United Airlines Boeing 777-222 N772UA is on short final
“Man this flight is gonna bite,” is along the lines of something I say when I find myself in the middle seat. But on a recent United Airlines flight from LA to London, a woman decided to do some biting on her own. After enjoying some nice prescription drugs, wine, and (my personal favorite) liquid soap, she got aggressive with the flight crew and acted “like a dog.”
The flight was diverted to Bangor where the unruly passenger gets to face federal charges of assault and interference with a flight crew.
Sometimes it is impossible to get customer service!
With prices going up and amenities going down, it shouldn’t be too surprising that complaints are going up. Airline complaints increased about 60% from 2006 to 2007.
While the complaints increase, more and more companies are cutting call centers, outsourcing, and automating, increasing the distance from the customer to someone in the company who can do something about it.
Christopher Elliot (former National Geographic Traveler’s reader advocate) lists the 8 most common mistakes people make when complaining.
1- Frivolous grievances: complaining about stuff that is not a big deal (not the right soda, someone was a little short with you).
2- Calling instead of writing: there is no record and normally nothing good comes from it.
3- Making a laudry list: too many complaints will just make you look like a complainer and people will stop listening.
4- Wasting their time: make sure it is worth they time to make a right from a wrong.
5- Writing long: keep your complaint short and sweet.
6- Not offering a solution: let them know what would make you happy to solve this problem.
7- Being impolite: you get more flies with honey than vinegar.
8- Threatening: saying you will never fly with the airline again will do nothing.
Just know that sometimes when you complain, you will be treated well and things will be made right. Others you will be ignored. Show how you feel by not flying that airline again!
A Bunch of United Boeing 777 Tails at London Heathrow Airport.
For those that have trouble fitting into a standard passenger seat, they will have to prepare to pay double on United Airlines. They have pretty black and white criteria for those to meet this requirement:
– Unable to fit into a single seat in the ticketed cabin
– Unable to properly buckle the seatbelt using a single seatbelt extender
– Unable to put the seat’s armrests down when seated
A passenger falling under any of these criteria will be relocated or be forced to upgrade to first class or be booted to the next flight.
Of course this is humiliating to those who are in this bracket and no one of course wants that, but it seems to be the only fair solution instead of having to be a full paying passenger and only having half a seat due to someone who is a bit larger next to you.
Ryanair is a little less Politically Correct about the matter and about 1/3 of 100,000 people that voted on their website for “cost-reduction ideas” wanted to impose a “fat tax” for those who can’t fit into a seat.
I know I have been on certain airlines (I will keep them nameless) where there seems to be a constant dirty feel to them. Seats are stained, garbage in the seatback, and don’t even get me started with the bathrooms…
After United Airlines tied for last place in a JD Power and Associates survey for aircraft interiors they took a second look at their cleaning schedules.
It is not as simple as breaking out the 409 or some other cleaner, since many passengers will have allergies or some chemicals might interact negatively with the plane’s frame (and no one wants that).
Where United would only do deep cleans (shampooing and scrubbing) once every 6 to 18 months (kind of gross thinking of the number of people on the planes), now it is more about 30-days for domestic and about 15 days for international aircraft.
