United finally get it right… (wonders will never cease)

Well in all fairness I have to post this, normally I am only seen whinging about United Airlines (and with good reason) but as I am also a fair and honest person, time to give credit where credit is due.

Today I had to take a flight from San Francisco (SFO) to Baltimore (BWI) and was booked on flight UA558.  I wasn’t looking forward to 5.25 hours in yet another badly maintained plane with rude staff, and an awful checkin system..  What a pleasant surprise I got.  A quick drive to SFO from Sunnyvale, was uneventful, the roof was down and Rammstein was blasting out at full volume (much to the angst of fellow road users who looked decidedly afraid, of the Goth in a big convertible mustang, banging out some very metal tunes… I suspect they thought at any minute I might draw a shotgun and start taking pot shots for fun!)  Arrival at SFO was also uneventful, car was returned to Hertz, no comments, complaints in fact several of the staff started head banging to the sound of the (still very loud) Rammstein!

I got to the check-in desk and as usual, they weren’t manned at all, leaving only the computerised systems, my heart fell, however a very cheerful dark skinned lady (United staff) decided to help me through it…  [Hang on a sec, you say, Michelle is a techie and programmer, how come she needed help….  My response to all of you.. you ever tried checking in using one of those damned machines?!?!? 😉 ]  anyhow, after initial problems with getting the machine to read my passport (my fault) it asked questions and I responded.. including a question, ‘this flight is full, would you consider helping us out and taking a $250 flight voucher for taking an alternative flight’… I thought, I answered, “yes” …  I hurried in to the departure lounge to talk to the boarding staff because I wasn’t all that sure about it… just wanted to make sure there were no problems..  I mean, 36 hours to get to Baltimore, sure, I could take a different route.. but they had to ensure my back was not destroyed in the mean time…  They offered (and I accepted) alternative flights, a hotel for the night and an upgrade to first class as well as the $250 voucher…..  I said, “yes please” 😉 [Note: in the end I didn’t get it because 2 people didn’t make it to the flight so they didn’t need my seat, but that was a bonus I was willing to take 😉 ]

So, the flight.. Airbus 319.. very small aircraft, old and notoriously uncomfortable for people like me..  they gave me Seat 7D at checkin..  just behind the business class section, tonnes of leg room but completely impossible to watch the movie… glad I bought a book. 😉

Now loud and proud.. United I had done many flights with you, some using my Frequent Flightier card (so you know who I am) some without…  The following people do you credit:

Terri Clark

Monica Travis

Ronda Novotny

I have *NEVER* had a flight with United that even comes close to the quality and standard of other airlines (even with a $7500 one-way Business class ticket).. however, this was an Economy Plus flight, and I thought I was on another airline, the service, the staff, everything was good.  Service was with a smile, they were helpful and courteous, there was none of the, “You’re a dirty low class economy piece of s**t” that I have experienced in the past.  These people answered the bell within a few minutes, they served me food and wine when I asked (even if they didn’t have 3 of my choices, it doesn’t matter, they served in a manor that made up for the shortcomings of what was in the galley.)  I watched the business class service from where I was and the same was happening there… All I can say is (and I never thought I’d ever say it).. For the United Flight UA558 on the 20th Oct 2012, Top marks from me!!

Rude, Arrogant or just plain stupid…?

One would expect public figures to be the example, certainly in other countries those in public office, rock stars, actors and generally anyone famous has to set an example for others.  Where the law is broken, those famous often get heavier sentences as an ‘example’ to others, indeed as a person who has worked for a customs office I was warned as part of my induction if I was ever caught in possession of drugs I would likely get the maximum sentence by any court etc..  Where laws are not broken but ethics are, jobs are lost, people are distanced from colleagues and the culprits are discredited.  So the question is how does the Maltese political parties fair in this game of showmanship?

Well yesterday I had to fly back to San Francisco for my 3 monthly visit to ‘Head Office’ and I wasn’t looking forward to it.  United Airlines are renowned for the worst service of any passenger airline, and traveling some 60,000 air miles per year, I have to say I have had my fair share of their awful service.  However, my ‘travel dramas’ of the past were surpassed to my amazement and disgust by and incident at the very beginning of my journey…  Happening right in the Malta International Airport (MLA).

I was waiting patiently in line for a checkin assistant to become available with at least one person in the queue behind me, and a couple of friends being served already, then an older man came up and stood near the desk.  Thinking this guy was just after asking a quick question I did not challenge him, checkin continued and my friends started to move away, and to my amazement the guy stepped forward and put his suitcase on the conveyor belt and handed over his passport.  I immediately called, “excuse me! excuse me! There is a queue here you know?!?!” to which the reply was, “I see no queue.”

I did not hear the reply, but my friends had, I repeated myself with the addition, “are you really such a rude person that you will jump the queue whilst there are others waiting?”  The reply, came under his breath, “F’oxx …” (I did not hear the second word but am fairly sure it was “Ommock” ..  Now for the benefit of the non Maltese speakers, “F’oxx” is equivalent to “Fuck” in English and “Ommock” is “Mother” (ie the term is “Fuck your mother”, which is used rather offensively instead of “Fuck Off”) ..  I was outraged and turned to the checkin assistant who was a young girl and she said, “he’s Flypass”

Now Flypass members get preferential treatment, they get to use the business class lounge etc..  However, their privileges does not extend to queue jumping, and in the event that someone does have that privilege they are to use the ‘business class’ line, or wait to be invited by the assistant.

Mr Joe Debono Grech
Mr Joe Debono Grech – MP for Labour

Remember me saying that I travel around 60,000 air-miles per year?  Well, that’s around 20,000 ‘Flypass’ miles per year, I am known to Air Malta staff in Malta, Germany and the UK (though not this girl on the check in desk).. I was flying Premium on Lufthansa in this case, I am a Gold ‘Star Alliance’ member (Lufthansa Miles and More, and United Airmiles etc)  I am a silver British Airways member and just 4,000 airmiles off being a Platinum Etihad member… I fly a lot, and have been doing so since 2009, I don’t enjoy it….  Not that it made any difference in this case the assistant still allowed him to continue and the poor people behind me had to wait for this ignorant twit.

Another Lufthansa staff member became free and checked me in.

I spent 30 minutes in the departure lounge wondering where the person had gone to, and boarded the flight on time, several minutes later one of the last people to board came into view, and who would it be, you guessed it, the rude person from checkin, and to my astonishment, he continued past my seat into the economy area and sat approximately half way down the plane…  Yes folks, this guy was not even a premium class traveller…!

Incensed by finding probably the most rude, ignorant person in Malta, I formulated a plan.  The plane landed and I jumped up and got off the plane as fast as possible, taking my carry on luggage with me, little did he know I would be waiting at the gate in Frankfurt with my Nikon D3s and F2.8 lens…  Camera checked, turned on, set to highspeed shooting (9 frames per second).. he walked off the plane and one of the pictures was uploaded here..  My plan to name and shame him into better behavior…  Give him an unwelcome 30 seconds of Internet fame…  Little did I realise who “he” is…

Within minutes of posting the picture to Facebook several people messaged me to tell me it was none other than Mr Joe Debono Grech, a politician parliamentary candidate for Labour. Many describing him as a relic of the 80s, some stating quite clearly that my report about his conduct has made up their minds on which way to vote at the next election.

Personally I am shocked that someone holding public office would conduct themselves in such a manner that brings their party into such disrepute.  Labour, not for the people, for everything they can get for themselves, is what comes to mind.  Well Mr Debono Grech, I will not stoop to your level, I will not tell you to “F’oxx ….” I will not use my frequent flyer privileges to be rude and inconsiderate to others, I will be the example you obviously cannot set, and I pray that the people of Malta never have to suffer election of someone so ignorant in the future.  I fully expect you to use your contacts to make my life hell, well do your worst is all I can say, I currently pay 4000EUR in income tax per month, I can claim most of those back with all the loop holes in the tax law, I choose not to!  I put my taxes into the community for the benefit of all, I support local artists where I can, often at great cost to myself, and never charge a penny.  I am polite most of the time (I am just not polite to people who don’t take ‘no’ for an answer) and I believe in the Maltese people and way of life.  I was not born here, and I do not have relatives here.  My only connection with Malta before I moved was that my father was stationed here in Malta during World War II..  I am 43 years old now, and I have never in my life seen *anyone* with a attitude as disgusting as yours, and I am just glad the new generation of Malta, whilst not following in as much tradition as many would like, are better behaved and respectful to others than yourself.

 

Oh and the right (Dis)Honorable Joe Debono Grech…. just for the record… you won’t be getting my vote either.

 

PS: I am learning Maltese, not because I have to – but because I WANT TO!!  So yes, I could understand what you said to the assistant.

United Airlines has to be the worst airline in the world barring: NONE!

No doubt that even if someone viewed this from United Airlines, they’d just laugh and pass it around as a “in joke” on their corporate LAN with the subject: “LOL this idiot thinks we have customer service!”

 United 906Y SFO-ORD-MUC (7/Mar/2012)

 Leg 1, SFO – ORD (Full Fare Premium Economy –  Silver Frequent Flier – A320/12B)

Boarding by designated class (1 through 8): Allocated Class 4.

Boarding of class 1 and 2 went smoothly, call for class three resulted in no passengers boarding.  Class 4 call occurred and it was noted that several people class 4 were already on the plane.

Ticketing despite being pre-allocated 12C my seat was reallocated to someone else just 24 hours before flight time.  On chatting to the person, they indicated they had paid ‘Top Dollar” for said seat and found on the online check-in that the seat allocation was available.  They were given class 2 boarding.

Staff were generally rude and unhelpful.  One exception on the flight, an attendant allocated to First/Business whom I failed to get her name.   All other flight attendants were unhelpful and unconcerned.  Other passengers also noted similar experiences with UA staff on previous flights.

Entertainment system was faulty, selecting Channel 9 for ‘Flight Deck’ resulted in no audio at all.  Every passenger announcement resulted in being reset to Channel 2, and a set volume.  Mid flight all channels were audio to match the screen.

In-flight dining: none.

 

Leg 2, ORD – MUC (7/Mar/2012) ( Full Fare Premium Economy –  Silver Frequent Flier – B777/22A)

Boarding Group 4, however due to late arrival of previous flight, boarding group not used.  Ground staff unable/unwilling to confirm baggage had actually been transferred from previous flight.

Upon boarding noted 6 economy plus seating was unallocated, when asking for a seat transfer was denied (politely) with the response, “they are for attendants during their rest period.”  Child passenger was sitting in my allocated seat, staff assistance was not provided, however parents of said child were both polite and helpful and moved child to the allocated seat.  Assistance through the whole procedure from the staff was unforthcoming.

During flight, for the first 2.5 hours had the call light on, and re-instated it several times however was completely ignored by all staff.  I slept for 2 hours, and upon waking noted that someone had turned off the attendant call light.  At around 5:20 into the flight I re-illuminated attendant call light.  Noted after 5 minutes no response, so depressed the call button twice.  Was greeted by staff member (Jeanette Quinn) with “What is your emergency”.  I indicated I needed a glass of water to take my medications (7 tablets on show where the staff had no idea of the medication type, nor was I queried on the subject.)  A glass of water was forthcoming within a few minutes.

In seat entertainment system: Generally good, and responsive.  Another passenger (Dwayne Hill, Seat 22C) had issues, upon explaining that the screen works better with hard touches (eg finger nails) rather than the soft padded touch of the index finger his experience was significantly improved.

Passenger Dwayne Hill, Seat 22C also noted that upon wandering back to the galley for a glass of water, was told by flight attendant (unknown – dark skinned) that he should be sleeping, and to return to his seat.  Passenger noted that the communication from the staff was extremely rude.

Upon speaking with other passengers their general experience and choice is “If we could have booked with someone other than United, we would have, they have to be the worst airline they have ever travelled.”  Passengers had various issues with obtaining alcoholic beverages.

In-flight dining:

Food for ‘dinner’ course was well presented, however the quality, whilst much improved from previous flights was still lacking on taste. Choice: Meatballs on pasta.  Salad that accompanied was fresh and of good quality.

Food for ‘breakfast’ course was presented in a bag.  The ‘pastry’ was more akin to a piece of cardboard.  The yogurt was acceptable.

Ticketing/Check-in Issues:

Due to the first leg being a domestic flight, I was forced to use the domestic check-in, however the boarding passes couldn’t be issued without help from the attendant so as there was only one person manning the counters and they were inadequately trained I had a 30 minute check-in.  My luggage allowance was restricted to ‘domestic allowances’ without ‘excess baggage’ charges (this cost an additional $70.00) as the first leg was classed as domestic.  Finally was forced to collect my luggage in Munich and re-check it in for the third leg to Malta as the operative couldn’t work out how to check the baggage all the way to Malta.  They finished by telling me that they couldn’t do it because they had no agreement with the baggage handlers in Munich to do the transfer… even though Air Malta (who would have the same agreement as I flew the reverse direction on my outward flight with the same airlines and same tickets) managed to check my luggage all the way to San Francisco…

General Comments:

Cabin temperature was reasonable, window seat had air conditioning ‘draft’ which the blanket supplied could not protect against.  Using a spare blanket did result in draft exclusion in the window seat (Why I ended up in the window seat even though booking was for the aisle seat.)

Pillows are (as reported previously) completely inadequate.

Toilets initially clean, however towards the end of each flight were soiled which was accompanied by the usual smell.  Flight staff “do not clean or check the toilets” – this was evident in the fact that 2 of the 3 toilets available for use had wet floors, full disposal receptacles and various pieces of rubbish strewn across the floor.

Staff in all ground positions and in leg 2 continually referred to myself as “he” and “him” despite flights being booked as “Ms Michelle Sullivan” and presenting all documentation as “Female”.

 

…. After my last flight with them in 2000 being ‘business class’ ($7000 one way from SFO to MEL) and similar experiences I thought they might get better…  I have just seen that some things in life NEVER change …