Comments on: How not to complain to an airline

By: Jabberwocky Revisited | Flight Wisdom

Jabberwocky Revisited | Flight Wisdom — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:24:23 +0000

[...] How not to complain to an airline (upgradetravelbetter.com) [...]

By: tammigirl

tammigirl — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 17:55:50 +0000

Let’s just say that 200 calls does not necessarily equal 200 different complaints. Maybe he had to make 200 calls to get his single terrible experience dealt with in a way he found satisfactory.

Airlines document everything in computers as it happens on phone calls with customers. Especially if they dole out compensation. It’s not as if they have a big stack of vouchers or credits on their desk and he just went around collecting them. Each one had to be electronically credited.

The above from the airline is vague. If they had good details to show they would have shown at least some of them. I’ll assume he did the right thing until they show he did not. Why should I assume he did not?

By: Getouttatown

Getouttatown — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:07:08 +0000

Tammigirl, I disagree with you. He may have complained about the number of peanuts in the package, that his plane went down in the Hudson River, or anywhere in between. I don’t think that we can make assumptions about what he complained about since it was not mentioned on either side. Lets do some quick math. The guy actually flew almost 25k miles. If we assume that he flew all shorthaul trips, and earned the minimum of 500 miles on those trips, he would have flown a maximum of 50 times during this timeframe. With over 200 complaints on file, that adds up to at least 4 complaints per flight. Not all of his complaints may be related to the flight. He may have complained about a rude reservation agent, then called back to complain about the person who compensated him for that, then called back to complain about the amount of compensation, etc. Perhaps the underlying complaint was legit, but I doubt if UA treated him that badly. If I were treated so bad where I would have to make 200 phone calls in 6 months, I would have made 1 call to my lawyer and gotten some real $$ out of them. He milked it, plain and simple. UA should have busted him a long time ago. Shame on them. Had he not been so greedy and stopped at 100 calls, they may have never caught him. The fact of the matter is that they should shut this guy down immediately. Whenever there are people milking the airline like this, the airline has to get the money from someone. That someone would be the rest of us. I don’t want to pay for him to fly. Neither should you.

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:54:04 +0000

No one in their right mind would continue to do business with any company if they experienced 200 instances of poor service. Not in 6 months. Not in 6 years.

The guy is attempting to commit fraud.

By: tammigirl

tammigirl — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:53:43 +0000

I think it depends on why the airlines saw fit to give him such major compensation. I doubt he was crying about a package with too few peanuts in these two hundred calls/emails he made. It sounds to me as if something was gravely wrong and they decided to pay out to keep a customer happy.

If they weren’t paying attention and were paying on the same small complaint repeatedly that is their fault, too. I somehow doubt that is what happened.

If he did something underhanded and deceptive to gain this compensation he should lose it. But nowhere in the Airline’s letter does it even suggest he did.

With the limited information we have I would say the airline has to suck it up on this one.

By: Mark Ashley

Mark Ashley — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:02:36 +0000

I’ll add that I find it amusing that this guy racked up all these miles and vouchers, but didn’t manage to cross the threshold for Premier status. He fell short by 109 miles. Heh. Of course, he probably complained and got bumped up to Premier Executive 1K, for all we know.

Oliver, yes, there are people on FlyerTalk who brag about this sort of thing, and I suspect that many will get their come-uppance someday. It’s not quite stealing, in my opinion, insofar as they’re playing within the boundaries of the rules set out by the airline. But there’s no reason the airline has to continue to put up with it.

Credit card companies, for example, actively measure how often you call their customer service number and tax their resources. If you’re not turning them a profit, especially in this economic climate, they’ll cut you loose. In the case of the passenger in the post, United should be mining its data to find customers who are actively working the system to use complaints to fly for free. There’s clearly an opening here for an IT consultancy to make a case for new business…

By: Tino

Tino — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:56:03 +0000

Anyone who complains 200 times in six months needs to have his head examined. And any airline that doesn’t step in earlier to stop the giveaways needs to have its accounting examined. Like Al B. said, that sort of waste drives up everyone’s costs. UA was stupid to let this go on this long.

Since they’re all idiots, but since the customer was actively trying to rip off the airline, UA should revoke some miles, like they did, and let him cash out what he’s got, but then cancel the account. And once he’s tapped out, put him on an internal no-fly list. “You’re money’s no good here, mister.”

By: SpacemanSpiff

SpacemanSpiff — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:18:29 +0000

This reminds me of a couple I’d read about on the Cruise Critic message boards last year. Apparantly they took a number of cruises (double-digit) with the same cruise line, and every time they had “major problems” which gave them room upgrade and/or on board credits; they then proceeded to openly brag about it on the message boards.

The cruise line in question did exactly what United did – they canceled an existing reservation for this couple (some months out) and told them politely to take their business elsewhere. When they started to whine to the news media about how they were dumped by the Big Bad Cruise Line because they’d complained about their problems on their most recent cruise, all their other complaints hit the light of day as well.

By: fletcher

fletcher — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 19:34:55 +0000

200 complaints in 6 months is about 1 per day. This person has no life. We get the same sort of guest from time to time in the hotel business as well. Sometimes the only thing you can say is “obviously our service will never be up to your standards and we apoligize for not being the sort of property that can meet your needs. No matter what we do, we will never be able to aspire to your expectations so we won’t waste any more of your time in trying. I will be happy to call you a taxi and send the bellman up to your room to assist you with your belongings. Do you need assistance in securing a reservation at a property you feel will be more to your liking?”

By: Al B.

Al B. — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 01:03:04 +0000

If an airline is bad enough to warrant 200 complaints, than the complainer is an idiot for continuing to fly that airline. I’m a satisfied United frequent flier, but I hope that the airline cuts this guy loose and tightens its complaints department so this doesn’t happen again. That sort of waste drives up my costs.