What Happens When You Miss Your Flight

Read this blog as you never want this happening to you. Earlier this month, my friend's daughter, Kathy, was flying home to Los Angeles from her college in Chicago.  She arrived at the United terminal as they were closing the airplane door and thus missed her flight.  This was definitely no one's fault but Kathy's.  Kathy was directed to customer service and placed on the next flight.  So you think, well she should have allowed more time and at least she got on the next flight, lesson learned.  But the worst has yet to happen.  When Kathy goes to check in for her return flight back to Chicago she is told her reservation has been cancelled since she missed her originating flight.  What's worse, for $485 she can get on a flight the next morning as the current flight is full.  I told her to write to United.  On July 10, 2012,  Kathy emailed United and here is the response she received just yesterday, July 31.

Dear XXXX:

Thank you for contacting us. I am sorry to hear of the reservation problems you have reported however our records show you were late for check-in which is why you were directed to Special Services. United reserves the right to cancel a reservation of any passenger who does not follow regulations, You were then a no show for your travel to LAX, and our policy requires prior to your trip, you can cancel your reservation and re-use the value of your ticket. it is similar to having a nontransferable store credit valid for one year from original purchase.

When you set up your new reservation, you will be charged the change fee, as well as any difference between the original and new fare. As you did not contact a reservation agent to cancel the portion of your ticket, your ticket was of no value.

I recognize you feel changing carriers will be more conducive to your travel however most major carriers enforce ticket polices. I will share your insights with our management responsible for the issues you raised.

Based on guest feedback such as yours, we are able to identify problem areas and make necessary technical and procedural changes. It helps us identify opportunities for service improvements as we want to understand how this experience felt from your point of view.

I hope that our positive impacts to date will conquer the doubts of our ability to serve you in the future.

Regards,

Lynette Sinclaire
Customer Care
RE: 5560451

Kathy was definitely at fault for not arriving on time (I thought I had taught her better) but I also feel United customer service had a responsibility to tell her that as a result of missing her outbound flight her return flight would be cancelled.  What better time to assist Kathy then when she was already waiting for her next flight.  Ultimately, Kathy had to pay for a one-way ticket to Chicago.  She didn't use United as they were more expensive and why fly the airline that was less than helpful.  It even took United Airlines three weeks to answer her email.  Come on United, where is you customer service?  If you are receiving this as part of an email feed, please log on to the blog website and leave comments on how you feel United handled this situation. I will forward your comments so Kathy can include them in her follow-up email to United.  Hopefully United will respond to her follow-up email!