- This summer, we decided to splurge on a family trip (husband, self, two sons) to Turkey.
- As we had no idea how where to stay in Istanbul or what tours might be best, I contacted a travel agent (Middleton Travel) here in Wisconsin, which turned out to be one of my smarter decisions.
- I asked the agent to book us on United Airlines, which had long been one of my favorite airlines. I had, at that moment, enough standing as a frequent flier to reserve us all reasonably comfortable (exit row) seats on the flight to Istanbul and on the return.
- Of course, it was a little more complicated than that. The itinerary involved flying from Chicago to Newark, then Newark to Istanbul and back. But for my husband and sons – often folded like accordions into economy class seating – the idea of the extra room during the 12-hour leg of the trip added some extra shine to the adventure.
- Perhaps I should tell you now that we never actually sat in those exit row seats. I assume someone else had that happy arrangement. My family never sat down on a single flight that was in our original itinerary.
- On the day of our August departure, our Chicago flight to Newark was running late. Here’s my favorite part of what happened next. The ticketing agent assured us that there wa no problem. The pilots were “making up time in the air.” She issued our boarding passes and we checked our luggage (only one bag, everything else was in carry-on cases).
- By the time we got through security, that same flight posted as more than an hour late and our connection to Newark was gone. The line at the “help counter” was so long that I was able to get rebooked by phone while waiting. Of course, then the “help” yelled at me for talking on the phone. And for booking a route different than the one our suitcase was taking although that would have required us to spend a night in Newark. “Don’t you care about your luggage?”
- Actually, at that moment, I did not, although this was not information I wanted to share. But the bag did eventually show up. And we did get to Istanbul on the new route, flying United from Chicago to Munich and then Lufthansa to Istanbul.
- Istanbul was absolutely terrific.
10. On the morning we were scheduled to leave, we got an email from United warning that our flight had been delayed for mechanical reasons. This was shortly followed by a second email saying that the flight had been cancelled. It was NOT followed by an e-mail saying that we had been rebooked.
11. So I called on my cell phone and by the time I got through – according to the agent – there were no flights remaining that day. Instead we would be leaving the next morning on an early Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt and then flying United to Chicago.
12. Well, as this is a mechanical breakdown will you pay for or help us find a hotel for the extra night ? No, she replied. She could not. But I could submit a request to be reimbursed once I returned to the United States. The agent also informed me that I would need to call Lufthansa to get the seat assignments. So I booked us into an airport hotel. And I called Lufthansa.
13. And the Lufthansa agent told me we didn’t have a reservation.
14. So I called United back and after a mere half-hour wait got another agent who told me that I would have to call Lufthansa with the 14-digit ticket numbers for each and every ticket. This was the start of a rather testy conversation.
15. No, I said. That’s your job, isn’t it? United canceled our flight and it’s your job to rebook us and get us a valid reservation.
16. That’s all I can do for you, she said.
17. No, I said again and louder. You’re asking me to do your job. You (emphasize) call Lufthansa and confirm this reservation. That’s your job; not mine.
18. So she hung up on me.
19. After a few moments of staring at my disconnected phone, I did call Lufthansa, read off 64 digits worth of ticket numbers, and confirmed that said numbers were in the system.
20. But when we got to the airport at 4 a.m. it turned out that having numbers in the system didn’t mean we had a reservation.
21. “You’ll have to call United and straighten it out,” the Lufthansa counter agent said.
22. No, I did not laugh. Or cry. But I did plant my feet and refuse to move. “I called your airline twice to straighten this out,” I said. “And we’re not moving until this is fixed. ” Even as I spoke, the line behind us was starting to form a lengthening snake coil behind us..
23. So Lufthansa did give us the seats. “But this is United’s mistake,” the agent said firmly. “Not ours.” I said I understood that and appreciated the help. “Lufthansa is the best,” he replied. He also said they couldn’t give us our boarding passes for United but we could get those at the transfer station in Frankfurt.
24. But, of course, United wasn’t staffing the transfer station.
25. I won’t bore you with my time in line at the gate, trading travel stories with other passengers, while waiting to acquire boarding passes. We got them and we got home.
26. Normally, my attitude toward flying is to accept that much of it is a hassle and that as long as I arrive home safely I can let the rest go.
27. But I was still furious on arrival. I called United to complain but as it turned out they weren’t answering the phones that day. So I decided to file a written complaint – basically the story I’ve told you here. In other words, my statement was so long that I had to file it as an attachment. Which the United system rejected because it was a word document. Undaunted, I filed it again as a pdf.
28. Then I copied the whole thing to our travel agent and asked if she would share it with her agency’s United representative.
29. About two months later, United responded to the travel agent’s query. She forwarded that correspondence to me. (I have asked myself whether I would have gotten a response without the travel agent’s help and I do not have an answer).
30. Here is what the letter said: “Thank you for your patience while we reviewed the circumstances surrounding the disruption in your travel plans. United Airlines has determined that, in this case, European Union Regulation EC261/2004 monetary compensation is available.”
31. What did that mean? Well, if I filed a CSM646 form for each traveler and mailed them to the airline’s office at London’s Heathrow Airport, they would provide us with 600 Euros (times four) in compensation. Truthfully, my jaw dropped. I was hoping for a nice letter of apology, perhaps a voucher of some sort, maybe some free drinks on the next flight. The basic American response. This caught me by surprise. In a very good way, of course.
32. And also we could get this money either by bank transfer or check. Here I decided to request checks, thinking that would be easier since we were talking about four different bank accounts. That decision falls under the journalistic rule of "never assume". My mistake was in assuming that the airline would convert those amounts into dollars.
33. In November we received four checks, all made out in euro amounts. This required us to get our bank to do a euro-to-dollar dance with the British bank, which took another two months and involved the usual added bank fees in order to get that dance started at all.
34. But in January, the money transferred. After fees it came to $678 per person or a little over $2,500 in total.
35. And there are, from my perspective, a couple of lessons here that make this worth telling. That decent customer service would have made this a very different story. That everyone has their exasperation limit and when yours gets crossed, it is actually worth complaining to the company rather than just venting to your friends. That the European Union has much better rules in place regarding air travel than this country – because I would never have seen a refund like that under U.S. regulations.
36. And that – if this ever happens to you – go for the wire transfer.
Image: United Airlines/Julies Meulemans/Wikipedia
