in a wheel chair provided by the airport.) Fortunately the hotel was within the confines of the airport; so after re-claiming our four large pieces of baggage we were able to repair to the hotel.

At 8AM Monday morning we phoned our travel agent, Melrose Travel, and consulted with them. NB: we are frequent travelers and routinely make long international journeys several times during the year. After conferring with United our agent confirmed the fact that United could not get us out of Pittsburgh until the next day; but she had arranged for us to leave from Akron, Ohio via United that evening on United flight #UA7116 leaving Akron at 5:08PM, arriving at O'Hare to connect with United #UA843 leaving at 9:32PM for Sao Paulo.

Despite the expense and inconvenience of renting a car and traveling a long-distance in 90 degree+ weather to another State we were willing to do this because the event in Sao Paulo was the most important date of the year for us. I was to be honored by World MasterAthlete Judo Association for my fifty-fifth year in Judo, I was to compete in order to uphold my International Judo Championship; I was to officiate in my capacity of Secretary General of WMJA at a series of vitally important Executive and Board meetings and I was to dedicate the 12th in my series of 'Judo Greats' portraits to the organization's President. By not arriving in Sao Paulo on Monday I had already missed the Opening Ceremonies where I was to be honored and where I was to confer honor via the dedication of aforementioned portrait. We were, in spite of our delay caused by United, continuing our travel in the hopes of salvaging the Meetings I was to chair and my Championship Competition to uphold my World Championship.

As we checked in at United's Akron counter we were assured that the plane was 'on time'. We checked in our baggage and for the SECOND time in less than twenty four hours went through the grueling ordeal of security search which involved opening our computer and professional camera gear, removing our shoes and shedding the heavy clothing we were wearing in deference to our upcoming appearance in 'winter in Brasil'.
Shortly before 5PM we were informed that our plane would be a bit late; then, we were informed it would be later still; and finally we were informed that it would be delayed for approximately five hours due to storms in Chicago, which would make our connections in Chicago impossible. TWICE we had to run the gauntlet of Security in order to confer with the only available agents who were in the Main airport. This is a truly unsettling and nerve-wracking ritual, again taking off clothing, removing shoes, opening computer and camera cases, removing jewelry andsoforth.

Again, turning to our agent who knew how vital this flight was to us, she suggested that we re-book for the flight from Pittsburgh to Dulles the following day and thence to Sao Paulo. The singularly unhelpful and outright rude young women behind the counter refused us any vouchers either for hotel or re-rental of car saying that the bad weather was 'an act of God' discounting entirely the fact that we WERE in AKRON due to abrogation of services by United the night before in Pittsburgh, which was NOT an act of God.

When we attempted to invite the agent to look at the problem in a way that involved logic my wife was informed by a beefy and rude security guard that if she did not lower her voice 'there would be consequences'. Her only transgression was that she was vociferously attempting to make a point requiring a level of enlightenment not possessed by the bovine agent (inexplicably wearing tight black shorts) that required your employee’s taking into consideration the genesis of our problem.

Then, as my wife pointed out that she 'must' have an aisle seat for the Sao Paulo portion of the flight the agent rudely imitated her enunciating 'must' in a snotty manner. (My wife ‘must’ have such a seat because of the aforementioned health problems that require careful coordination between herself and her internist prior to any greatly prolonged flight. We always book far in advance with our agent to guarantee aisle seating.) And when no aisle seat was available the agent took visible pleasure in telling my wife that she 'Must" take that matter up with Customer Service. As we moved away from the counter the three people behind your desk, consisting of a second female agent also clad in tight black shorts and their security 'henchman', laughed out loud and made fun of us as we left the area.

NB: Does UAL have a dress code? We noticed that the United employees at both airports lacked uniforms and in many cases your employee’s grooming and standard of cleanliness were far from optimum. (We travel to many countries with standards of living well beneath our own; but we have never encountered a sight to equal your two female United agents in Akron attired unwisely in clingy knitted shorts!)

All nearby hotels/motels at Greater Pitt were booked and we were forced to drive to our daughter's home in Pittsburgh adding forty miles to what was already a several hundred mile long drive between Akron AP and Pittsburgh AP. We live in very rural Northwestern Pennsylvania (Emlenton, PA - Venango County) and had journeyed to Pittsburgh on the 16th in order to be close by for the next day's flight.

On Tuesday (June 19th) morning I called United to check on the status of our new booking and was told that due to the storm from Chicago moving east that there was a three to five hour delay posted even though the storm being forecast had not yet 'hit'. This information prompted my very real fears that again we would not take off and that my wife would be subjected to more arduous hours of delay.

Accordingly, I conferred with my wife, who was by this time quite exhausted. This situation forced me to phone her long-time physician – Sean Nolan, MD, – who at that point forbade any further travel for her. He felt that a thirteen hour flight after the travail that she had already been exposed to by United would be folly. He also advised me that even though I am a seventy three year old man in reasonably good health that such strain and stress upon my system could severely affect me. In any even, my place is beside my wife; so we were FORCED to cancel our reservations and did so through our agent, Melrose Travel of Philadelphia.

All during this travail we received very little professional or caring service from ANY United agent we encountered. At both Pittsburgh and Akron airports, when we requested to speak with them, NO SUPERVISORS were available. And when I called Customer Relations I was connected with a man in India whom I could not understand and who was unable to help in any way thus wasting both my time and his.

One of the most egregiously hurtful aspects of this fiasco was to have my wife, who is a cultured, dignified and attractive woman, parodied by the three arrogant, singularly uninformed and unhelpful staff at Akron's United ticket counter - their spiteful laughter still rings in our ears.

I want to be sure that within the next ten days that I shall receive a full refund for our tickets from United as well as a written apology from your two female agents and your security guard in Akron.

We also expect immediate reimbursement for our pre-paid hotel in Sao Paulo, the Akron/PA – PA/Akron car rental, road tolls, meals on the road between Akron/Pa and return, refund of my Tournament Registration Fees for the Sao Paulo Championship, Brazilian Visa costs, and postage for the sending of this document via certified/receipt requested post to all listed below. We will supply receipts for all of these items.

I look forward to hearing from you by Wednesday, June 30, 2007.
We prefer that we have any and all comments and replies from United IN WRITING.

Kind rgds,



Dr. Andor Jobb de Papos

Cc:
Mr. Glenn Tilon, CEO – United Airlines
U.S. Department of Transportation – Aviation Consumer Protection Division
Federal Aviation Administration
Better Business Bureau of Chicago
Melrose Travel – via email
Sean Nolan, MD
Pittsburgh Post GAZETTE – Travel Editor



Andor Jobb de Papos
Emlenton, Pennsylvania 16373
United States of America


June 20, 2007

Via Certified Mail – Return Receipt Required

Mr. Glenn Tilon, CEO
United Airlines
P.O. Box 66100
Chicago, Illinois 60666

Dear Mr. Tilon,

I am passing the enclosed letter to United’s Pamela Coslet on to you for your comments and edification.

My wife and I are life-long travelers and we have never experienced problems as difficult as those encountered on our recent ‘fiasco’ (“F’ like in ‘flight’ but without the experience of ‘flying’) with United.

One of the most frustrating aspects of this was the impossibility of communicating with any United person of authority at any level – at a counter in an airport, on the phone, or through our agent. We simply could not get information pertaining to our particular situation.

As a responsible CEO I hope that this outsider’s view may be valuable to you.

Kind rgds,



Dr. Andor Jobb de Papos

Enclosure: My letter of June 20, 2007 to Mrs. Pamela Coslet


We are submitting the following ‘Letter to the Editor’ or ‘Op-ed’ piece.
Unfriendly Skies

During an on-going nightmare between Sunday, June 17th and Tuesday, June 19th my husband and I were unable to complete a journey between Pittsburgh and Sao Paulo on United Airlines. For three days we were within the impenetrable thrall of United Airlines ‘don’t ask, won’t tell’ Customer Service Maze.

This all started when United Airline’s flight #UA7469 bound from Pittsburgh to Dulles failed to take off. This non-performance by United made our connections out of Dulles to Sao Paulo impossible that night. As we attempted to re-book and to make sense out of the situation we were unable to speak with any United Airlines supervisor while at the United Airlines Counter in the Greater Pittsburgh International Airport. Inexplicably, in the midst of a cancelled flight, the supervisor had ‘gone home’. We were also unable to get a reason for the flight’s not taking off, although we overheard one employee say to the other ‘this is the second night that the pilot has not shown up’ – whatever that might mean. The incontrovertible fact, however, was that the plane did not take off. There was no problem with the weather and we were given meal and hotel vouchers and told that we could not be scheduled by United Airlines to leave Pittsburgh for connections to Brazil before Tuesday night.

Since the purpose of our trip was to participate in the World MasterAthlete Judo Association’s WMJC in Brazil that was to commence on Monday, June 18th we were keen to find a way to a hub and get to Sao Paulo. My husband is WMJA’s Secretary General and was indispensable to the running of the many Executive and Board meetings that were to take place. Also, he was to be honored for his fifty fifth year in Judo and was, himself, to honor WMJA’s President by dedicating the 12th in his series of oil portraits of Judo Greats. And most importantly of all, he was to defend his World-Championship in Judo.

Knowing how vital it was that we continue on our trip promptly, our travel agent was able to find us a Monday evening flight with United, leaving from Akron, Ohio at 5:00 PM with a connection to Chicago’s O’Hare AP where we were to board a Sao Paulo flight at 9:30 PM. We rented a car and drove to Akron, checked in and awaited our flight. At around 4PM we heard that the flight would be delayed, at 5PM we learned that, if it flew at all, it would be delayed approximately five hours which would again cause us to lose our Sao Paulo Connection.

Our travel agent then suggested that we immediately change our tickets to a Pittsburgh departure the next day (Tuesday) with a connecting flight to Sao Paulo via Dulles. This required re-renting the car and returning to Pittsburgh where no hotel rooms were available near the airport. United declined to give us a hotel voucher or to pay the car rental fees as they declared that ‘and Act of God’ caused the weather-related delay of the Akron flight.

When we attempted to appeal to the United ticket agent’s logic and showed that we were in Akron because of the non-performance of United on Sunday night; and that we were victims of a non-flight that was decidedly NOT an “Act of God’ we were advised by United Airlines security that if we continued to argue there would be ‘consequences’. When we asked for the intervention of a United Airlines Supervisor, we were told that no supervisor was on duty.

The next morning I phoned United Airline’s reservations desk and was told that there was already a 3-5 hour flight delay on our flight from Pittsburgh that evening and was told that in all probability we would not make our connections to Sao Paulo for the third day in a row.

I then phoned United Airlines Customer Service and after being routed and re-routed electronically finally spoke with a gentleman in India who was unable to give me any substantive advice or refer me to any person with authority within the United Airlines hierarchy thus wasting my time as well as his. The United Customer Relations phone line prohibits any conversation with any person within the confines of the United States; one is buffeted and circumrotated into various blind alleys with recorded messages.

We were, at that point, forced to abandon our travels as we were both suffering from near exhaustion. Our physician was consulted and he forbade further abuse at the hands of United Airlines.

At this point we have returned home and have found to our amazement that not unlike the cheated spouse in some country-western song we were among ‘the last to know’ that United is notorious for non-existent Customer Service, unprecedented agent rudeness and highly unreliable flight schedules. After speaking with over twenty people we find that when we begin our tale of woe, the listener almost always says, “You were flying United, right?’

We also visited the web and were amazed to find that so great is the travail experienced daily by United victims that there is an on-going ,day by day, listing of letters sent by those ‘who are mad…, and will not take it any more -http://www.untied.com/cgi-bin/scan.pl.

When inquiring into the name, appropriate title and address of United Airline’s Customer Service czar we found that this information is difficult, indeed, to procure. After three hours of intensive research we were finally able to find that United Airline’s Customer Relations Chief is: Mrs. Pamela Coslet; United Airlines General Manager - Customer Relations; PO Box 66100; Chicago, IL 60666.

We feel that when a prominent airline’s Chief Customer Relations Officer’s name and title are deliberately withheld from the public that this is a sure indication of a complaint level that prohibits conventional methods of dialogue and solution.

Our only solution – not to ever fly United Airlines again.

[Debra J. Hairston]

First I was not met at anytime with wheel chair needed and requested. Luggage lost, then given to me wet. My luggage had been left on tar Mack. Sent too Derrick at ticket desk where he told me the plane had left. (It had landed 15 minutes before and still had to board new people). Then from him I was sent across airport to find a locked door and then sent back across airport to Derrick. Still no wheel Chair. Some one found my luggage and took to Derrick. It was found on tarmac in the rain. Everything was wet!! No apologies. Told different information by different people. This ticket was bought due to price on price line only to find out I was going to be charged 15 dollars a bag both ways. 2 passengers, 2 bags, 15 per bag equals 30.00 times two ways is 60 extra dollars. So I ended up paying more for my ticket to be given back wet clothes, long walks, rude service, lied too, and never offered the wheel chair I had requested and need. I am totally disabled. If I would have had a seizure during all of this I would have been seeking an attorney. As it is I have learned my lesson and intend to go on a campaign to boycott United. I will be on every website I can find and share my trip with all of them. I will be pasting and copying this very letter so you know what I am saying. I do not talk behind you back but out in the open. In this day and age and with the economy like it is, it would be assumed that customers were important. Sorry you do not feel so.
Your reps are rude, untrained, incompetent and unfriendly. I will also be telling anyone that I come across to use anyone but you. As far as a good price I feel you did a bait and switch. I wonder what others think.

This is why I will fly southWest from now on.

[smurman]

Perhaps you and Mr. Carroll with your media contacts organize a day of boycott to get United's attention. Perhaps if no passingers showed up one day they might notice. I am so sorry for what you went through, it makes my experience seem trivial.

[fastair]

UA's CEO is "Glenn Tilton", not "Glenn Tillon". It is obtainable by a simple google search, or going onto united.com and clicking on the investor relations page. UA is both a publicly traded company, as well as a fortune 500 company. These ease of getting the name of a CEO of such a firm for anyone should be simple, especially for a member of the press.


Sorry to hear of your troubles, but I am curious. Why would you expect (and need) overnight accommodations your origin airport for two days when your home address is a suburb of that city?