I’ve been with United Airlines for 10 years now. Yesterday I logged my 971,105th mile. And those are miles sitting in a damn seat on United. Paid trips. Not buying stuff at the mall. Nine hundred seventy one thousand one hundred and five miles.
Each year you have to re-qualify for your “status.” I get that. Last year I fell short of the 100K status I’ve enjoyed. BUT, once I hit one million miles (very soon) I will have lifetime status. Never have to re-qualify.
I have goals. I will log my 1 millionth mile with them.
Life in the Premier line isn’t bad. I still get to board the plane before most of the passengers, enjoy the express security lane and they consider all of my miles (lifetime) when I am on the wait list for a first class upgrade.
What I miss the most – the private number for 100K passengers. Even though I still know the number (have it memorized) the computer asks “To make sure we direct your call to the right place, please enter, or speak your mileage plus number…” And so off to India I go.
I was just told that to change a flight (which, btw, I tried to do online but it said I had to call) they had to call the service desk to manually recalculate the price. It would be about 10-15 minutes to do that – did I want to hold?
Yes. I will hold. I really need to change this flight. And so I listen to the Gershwin tune – over and over and over again…..on speaker phone….cutting in and out as I type furiously.…giving me hope that some United employee with a calculator will tell me how much more money I have to give them to fly in a middle seat on their lousy airline.
It’s hard to describe my frustration. And I thought writing this post would help, but I realize it’s really not. Only adding to it.
Because you see – no one at United cares. Even if I complain to the person who eventually will answer my call. Nothing will change. Sure, I could boycott them – that’ll show them.
On average I spend $45,000 on airline tickets per year. So you could say I’m coming up on a cool half million to fly one million miles with United. You’d think someone in their accounting department is doing the math.
Oh, and I just heard the breaking news – Tiger Woods is going to apologize for his behavior. Wow. That’s a relief. The world is right again……..
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February 18, 2010 at 7:12 am
dbkayanda
Wow, as a perpetual Premier Exec with 964K miles, did this ring true!
One small consolation: as a million miler, you’ll be lifetime Premier Exec, not Premier, so you won’t have to do India. (Until there are too many lifetime Premier Execs, at which point they’ll probably send all our calls to India.)
My one year stuck in India as a Premier (non-Exec) shed light on the outsourcing / offshoring experience. I cringed when I heard that accent on the other end of the line. Now, I don’t think it’s because I’m racist, jingoistic, overly concerned about the globalization of the job market. It’s just that the people in the US appear to *care* how I feel about United, and seem empowered to do little things to make life easier. The Indian CSRs are all by the book, following procedures, and about their operational metrics.
I’m sure the Indian CSRs meet their SLAs perfectly. It’s just that they don’t deliver good *service.* They’re two different things.
Best,
United Hostage 00095 990 0xx
ps – $45K / year for tickets? Someone’s clients are paying for international business or domestic first class. Go, girl.
February 18, 2010 at 8:04 am
Thomas B
I know that I slept better last night knowing that Tiger was going to tell the world that he did something wrong…his bad. I would like to have dear, blonde Elan standing in the background with his balls, golf, of course, in her hands like all of those political wives, standing in the background with that look, you know the look I am talking about… on their faces while Tige tells us how he has wronged us all. I think that he needs to cry like Jimmy Swaggart in the grip of Satan and that evil woman that seduced him…
If you do not know the look, just google Dena McGreevey or Elizabeth Edwards or my all time fave, Jenny Sanford in her blue flowing peasant blouse.
All is right with the world.
February 19, 2010 at 8:58 am
Denise Wymore
@dbkayanda – I know exactly what you mean. The Indian CSR is doing their job. I really can’t fault them. But you know what is really starting to scare me? The fact that you cannot get a person, who cares, on the phone. It’s as if the executives at United have literally shipped their business overseas so they don’t have to deal with it. They are completely insulated from the ground truth of the organization. And they like it that way.
They have become the masters and we are the slaves – I remain United Hostage Number 01153-693-*** – Premier
@Thomas B – TIger has officially apologized. As of 8am PST this morning. You are free to move about the cabin…..
February 20, 2010 at 10:14 am
Cece
You already know my story about changes on United w/ the India call center. And I’ve been so angry I’ve yet to write my letter. So comforting to know that I, as – previously – the nobody rare flier of United (never again), receive the same level of ($#%^^*) service as the Premierers.