United Airlines continues to be teh stooopid

So, you might remember my original and then my follow-up rants about United Airlines and how it wanted me to give my credit card billing information to a friend for whom I was buying a plane ticket or they wouldn't let her check in.

She ended up having to cancel her flight, leaving us with a credit with United to use up, so last night we made a reservation. This time we:

• Made a three-way call to United reservations instead of using the website;
• called from my home billing number;
• paid with my United Airlines Mileage Plus Visa card;
• gave them my and her United Mileage Plus numbers

Did the guy who made the reservation tell us that there would be a problem with me paying for the ticket? He did not. No, only after the email came with the confirmation number in it did they tell me, in big red letters, that she'd have to have the credit card at the time of check in.

We were still on the phone with him at the time, so I pointed this out to him and told him he should have warned me of this, and asked what I was supposed to do, since the credit card and my friend live in different cities -- hence the trip,  yo.

Don't worry, he rushed to assure me; in fact, even if she had the credit card in her hand, and all my billing information, they wouldn't allow her to check in. No, I simply had to go to the "nearest airport" and present my card at any United counter prior to her departure and it would be fine.

Now, since I live less than half an hour from San Francisco's airport, this isn't the end of the world. I can only imagine, however, if this had happened when I still lived up in Sonoma County, three hours in each direction from the nearest airport. But I digress.

I complained, firmly but politely, that this was the most ridiculous policy on earth. I was supposed to spend an hour on the road, pay for  parking, and stand in line at one of the nation's busiest airports, just to hand over my credit card to a human being?

It was certainly safer, albeit less convenient, than the earlier policy, now not  available at all, of having to give your billing information to someone, such as your deadbeat drug-addicted teenager that you're flying home after he was released from a Mexican prison, but on the other hand, the bait-and-switch of not letting me know about this minor little detail prior to finalizing the ticket purchase, plus the excuse that this is to protect me from fraud, is too much.

Hello United Airlines, do you think I'm stupid? I'm already protected from fraudulent use of my credit card by what few remaining consumer protection laws still exist. This regulation is to protect you from claims by your customers that they didn't, in fact, purchase a plane ticket for someone else after the fact. It's not like you can repossess a flight that's already been taken.

The thing is, plenty of companies have to deal with purchases that can't be repossessed. I've spent more money on a single meal at an expensive restaurant than this flight cost. I've spent more on shoes, including shoes I've sent to other addresses than mine as gifts. And I've bought many, many plane tickets over the years, including from United, without anything like this. The reality of the world we live in now is that people buy things online and over the phone, and we use credit cards. When your own regular customers can no longer do that, they will also no longer use your company. It's that simple.

There is no other option, he said, to verify my card. It doesn't matter that we have nearly a month before the flight, that I was calling from the billing address and phone number on the credit card, that I was using my United Mileage Plus Visa card, the billing information for which lists that phone number, that both of us had United frequent flyer memberships, nothing.

Because we wanted to use the credit from the canceled ticket, we went ahead with the reservation; I don't even know if we could have canceled it at that point or not. But I'll tell you this: I will never, ever fly on United Airlines again. I suggest you not fly with them, either, because if they have one idiotic customer service policy, they surely have a hundred.

The only silver lining to this whole  saga is that someone told me about gethuman.com, a website that tells you how to bypass pretty much every corporate automated phone system on the planet, and get to a real person. I used it to make this reservation, and thus, my blood pressure started out considerably lower than it normally does.

So, the takeaway message is this: GetHuman.com yes, United Airlines? Never again.

Comments

[EmilyS]

get human?

yeah, maybe you'll get a barely English speaking human located in whatever country they're outsourcing customer "service" to these days. With some fetching American-sounding name like "Butch" or "Troy" or "Michelle". If you ask for a supervisor you'll just get another script-reader from the same boiler room.

Airlines may be the worst for this fraud.

[Gina Spadafori]

From Portland, yes? Alaska Airlines. Talk to real people living in real states including or relatively close to California. (Although the miner/pioneer guy pictured on their planes looks creepy and scary to me!)

And what do you want to bet if/when you DO take your credit card to SFO (after driving, finding an expensive parking space, standing in line for 20 minutes minimum, etc., etc.) the person at the counter:

1) Has never heard of this policy; and
2) Won't take your information;

And your friend still won't be allowed on the plane.

More on Untied (misspell intentional) Airlines: In Austin recently, presented with a dog to go to Portland through Denver -- MY DOG WOODY, in fact, who was flying along with my friend Mary -- the United Airlines guy muttered, "Great, NOW I gotta get someone up here to deal with this damn dog."

Woody is fine, by the way, happily back home, but I'm not sure that's not just luck.

[Christie]

I know you have the great Alaska Airlines love, but the reason we switched to United was because Alaska kept cancelling her flights -- twice she had to stay Sunday night and get home on Monday because they couldn't get her out of San Francisco as scheduled. It was intolerable.

Apparently it's ALL intolerable.

[Nish]

This has to be the stupidest airline horror story ever. It's amazing that you can buy virtually anything over the internet but a plane ticket requires you to go to the airport. Next you will be told to go to your nearest travel agent and get one of those old school plane tickets and mail it to your friend so she can travel on this idiot airline.
Stories like this make me love Virgin America Airlines even more, great service, inexpensive and entertaining flights. If only they would add more destinations.

[NA]

United can bite my maple cream cookie ass.

[TheWeyrd1]

Gee, I hope Frontier doesn't do this when my niece and her husband come to visit using the tickets I bought for them. It's bad enough that they filed bankruptcy the day after I bought their tickets!

[Melinda]

wow this is rather odd. I guess I should be happy and count my blessings. I recently bought a ticket for a friend and her son to fly on United from outside of the country to SFO. I emailed them a copy of the confirmation. They came and left without a hitch.
Good luck with your venture.