I'm not sure if I've ever flown with your airlines before, but I do travel quite often. I usually work through Expedia and they arranged my flight to Louisville, Kentucky. Of course, I had a layover in Washington, D.C., and late summer storms impeded air traffic. The delay was over two hours.
That's okay, though. Mother Nature happens.
What I'm perplexed by, however, is the fact that my luggage was not at the baggage claim when I arrived to Kentucky two and a half hours later than expected. I understand that these things happen, too. The trick that stumped me, though, was how there wasn't a single United Employee at the Louisville airport to help me when I realized my luggage didn't arrive. There were USAir employees. There were Delta employees. There were Southwest employees. United? Nope. Apparently they all leave work at 8 p.m. (or so the security guard said). I was told I might catch someone in ticketing. No one was there. I was told to check with information. They reported that United employees are hard to find. So I called the 1-800 number superglued to a window at the closed baggage claim office.
After hitting this and that number (no, I'm not a preferred customer) I finally got through to a man who was very, very difficult to understand. He said he located my bag, but then he grew angry with me because he couldn't hear me. I asked him to calm down and shared with him that I should be the one who is frustrated.
I need this bag. In fact, not only are my clothes in this bag, but so are materials for three presentations I'm giving at the University of Kentucky this weekend (as well as gifts for friends I haven't seen in a long time). I don't have these materials, though, because somehow the two hour delay put a funk in the strut of my bags and which plane they were supposed to be on.
The first guy I called was impossible to communicate with (India? Pakistan? Iran?) so I told him I'd have to call back. I did, and I received another individual who made the first one seem overly competent in English. She was extremely difficult to understand, too...so much so that I had to ask her to speak very, very slow. "Can you repeat that again? Did you say 'balls on my camel' or 'we'll call you tomorrow?"
What I'm guessing she said is that, "Yes, United lost my bag." She also said "It may be on a plane tomorrow at 7 a.m. or 6 p.m." I don't think they are going to deliver it to me. I have to pick it up.
I honestly don't know what I agreed to because I have only a vague understanding of what this woman was saying.
In the end, though, I need my bag. I can be forgiving of mishaps because of weather and circumstance, but the failure to have human beings in the terminals to work with customers is crazy (I should point out, too, that at the Dulles Airport the gate information varied from flight table to flight table - and I walked the entire airport about three times before someone could clarify where the delayed flight was leaving).
Back to right now, however. No bags. There's much stress because I need these bags. Yet, more importantly, I am thinking that United really needs to evaluate its customer service and community relations. It would be nice to have employees working at 8:30 p.m. on a Thursday. I'd also appreciate individuals on the phone who could be heard and understood.
Rather, I'm shaking my head and wondering, "How is United in business? Is this normal? What if my bag doesn't actually arrive?"
I think they gave me a window frame of 18 hours when it could land in Louisville. Let's hope so. At this time, I still have serenity within a Buddhist calm...this may subside, though, if the materials don't arrive for my Saturday conference.
Sincerely,
A Customer Who Is Second Guessing the Use of United Airlines in the Future.
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