United Airlines sass warning

[CaitlinBea11]

I know that this thread is old, but I thought I would go ahead and add my two cents of bad experience for others to be forewarned in case they have a similar experience. I actually bought a round trip ticket, originating from the United States to leave on August 30th (2011) and return in May of 2012. Upon check-in, United gave me crap for having the duration of my stay exceed the 90 day tourist visa limit without having the "appropriate" visa. They wanted me to pay to change my flight to November! I told them this was unnecessary as I could renew the visa by leaving and re-entering the country. Not their responsibility to make sure I have the appropriate visa, it is mine! I asked to see the manager and she went to look it up in the rulebook. "If you're a student, then you meet the requirements for tourist visa extension." Well, I graduated from college 5 months ago, but they don't know the difference, and they finally gave me my boarding pass. Of course, when I got to Argentina, they didn't ask me a single question, just stamped my passport.

 

[Fabe]

Continental was the worst singular travel experience i have ever had to endure . NEVAAAAA EVAAAAA AGAIN !!!

 

[KatharineAnn]

United also breaks guitars. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

My mom sent me this video after my guitar got broken in half after first getting lost for days by Continental. Wasn't United at the time, but hey.

 

[cbphoto]

All the complaints to the CEO will fall on deaf ears.. You think he will be loosing money because of your complaints. You are misunderstanding the system. You are complaining because they are cutting service, less bags unless you pay, poor quality food, rude untrained flight attendants etc etc etc... this type of bad service makes them more competitive/makes them more money, than the loss of some customers!

 

[ghost]

The airlines made about 1.3$$ billion USD on added fees for baggage last quarter alone. So the CEO who kneels at the Wall Street Alter doesn't give a rats ass about customer care. He is no longer in the transportation business, he's in shipping.

 

[Aconcagua]

I know that this thread is old, but I thought I would go ahead and add my two cents of bad experience for others to be forewarned in case they have a similar experience. I actually bought a round trip ticket, originating from the United States to leave on August 30th (2011) and return in May of 2012. Upon check-in, United gave me crap for having the duration of my stay exceed the 90 day tourist visa limit without having the "appropriate" visa. They wanted me to pay to change my flight to November! I told them this was unnecessary as I could renew the visa by leaving and re-entering the country. Not their responsibility to make sure I have the appropriate visa, it is mine! I asked to see the manager and she went to look it up in the rulebook. "If you're a student, then you meet the requirements for tourist visa extension." Well, I graduated from college 5 months ago, but they don't know the difference, and they finally gave me my boarding pass. Of course, when I got to Argentina, they didn't ask me a single question, just stamped my passport.

This has been ongoing for a number of years. I had to deal with this matter back in 2008 on a United series of flights to BsAs. As has been previous mentioned, a Buquebus ticket eliminates the airline's concerns. I also have not encountered this difficulty on any foreign based airline.

 

[Quinn]

I know this has been mentioned in previous threads but I thought I'd share my recent experience of last weekend.

I flew back to EZE after a couple of months in the USA on United Airlines. As others have mentioned, when I arrived at the airport to check in they said that I HAD to have proof of onward travel or Argentina would deport me. I argued with them as I knew this wasn't true but they wouldn't budge (and were pretty rude). Finally I agreed to buy a refundable ticket (for a whopping $2,000!!) that I told them I was going to cancel immediately, but they didn't care about this.

Then, JUST as I was getting my card out so I could get on the damn plane, someone comes wandering out of the back room with a rule book in their hands and says "Oh... I guess we are just supposed to advise you that you should have proof of onward travel. I guess we can't require you to buy a ticket".

I was pretty pissed, as I knew that the idiot checking me in was just following her orders, but there seems to be a woeful lack of correct information as to what their procedure ACTUALLY is. During this process I had 5 people all arguing with me telling me that they are not required to advise me at the time of ticket purchase of this policy of THEIRS and that it is up to the traveler to know the rules of their destination country. Which, HAH, I happen to know just fine.

Needless to say, I will not be flying United again in the future.

It's the nature of the industry. It's not like people taking there jobs are graduates from a masters program i the business. I always travel with my dog, and it doesn't matter who the employee is, they always tell me I need to use automated check-in first. Even when I explain that I shouldn't get out of the primary line because the automated system won't work because I have pet-in-cabin. They don't care, they feel they are correct. So 9/10 times, I need to go prove the system won't work just to get them off my back. So I've gotten used to adding an extra 30 minutes to my travel time knowing I will have to go through these inconveniences. The goal is that the employees learn from trial an error. Make enough mistakes enough times and the system will correct itself into something efficient. At least that is the hope.

 

[Gringoboy]

Airlines have a lot to answer for.
Personally I've not come across the onward flight problem with Either BA, Iberia or Aerolineas, having used these on one way tickets many times. Surely this is an immigration issue, not for the airline to enforce??
The baggage allowance is a joke. BA allows 1 bag and charges £40 for each extra bag (USD40 online, figure that one out). I had a squeegee mop (sponge on a pole) which they wanted to charge me 40 quid for, so I took it hand luggage much to the amusement of the crew.