He already likes the new United Airlines — but will you?

You may have missed it, but Continental Airlines and United Airlines officially tied the knot on Oct. 1. And guess what? You might actually like the new United Airlines.

Chris Romm thinks he will. He wrote to tell me about an experience he’d had with United’s customer service department that may be an indicator of things to come.

Last May, I sent an email to the Helen Chellin, the manager of customer service at United. I shared with her a childhood experience flying to Hawaii on United.

In that email I asked for assistance in planning for the best seats in economy to make the trip as enjoyable as possible or my wife and granddaughter.

I was immediately called and advised that we all had seats together and that all legs had been upgraded to Economy Plus “on the house” for the three of us. To say I was wowed is an understatement.

Makes two of us.

Last week, when he called to confirm his seats he got through to a call center “in India someplace.”

For the life of me I could not understand the accent of that part of India. All I wanted was help in getting three seats together if possible on one of the legs I am flying next week. I explained [that] I like everyone — nothing to do with the fact they were Indian, I could care less where someone is from, we all are on the same planet after all.

So he sent another email to Chellin. Romm said he didn’t mean to complain.

“I just could not understand the people I was speaking with,” he says.

Within five minutes my phone rang. Someone in her office called and the seating issued resolved, Oh yes, the seats were “upgraded” to Economy Plus.

They also told me they were getting a new CEO and that they understood the difficulties of calling India for customer service and one of the things they were looking hard at was bringing customer service back into the country.

I looked at the service records of both United and Continental a few weeks ago, and concluded that the combined airline will be just OK in the customer service department. Maybe I should revise that.

What do you think? A quick poll of more than 200 readers found you’re less impressed.

  • Jason

    I am probably the only one who had better customer service experience with old United compare to Continental in the past. I even had no issues with customer service reps in India. Several times when my flight was delayed and I was missing connection flight I called United reservations in India and they re-booked me even on different airline so I arrived within few hours of my original flight and wouldn’t have to spend night in DEN or ORD due to missed connection. Even though according to the airline policy they are not suppose to re-book flight until it is listed as cancelled.

    There is also way to bypass call center in India by telling the robot that you travel international and want to talk to an agent.

    And every time you send an e-mail to one of the executives from United using contact info from Chris’ web-site you get pretty much all you want, what I gathered from this blog and my own experience.

    On another hand, I spoke with rude Continental customer service in the past over the phone and at the airport. And when I tried to point it out to their customer relations department I would get an answer similar to: We have highly trained customer service representatives, they know what they do, they are right, you are wrong. And when I contacted Continental executive team, my letter was forwarded back to the original rep who was handling the issue.

    So, it will be interesting to see how it will be with new United.

  • Sarah Di

    I’ve always found United to be extremely helpful, especially when rescheduling flights, and that’s just from calling the 1-800 number. Plus, I’ve always gotten someone without an Indian accent. The Flight Attendants with United have always been cheerful, helpful and friendly. They actually appeared to like their jobs and interacting with customers.

  • Leslie

    I think it’s hard to judge at this point. I was hoping there would be an “I don’t know” button. I’ve always experienced great customer service with Continental, but I’ve never dealt with United. I think I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt until they prove me wrong. Hopefully that won’t be the case!

  • L2Y2

    I have always had good customer service with United, so it is hard to judge just yet. From Chris’s experience, it looks to be on the right track. Also, any airline (or company, for that matter) that moves its customer service exclusively to the US, gets my loyalty! I agree with Chris, we are all on the same planet, and I no ill will toward other countries. I do, however, have a problem with out-sourcing all of our US jobs overseas. Go United!

  • matt h

    I have a question (Chris please feel free to reply): I have a CS issue with Continental (surrounding a booked code-share flight with United no less that never appeared) that I have to contact them about-this is for a past flight, pre change of ownership. Should I still contact Continental to resolve this or is United handling all issues at this time related to both airlines? Thanks.

  • Joey

    It’s an odd poll since all we’re given to base an opinion on is one anecdotal case that hinged much more on the customer service manager than on the airline itself. Kudos to her for being so nice to this family, but I doubt they’re giving free upgrades to everybody who emails them a question. What will make a difference overall is how everyday issues get handled by the entry-level staff. And the time to check on that is maybe a year from now when things have settled into a normal routine, rather than right now when they’re clearly on their best behavior hoping to garner positive press like this.

  • Christopher Elliott

    @Matt h – yes, contact Continental on that. Here’s the link.

  • Liz

    Let’s face it, pretty much all airline customer service stinks. We can all talk about that one time that one agent did something nice for us, but the fact is that airline policies are inherently customer un-friendly.

    The only thing I’m looking forward to on this merger is that hopefully they’ll add Economy Plus to all their planes.

  • Plat flyer

    Guess from now on I’ll book a flight, send an email with a sob-story, wait for a call, get upgraded at no cost. This plan is so crazy it might just work!

  • Leroy

    I must say, UA customer experience has gotten better. I received an 200.00 voucher for a bad flight I did not realize I had. Someone had been taken off the plane before we departed. By the time we landed my email had a certficate waiting for me.

  • MVFlyer

    I’ve flown UA a ton, since I live near San Francisco and they’re the dominant carrier, particularly overseas. With very few exceptions, I’ve found UA’s employees to be very helpful and pleasant. The best one was a flight that never happened–I was flying back to the states from Paris, and while rolling down the runway, a warning light came on in the cockpit and the pilots had to abort the takeoff. The tires were trashed after this, so we had to get off the plane for repair; as we were leaving, the purser was apologizing for us “not being able to experience MY crew’s level of service.” (We did see the yang of UA’s service though–back at the CDG terminal, the French UA employees were absolutely clueless and couldn’t figure out what to do with us!!!)

  • Carrie Charney

    I’m curious as to whether or not Mr. Romm is an executive premium platinum flier or just a “regular Joe.”

  • Brad

    I haven’t had problems with United’s employees; it’s their facilities and equipment that are twelfth-rate. Unless Congress unexpectedly pulls its head out of its rectal cavity and unilaterally eliminates cabotage restrictions, that’s not changing anytime soon.

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    Talking about United Airlines customer service, read this article, http://www.consumertraveler.com/today/even-for-premium-passengers-%e2%80%94-the-best-code-shares-can-still-go-bad/, at Consumer Traveler, a sister site to this site.

    Last month, I had a flight (SFO to ICN) on United then a flight on Asiana (ICN to PVG). The United agent at the Business Class Check-in counter screwed up the boarding passes for our connecting flight on Asiana. Luckily, I made a stop at the ‘ticket counter’ (there are two counters…one for the lounge and one for tickets) in the Asiana lounge at ICN as we were leaving the lounge where the mistake was discovered. It took ten minutes to correct.

    We (my wife, 4-YO son and I) flew business class (BC) on United (UA) (SFO to ICN) and business class on Asiana (OZ) (PVG to ICN and ICN to SEA). In regards to service, it was a world of difference.

    Example 1: My son fell asleep (he was taking his daily 2-hour nap) on both flights before the BC FAs took our order for the meal service. The UA FA told us that they will heat the meal and hold it for only an hour before throwing it away. The OZ FA told us that we could order his meal and they will heat it up and serve it after he wakes up from his nap. Given that the UA BC FAs ‘disappeared’ after the meal service, it seems to me that the UA BC FA didn’t want to spend a few minutes in the galley to heat up his meal at a later time.

    Example 2: The snack tray in the BC galley on the UA flight wasn’t refilled during the flight. The snack tray in the BC galley was always being refilled. I took a snack and an OZ FA replaced it when I was standing there.

    Example 3: As stated previously, the UA BC FAs ‘disappeared’ after the meal service. I wanted another Coke. I went to the UA BC galley and the FA was from Economy and she couldn’t get me another Coke (“I don’t work this cabin…you have to wait for a BC FA”). The OZ BC FAs was constantly walking down the aisle asking the passengers if they could get them anything, etc. The OZ BC FAs were constantly refilling my water glass and coke glass without me asking them throughout the flight.

    Example 4: The UA BC FAs did not speak to my 4-YO son during the entire flight when he was awake. During boarding they didn’t ask him if he wanted something to drink; didn’t want to give him a ‘warm’ towel, etc. The OZ BC FAs asked him what he wanted to drink during the boarding, gave him warm towels, etc. They talked to him throughout the flight when he was awake. They talked to us about him.

    Example 5: We had our son’s umbrella stroller with us and we gate check it for every flight. OZ put the stroller in a big plastic bag and it was waiting for us in the jetway when we departed from the plane. UA didn’t put the stroller in a bag and we had to wait for the stroller when we departed from the plane.

    Example 6: The OZ FAs helped us with our carry-on luggage when boarding and deplaning by carrying it to and from our seats since we were traveling with our son. The UA FAs didn’t do nothing.

    Example 7: The OZ FAs had smiles on their faces. The UA FAs didn’t.

    On our United flight, the In-Flight Entertainment system (IFE), lights, etc. was inoperative for the entire flight. When we boarded the flight, the individual overhead lights were NOT working; however, the IFE was working in First Class (FC) and BC but NOT in Economy Plus and Economy. Once the plane took off (i.e. reached 10,000 ft), they rebooted the IFE server to get the IFE to work in all cabins. After the reboot, there was no IFE (as well as individual lights) for the entire plane. They rebooted the IFE system several times during the flight as well as made calls to operations (according to the announcements made by the FAs) but nothing worked. For ten hours, we were sitting in a dark cabin with no IFE and lights.

    At SFO, the flight was delayed for an hour due to a leak. Since the overhead individual lights in all classes were NOT working and the IFE NOT working in Economy Plus and Economy when boarding started, I don’t know why this problem wasn’t addressed when the plane was on the ground in SFO especially when the plane sat at the gate for an extra hour. Doesn’t the UA crew check the systems including the IFE and lights before boarding and/or departure?

    When we landed at ICN, the FAs handled out ‘Please Accept Our Apology’ card which offered a token compensation of $ 100 e-certificate or a 10% discount e-certificate to all of the passengers. I think that this compensation was an insult. They typically give $ 200 and $ 250 e-certificates if the IFE has to be rebooted on a flight; the IFE was down for an hour; etc…we are talking about the entire flight without IFE and lights.

    Let’s have more example of good customer service (on the ground and in the air) before someone touts that customer service is improving at United. For us, customer service at United is sub-par.

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    I forgot to mention that Asiana is ranked as the number one airline in the world (in regards to service, etc.) by SkyTrax.

    Here are the SkyTrax’s Top 10 airlines in 2010, http://www.worldairlineawards.com/:

    1. Asiana Airlines
    2. Singapore Airlines
    3. Qatar Airways
    4. Cathay Pacific
    5. Air New Zealand
    6. Etihad Airways
    7. Qantas Airways
    8. Emirates
    9. Thai Airways
    10. Malaysia Airlines

    There isn’t a single US-based airline on this list. That doesn’t surprise me based upon my experiences with the ‘Legacy 5′ (AA, CO, DL, UA and US) or the ‘Legacy 4′ (AA, DL, UA-CO and US).

    On my recent flight in Business Class on Asiana, a FA opened an overhead bin while a BC passenger (he was sitting across from me) was getting up…the passenger bumped his head…nothing hard or serious…the passenger told the FA that it was nothing. The FA apologized to the passenger. A few minutes later, the captain came out of the cockpit to apologize to the passenger, thank him for his business, etc. This passenger told the captian that it was nothing but the captain said that it was important to them. To me, that was class.

  • Bryan L

    I recently had a similar experience, I was having trouble using free tickets given to me after a voluntary bump. I wrote a polite letter to Ms. Chellin’s office and within two hours I had received a call from her office offering me any choice of times (not only the 6 am that nobody wants). Keep up the good work!

  • Glenn

    Why do we have to make special contact with anyone to get good customer service??

    By the way, traveling frequently since 1970 (21 years military and now a consultant), United is the ONLY airline that has lost or damaged my luggage. And now I have to pay them to do this. Maybe I’ve been unusually lucky with other airlines. I’ve found United at ORD is the worst.

  • Mark K

    The first good thing that I have noticed from the merger is that there is now complimentary alcohol in the United clubs. CO has had this forever (or at least as long as I have been visiting their clubs). Never made sense to me that UA has one of the highest club membership fees of US based airlines and the least free amenities once you get inside.

    My recent experiences have not shown me any difference in service on UA or CO flights. Both were minimally acceptable. While never rude, neither were overwhelmingly friendly either. After the “meal” is served, the possibility of getting an additional drink, even one you have to pay for, is slim to none.

    I have experienced much better levels of service and attention on non-US based airlines and often see the “disappearing” FAs on long haul flights both with CO and UA. On a recent Lufthansa flight, I was never more than 5 seconds from having a FA at my seat to refill my drink or just chat through the entire flight (and I was not in 1st class). They made me feel like they were actually happy that I was on the plane.

    I am just hoping that the combined United is at least not worse than the previous incarnation was.

  • Jesse

    From what I understand Continental was not only a good company to fly with but their customer service was great.

    If the newly founded marriage will take one competitor from the market, that will raise prices and it will not work out well for consumers.

    There is always good and bad…