[dpcgidoc]

If anyone recognizes this story, let me know; I intend to post this letter on every single blog I can find (in addition to emailing and/or snail-mailing to United execs.

4/16/12
To whom it may concern,
This letter is regarding United flight 4836, April 16, 2012 , leaving EWR(Newark–Liberty International Airport) . Please also see my feedback letter regarding the mishandling of my baggage on April 10, 2012 on United flight 382, and the absolutely useless customer “service” I obtained.
This flight (4836) was scheduled to leave EWR at 7:59 AM , and land at ALB at 9:07 AM. We were initially told that the flight was delayed, and would be leaving EWR at 8:40 AM ; we were then told that there was another delay, and that it would be leaving at 9:40 AM . At about 9:50 AM , we were told by the gate agent, without explanation, that the flight was canceled , and, rather than having a supervisory level person , or most appropriately, the airline’s senior EWR on-site manager, come down to the gate areato explain to us why, on a perfectly clear day, our flight was being canceled, and of sufficient seniority to be able to make decisions other than simply trying to get us other flights on any other airline out of EWR (which were completely unavailable that day , and which would have us in Albany the following day), and/or have us leaving from JFK or LGA (for which , per your overseas customer service operators as well as your on-site customer service reps, we would have to make our own arrangements and payments for ground transportation to get to those other airports), and/or change our final destination airport (of which the closest to Albany, Stewart Intl, is still closer to EWR than ALB), we were told that we had to go to the United customer service desk , on the other side of the terminal building, where there were two agents (a third was eventually assigned), in order for your airline to make very limited alternative arrangements arrangements for us . The agents at the customer service desk told us that the only arrangements they could make was to get us on the other flights to Albany, PERIOD. They could not make any arrangements for any type of ground transportation, or other alternatives, nor could they reimburse us for incidental expenses we would incur trying to get home after being left stranded by your airline in Newark. It was not until a gentleman from Cleveland insisted that he speak to a supervisor, as your failure to get him to Albany cost him a two million dollar contract, that a supervisor FINALLY was called and felt it important enough to come to the customer service area. I personally waited in line to get to an agent for about 40 minutes; once I got to speak to one of the agents, the alternatives that were offered to me by your agent (USAir flight to DC, then Albany, getting me home at about 8-9pm) were unacceptable, as I needed to get back to Albany before close of business today to sign time critical papers, as well as have sufficient time to allow me to sleep, after being up for 24 hr after a “red-eye”, prior to performing the multiple medical procedures that I have scheduled tomorrow. She referred me to the supervisor who had FINALLY come down; of course, I had to wait until after she finished making some form of an arrangement for the gentleman from Cleveland .

The first thing the supervisor told me was that there were no flights available to Albany from Newark today, and she could NOT make one magically appear , which I of course understood. I did however ask her, since they had a group of people all going to the same place (ALB) , why United could not arrange to hire a coach (bus ) to bring us up to Albany Airport (and which would cost United far less than getting us on multiple other flights, meal allowances, etc) –she told me that that was a reasonable idea, and we could get a consensus about that option from the other passengers. Of course, by that time, less than a third of us were left in the area, with the others having had suboptimal arrangements made, so it was no longer a feasible consideration (this could have been discussed IMMEDIATELY if a supervisor had come to the gate. She did apologize for your airline not having somebody at a supervisory or higher level come down and talk to us, but by then the damage was done.

This pretty much left me with one alternative, which was to have my bags returned to me, and go rent a car to drive home. Of course I felt that United Airlines should cover the cost of the rental , as they had voluntarily canceled the flight (it was apparently an issue of mandated crew rest – I do not understand why a backup crew could not have been called in. If I couldn’t get back to Albany today, for example, if I waited until tomorrow for another UAL flight, then I would have had to cancel a dozen medical procedures, for which my patients had taken off from work, made arrangements for rides, and in some case started prepping, as well as arrange for one of my partners to cancel his work in order to cover my hospital inpatient requirements. This flight cancellation was not an issue of bad weather, or mechanical failure, an act of god, or due to political instability- it was because you were too cheap to call in a backup crew to replace the resting crew (and, by the way, why did it take over 2 hours to decide that the crew couldn’t fly, and that the flight needed to be cancelled? Shouldn’t you have been aware of the timing issues when the first delay occurred? Wouldn’t it have been easier to simply make the decision at 8 AM, instead of 10, so that alternative arrangements could be made? If a bus was set up to take the flight 4836 passengers to ALB, once their baggage was collected, we would have been at ALB by 11:30 or so. This apparent lack of ability or interest to make a difficult decision in a timely manner does NOT leave me with confidence in the management of your airline.
I was told by the EWR customer service agents, as well as the EWR supervisor, as well as the supervisor at your Indian, offshore customer service (what a laugh- they can do NOTHING except what is specifically scripted by you, and have NO WAY of directly contacting anyone higher than a second to last level supervisor) line (Parekh) that they could not make arrangements for a car rental , or even make a phone call to help me arrange it , nor would United directly reimburse me for the cost of the rental, gas, or tolls. The only thing I was given “in lieu” of reimbursement for ground transportation, were two $100 credits towards purchase of United Airlines tickets ,valid ONLY for tickets bought directly from United (i.e. not Priceline , Expedia, a travel agent , etc.), that are NOT valid for baggage fees, or in flight food and refreshment, and that expire in one year. Given the treatment and service I received today, it is extremely presumptuous of you to think that I would schedule another flight on United Airlines; the credit certificates are as useful to me as breasts on a bull; they don’t even have value as toilet paper, as they are a little hard and stiff for that particular use.
My professional time bills out for at least $400-500 per hour. I wasted 2 hours waiting for flight that you subsequently and arbitrarily canceled. I then spent an hour in line, waiting for almost completely useless customer service. I then spent another half hour waiting for my bags to be pulled and made available to me, after which I spent another 3 hours on the road , and about $70.00 for my share of car rental, gas, and tolls (my wife and I split it with two other people).
I don’t expect to be paid $2-3000 for my time you wasted ; however I ABSOLUTELY expect to be reimbursed for the true value of my wife’s and my tickets (ie, what it would cost to buy two tickets one way from Albany to Newark International on United Airlines, not a pro-rated, arbitrary amount that you set) ; I ABSOLUTELYexpect to be refunded my checked baggage fee ($50) for this entire flight , as you did not get my baggage to the final destination that I was scheduled for ; and I ABSOLUTELY expect, at least, 2 $100 United Airlines credits towards ANY fee, ticket, food or other service that I might buy from United, with NO expiration date.
If you also wish to apologize, that’s OK too; but NOT “in lieu” of the above. A reply would be appreciated (I still haven’t received one from the initial baggage problem on my flight to LA last week).
Sincerely,
David P. Cohen, MD

[email protected]