Our son is flying United Air Lines today; he's in the air as I write this. He was in Boston visiting a friend. His flight reservation was Boston to Albuquerque with a stopover in Denver.

For a reason unimportant to the story, he needs to get off in Denver, rather than continue on to Albuquerque. My wife has spent at least an hour on the phone yesterday, and an hour or more today with United reps trying to get one simple change--get him and his bag off the plane DEN instead of ABQ.

It seemed reasonable to us that this change could be easily accommodated. Not only were we wrong, but every service rep she talked to had a different answer and a different charge for the change--ranging from no charge to "buy a new ticket from Boston to Denver, $550. Yesterday, she got a supervisor to say "Sure, we can do that, just tell them at the counter that you have a family emergency and need to get off in Denver (that's not too far off).

Today they tell him, they can't do that. Again, everyone seems to have a different idea as to what the charge is to change his flight reservation so as to get off in Denver. Finally, a supervisor told my wife he would wave some portion of the fees involved and that it would cost $342 to get off the plane.

After the negative press of the last week, you would think United would be all about accommodation. They're not. Knowing my wife, she'll get hold of someone with the authority to wave any charges, but she's wasted more than two hours already.

Reach out on Facebook or Twitter. That usually gets results.

Too bad he didn't carry on his bag, then it would be easy.

It costs zero to get off the plane. Simply exit the terminal on the layover.

I have done this an eventually my bag caught up to me at my destination (weather delays at the layover, I didn't have time to wait or hassle with the baggage). I just walked out and got a 1 way rental car and was gone.

Of course this kind of thing is part of the reason airlines oversell tickets... painful, but true... <ducks>

Sorry for your situation. Perhaps that is the first time you have heard that. It proves my point that this is a systemic problem with the airlines, not limited to dragging off paying passengers.

It seems the only stumbling block is the checked luggage. If this was known ahead of time, he should have packed everything he needed for a day into his carry on bag and then next day aired his suitcase to Denver.

quote:

Originally posted by Paten:
It seems the only stumbling block is the checked luggage. If this was known ahead of time, he should have packed everything he needed for a day into his carry on bag and then next day aired his suitcase to Denver.

Another option for travelers, if you are unable to carry your bag on, is simply ship it home from UPS or Fedex (ground for a cheap return). Just zip tie the bag closed and have them ship it. It will arrive.

Yeah, apparently the bag he took back East was simply too big to carry on.

He did not know ahead of time about this change and the need to deplane.

All I ever do these days is carry on vs checked baggage, gives you many more options.

I don't doubt if he got off the plane and did the song and dance at the ticket counter that they could get his bag. It's just a matter of how long he's willing to wait / what hassle he wants to deal with.

I'm sure there is a better way but I'm not gonna profess to be the airline professional / know how to make it all profitable and rainbows & butterflies for the passengers too, all with cheap fares.

And calling the airlines is an exercise in futility. Part of the reason why I don't allow anyone at work to make my travel reservations, cuz they'll inevitably fuck it up and I'll be the one stuck calling and on hold for hours, and hours, and hours.

I worked with a bunch folks back in the 90s who lived either next to hubs in DFW, ORD, or ATL. They'd fly to a customer assignment in another city with a hub airport. The tickets all seemed to have some premium attached for flying hub-to-hub. They eventually figured out they could book a ticket thru a hub to some second or third world flyover country city. It resulted in a cheaper ticket vs. hub-to-hub. They simply did not take the segment to Bumb Flock Egypt.

United customer service is straight outta' the last century. They think you are pulling a scam to get between BOS and DEN cheap by adding ABQ then not taking the ABQ segment.

How would United be able to locate his bag in the cargo hold without moving everything around?

It's a layover. Bags have to be taken out of the arriving plane and placed on the outgoing plane for whoever has a connecting flight. So they already have to take the bags off the plane and sort through them.

Look, I hate to say it, but this is not UAL's problem, it's your sons. He will not get his bag off of a connecting flight, if he stops in Denver. The checked bag will go on to ABQ. If he is not going to go to Albuquerque after all, he will then need to pay for his bag to be returned to him in Denver as freight. UAL can do that for him, but he will pay freight charges. If it's not too late to get to him, he is better off flying to Albuquerque, getting his bag and returning to Denver on Southwest or (shudder) Frontier Airlines. It's going to cost him between about $70 to $250. If the bag charge is less that would be better than the time and expense to go on to ABQ.

If your son is going to travel more than once in a blue moon, please advise him to get a decent carryon that can hold two weeks worth of clothing. I travel to Europe for about 9 days at a time and never check a bag. Tumi, Briggs and Riley; and Vocier make great bags that hold everything you need for an extended trip.

quote:

Originally posted by Gene Hillman:
How would United be able to locate his bag in the cargo hold without moving everything around?

They can do it. I've been on planes where someone didn't board and their luggage had to be pulled. It takes time but it can be done obviously.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeNH:

quote:

Originally posted by Gene Hillman:
How would United be able to locate his bag in the cargo hold without moving everything around?

They can do it. I've been on planes where someone didn't board and their luggage had to be pulled. It takes time but it can be done obviously.

I don't understand the question. I don't know if that particular aircraft was continuing on to another destination, or if it was a turn-around back to Boston. Either way, most if not all, the luggage was coming off--his bag would have had to come off to be reloaded onto the plane going to ABQ. What would have been the issue with tagging his bag "DEN" instead of "ABQ?"

quote:

Originally posted by MikeNH:
Reach out on Facebook or Twitter. That usually gets results.

Yep, this is the easiest way to get immediate favorable results.

I had a medical billing issue I spent a couple hours on the phone trying to resolve. Posted a tweet and copied the hospital and within an hour I had a manager calling me, apologizing and fixing the issue in our favor immediately. The phone reps and supervisors I had talked to were unable/unwilling to fix it even though it was a clear cut mistake on the part of the hospital.

quote:

Originally posted by Dresden:
Look, I hate to say it, but this is not UAL's problem, it's your sons. He will not get his bag off of a connecting flight, if he stops in Denver. The checked bag will go on to ABQ. If he is not going to go to Albuquerque after all, he will then need to pay for his bag to be returned to him in Denver as freight. UAL can do that for him, but he will pay freight charges. If it's not too late to get to him, he is better off flying to Albuquerque, getting his bag and returning to Denver on Southwest or (shudder) Frontier Airlines. It's going to cost him between about $70 to $250. If the bag charge is less that would be better than the time and expense to go on to ABQ.

If your son is going to travel more than once in a blue moon, please advise him to get a decent carryon that can hold two weeks worth of clothing. I travel to Europe for about 9 days at a time and never check a bag. Tumi, Briggs and Riley; and Vocier make great bags that hold everything you need for an extended trip.

Yep. Instead of transferring luggage from one plane to another, now someone has to search through all the bags to find one or two of them.
Go through and look for a tag that has someone's name on it. They can do it but it's not free.
Like others, I don't check luggage, carry on only. I can pack a weeks worth of clothes and other things in it. Couple rolls of quarters for the laundromat and I'm GTG.

quote:

Originally posted by joatmonv:

quote:

Originally posted by Dresden:
Look, I hate to say it, but this is not UAL's problem, it's your sons. He will not get his bag off of a connecting flight, if he stops in Denver. The checked bag will go on to ABQ. If he is not going to go to Albuquerque after all, he will then need to pay for his bag to be returned to him in Denver as freight. UAL can do that for him, but he will pay freight charges. If it's not too late to get to him, he is better off flying to Albuquerque, getting his bag and returning to Denver on Southwest or (shudder) Frontier Airlines. It's going to cost him between about $70 to $250. If the bag charge is less that would be better than the time and expense to go on to ABQ.

If your son is going to travel more than once in a blue moon, please advise him to get a decent carryon that can hold two weeks worth of clothing. I travel to Europe for about 9 days at a time and never check a bag. Tumi, Briggs and Riley; and Vocier make great bags that hold everything you need for an extended trip.

Yep. Instead of transferring luggage from one plane to another, now someone has to search through all the bags to find one or two of them.
Go through and look for a tag that has someone's name on it. They can do it but it's not free.
Like others, I don't check luggage, carry on only. I can pack a weeks worth of clothes and other things in it. Couple rolls of quarters for the laundromat and I'm GTG.

I think we are splitting hairs here. Most every airline that stops for a layover at any given airport, either lets passengers off (change planes or destination) and/or takes on new passengers. IE- The flight I am on stops in PHX, I deplane because it is my destination, and the flight continues on to LAX. Because the plane's final destination is LAX, it doesn't mean that my bags have to go there.

They track luggage through some sort of voodoo. I wouldn't think upon check in that it would be that hard to reroute the luggage from one stop to another. Mid process? Yeah, I could see that being a royal PIA. But, unless I misread the OP, and the posters here, I don't think it is that big a deal.

Unless I am missing something.

Again, I don't understand statements like "somebody is going to have to search for his bag." Put on a tag in Boston that says Denver. His bag will be among ALL the bags tagged that way. Put it on the carousel and he'll get it.

quote:

Again, I don't understand statements like "somebody is going to have to search for his bag. Put on a tag in Boston that says Denver. His bag will be among ALL the bags tagged that way. Put it on the carousel and he'll get it.

That is probably not allowed according to some quirk in the Carriage Contract, union contract or regulation. {sarcasm intended}.

quote:

Originally posted by MitchbSC:
I worked with a bunch folks back in the 90s who lived either next to hubs in DFW, ORD, or ATL. They'd fly to a customer assignment in another city with a hub airport. The tickets all seemed to have some premium attached for flying hub-to-hub. They eventually figured out they could book a ticket thru a hub to some second or third world flyover country city. It resulted in a cheaper ticket vs. hub-to-hub. They simply did not take the segment to Bumb Flock Egypt.

The airlines figured that one out really quick. Now, I am told, if you get off your flight before your ticketed destination they will cancel the return flight. I guess the trick still works if you are on a one-way leg.