Taxi trouble: United Airlines does the right thing in Rome

Last week’s post about excellent customer service brought a few me-toos out of the woodwork, including this noteworthy account of United Airlines doing the right thing.

United, which is planning to merge with Continental Airlines, has no shortage of critics. But this story should give ‘em something to chew on for a while.

Kerry Whitmire flew from Los Angeles to Rome recently; her checked baggage did not.

We were told it would be in the next day, however we were scheduled to immediately take a train to Verona.

United said they would deliver our luggage to us in Verona the following day. After numerous phone conversations between the manager of our Verona and baggage claim in Verona, we were told they could not deliver the luggage and we had to take a cab out to the airport to pick it up.

Here’s the problem: The cab to the airport cost Whitmire 51 Euros and 1 ½ hours of her vacation. United should have delivered the luggage to her, as promised.

Upon arrival back in the US, I contacted United and requested reimbursement. They denied reimbursement, indicating their policy was to reimburse for reasonable items that had to be replaced because the luggage did not arrive.

I responded that it was not an issue of not having certain items; it was an issue of them not doing their job by delivering the luggage to my hotel. Again they responded with the same language about “reasonable items that had to be replaced” because the luggage did not arrive.

I then wrote and asked for a supervisors name to contact. Again, they responded that they were sorry about my “disappointment” and restated their policy and would not give me another person to contact.

I suggested Whitmire contact someone at a higher level at United. You can find the names on the new On Your Side wiki. She did.

Late yesterday, I heard back from her.

I received a letter today from United. They reconsidered my claim and agreed to send me a check!

Nice.

Although I can’t be sure what went wrong here, I have a reasonably good idea. A customer service representative scanned her initial email and determined that Whitmire was asking United to reimburse it for something that it doesn’t cover when luggage is misplaced, as a matter of policy. But the rep didn’t see the big picture.

Appeals yielded the same result because a manager didn’t see the forest for the trees. This is where the error should have been caught and addressed.

In a situation like this, taking your case to a manager – in this case, Helen Chellin – was absolutely the right call.

Good work, United.

(Photo: Deanster 1983/Flickr Creative Commons)

  • brownlunchsack

    I agree that United did the right thing in the end, but it shouldn’t have taken as much effort as it did to get the situation remedied. Certainly, this situation could have played out differently and everyone could be berating United for what happened if it did, but I feel that giving them a strong kudos is still a bit much. What this story does do is let us know that there is still hope that airlines might do the right thing if we put enough effort into getting our genuine problems resolved.

  • MarkieA

    Have we become this jaded? Good customer service is now defined as, “I only had to harass the company three times to get what was righfully due to me.” Chris – you should be ashamed.

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    I glad that Ms. Whitmire received reimbursement of her taxi fare. However, I don’t think that United did the right thing.

    First, they misplaced her bag. When her bag was found, they didn’t want to deliver her bag to her. They should have delivered her bag to her at her hotel in Verona. It wasn’t Ms. Whitmire’s fault that UA mishandled her luggage. I think that it was lazy worker(s) or sub-contractor(s).

    A few years ago, US Airways put my checked luggage on the wrong flight. When I went to file a claim they told me that my luggage was in Las Vegas, they will be flying it over to PHX and asked me if I wanted the luggage to be delivered that night or the next day. I told the US baggage claim agent that I needed my luggage since I had a flight the next day, etc. The agent said that my luggage will be delivered that night regardless of the time.

    Around midnight, the contractor for US Airways that delivers recovered luggage called me and said that he was too busy to deliver it, it was too late, etc. I told him that I didn’t care and I was guaranteed that I will received my luggage that night. It was delivered at 1:00 AM.

    Second, when Ms. Whitmire went to the airport to pick up her luggage, at that point of time, UA should have communicated to her that they will pay for her taxi, noted on her PNR, etc. It is my guess that UA wasn’t informed of the situation by their local contractor (I am guessing that UA is using a contractor).

    Third, when Ms. Whitmire filed her claim, it wasn’t fully read. A standard form letter was sent to her. Only when she contacted someone higher up on the food chain, her claim was finally read.

    Fourth, UA only paid Ms. Whitmire for the taxi fare. How about the 1.5 hrs of her lost time from her vacation? It is hard to put a value of someone’s time on vacation and etc but I am guessing that Ms. Whitmire doesn’t go to Italy every day. How about the time that she spent with her claim with UA after she got back to LA? UA should have paid for her taxi cab and give her 25,000 miles or a $ 400 voucher for future travel for her lost time on her vacation.

  • Former Hospitality Executive

    It’s not that the first customer service rep reviewing the claim couldn’t see the forest for the trees. The problem was that the first person doesn’t have the power to make an exception to the company policy, no matter how deserving the customer is. All they have the power to do is enforce the company policy. This works to the company’s benefit, because most customers will not have the tenacity to pursue it to a higher level.

    Most companies in the travel & hospitality business pay lip service to “empowering” employees, but this really means empowering employees to follow company policy.

    In this case the customer acted appropriately by getting in touch with someone who had the authority to make an exception to company policy.

  • http://www.sanibel-rentals.net Sylvia

    This is constant refrain when dealing with a complaint or problem with the airlines, and almost every industry. You have to scream louder and louder until you get bumped high enough to get a problem resolved. There is something intrinsicly wrong with the corporate structure when the first, second and sometimes even third person are not empowered to deal directly and solve problems.

  • Michelle C

    I agree with the above poster- I don’t feel this deserves an excellent customer service designation. Having to repeatedly contact customer service and contact a travel ombudsmen isn’t excellent. Unfortunately, it is just typical in this day and age. IMO Excellent customer service would have been ensuring the bags were delivered to the traveler, and good customer service would be when they rectified the situation with the first phone call. If airlines do not want to shell out the extra money they should do the right thing to begin with.

  • Marjie Darling

    United airlines responded (within one day) after I posted a note on your Blog . I sent them a copy of my sister’s problem with rescheduling her flight through customer service in India.. They resolved the issue, and the person at Customer Solutions in Chicago so caring that I was overwhelmed. I never expected all that they did to resolve the problem. They responded within 24 hours, made phone calls to insure that problems would be resolved. I fly a lot; this response is unique among airlines !!!!

  • Steve

    Sure, United eventually did the right thing, but I agree with the other commenters who’ve said that this is hardly an example of great customer service. It’s mediocre at best. It shouldn’t have taken this amount of effort to resolve.

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    @ Marjie Darling – “United airlines responded (within one day) after I posted a note on your Blog.”
    - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -
    They responded because you posted a note on Chris’ blog and/or your status with UA (if you have status). Why is someone from UA reading the blog? IMHO, to manage the bad experiences so that they don’t become a bigger PR problem for them in the future.

  • http://www.taximedia.com taxi advertising

    I agree how is this a good example of customer service. Ohh united airlines. I am actually flying them next week.

  • Steve

    No Leadership. It’s rare to find someone who can see the big picture and remedy a situation. Most people just don’t want to be the ‘Go To’ guy—lots of reasons why, namely pay. Doing too much/everyone else’s job for no recognition, low pay. It all comes down to poor management.