This is a letter I was going to send to United. I called and spoke with Customer Relations and told them my story. They said that sending the letter wouldn't do any good as it would just end up in the office of whom I was speaking. They then offered me a $250 travel voucher per person, which isn't even enough for a round trip ticket, and told me that this was an exception and I should only be receiving $150 each. I have yet to accept the $250, it's a slap in the face.
She explained to me that it is not United Airlines policy that children sit with their parents regardless of age. All they are responsible for is to have a seat available on the flight which was booked wherever that seat may be. Are you kidding me! The flight attendants may choose to try and help a mother and her children sit together but they are not required to.
Here is the letter to United.
I have attached several receipts for your review. ALL of these charges were incurred when I found myself and my two small children (5 & 8) stuck on Maui after a gate agent with an attitude and unhelpful flight attendants couldn’t put us in seats together. I will try to keep this letter short and stick to the details but as this was recent, the emotions are still running high.
We started our trip by flying directly to the Big Island and enjoyed a fabulous trip. When I booked my flights, the website asked if children were flying and what their ages were. I was also told that the seats were under airport control and therefore I couldn’t choose seats.
Now, on August 22, our flight took us from Kona to Maui, with a very short layover, and then we were to fly from Maui home to Los Angeles. When we rushed to the gate and informed the gate agent that we were here and needed seats together, she told me to wait. She then proceeded to call up standby passengers, assign seats and have them board the plane. When she finally made time for us – she informed me that there weren’t seats together and to board the plane and have the flight attendants take care of this for us.
Once I boarded the plane and told the flight attendants that we needed seats together, she told me to go back out to the gate agent and have her take care of it. She then took a look at the assigned seats and said “oh, you have two middle seats, it’s going to be a problem getting people to take these seats”. She walked through the plane and offered us two seats in the last row. That was until someone else boarded and took the assigned seat. She then gave up and said “I don’t know what to tell you”. There was never an announcement made asking for volunteers to change seats or any help with this at all. They wanted to close the door and asked me what I wanted to do. I could not fly for over 5 hours with my small children in very separate areas of the plane. They offered us rows 15, 20, and 34.
What I don’t understand is this – shouldn’t the gate agent have looked at which confirmed passengers haven’t checked in and then noticed that we were on a connection from Kona and it was an adult and two small children? Isn’t that why you ask the age of children flying when tickets are booked? She gave standby passengers priority over confirmed ticketed passengers while we were standing there and I made it known that we just rushed from our connection and needed seats together.
So, the saga continues – We get off the plane and ask the rude gate agent to rebook us. She tells me that since United gave us a seat regardless if they were together or not,and that United fufilled their obligation, that we weren’t entitled to be rebooked but could go on standby. I asked what the likelihood was of all three of us getting on for the next flight which was 6 hours later. She said “not good, I already have passengers on standby but I will put you on the list”. Wow, that sounds encouraging. She then sent me down to ticketing where another agent told me that in order to get three confirmed seats together, we would have to wait until Sept. 9th. Keep in mind, it’s now August 22nd. She also offered us a flight that went to Denver and then on to Los Angeles but this was the following day and would cost almost $1,000 each.
As you may guess, I am losing my mind by now and the kids are as well. I have no choice but to get a hotel and stay the night in Maui – Not the worst place of all but after 6 days in Hawaii already, I don’t have the money to stay any longer. I find a wireless connection for my laptop and search for a hotel for the night. Guess what? The only room I can find is the Four Seasons for over $750 a night. I then ask for a cab and am told that at this time with traffic, a cab may cost me $125 at least. Ok, I go and rent a car which is considerably less then the taxi and head to the hotel. Keep in mind, we have no luggage – It went on to Los Angeles on our original flight so we have no clothing except what we are wearing! I took the kids to K-Mart and told them to pick out one pair of shorts, a shirt and underwear and then I get each one of us an oversized cheap T-shirt to sleep in.
The hotel was very gracious, as they should be at that price, and gave us toothbrushes and toothpaste. I spend the entire rest of the day in the room on the computer frantically searching for flights to get us home. I called United again and asked for help. They said that since I already took my outbound flight, I have no protection and there isn’t anything they can do.
The only flight I could find with three seats together was a first class ticket on the red-eye at 8:50pm that would cost me over $3,000. I took it since I was out of options. The next morning I went to check-in at the hotel business center and was notified that our flight had been pushed back to 12:31am from 8:50pm. I had to check out of the hotel at 12:00pm. What was I going to do for 12 hours with two kids. I then got a phone call from United that the flight was now pushed back to almost 2:00am. Obviously this is unacceptable! United was continuing to make my life hell.
I wasn’t able to stay in the hotel another night as they were booked, so I found myself back online searching for a hotel to stay in for another night and new flights. I found a less expensive hotel for the night and found a flight on American that I was told had 20 seats available for airport check-in the following day. The cost of this flight was almost $2,500 for three one-way tickets home. I checked United once again and the flights were all full and way more expensive. I couldn’t at this point risk not getting three seats together and being stuck another day.
We finally did get home and American was able to give us three seats together. My family, friends, and I will think twice about flying on United again. It ended up costing me a fortune. I am a divorced single mother on a budget and this trip has strapped me terribly. I don’t know how I’m going to pay off my credit card bills due to Uniteds actions. I tried everything and these were the only options I felt I had. If the agent and flight attendants only cared a little about a Mom and her two kids none of this would have happened. My good friend is a Federal Air Marshal and he said I did the right thing. Unfavorable things happen to children flying alone next to strangers. I wasn’t about to put my children at risk and I’m surprised United felt it was acceptable.
I would like to think that maybe the higher rank at United care a little bit more then their employees do about the passengers that choose to spend hard earned money on the airline.
This trip ended up costing $3,969.88 in addition to the cost of the original flight of $3,097.50 in which United could not and would not, due to policy, give me a credit whatsoever for the unused return in any way to help get us home.
I'm at a loss.
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