fatchicksrockuk
☆
I thought you might all be interested to read the exchanges of emails and letters I have had with United Airlines since the flight Bigbellyssbbw and I took in December 2006. I actually got what I consider a sensible answer out of them in the end! Ill let the story speak for itself
sorry for the length!
Dear Sir / Madam,
I wish to complain about the treatment my fiancée and I received on a recent United flight.
My fiancée and I flew from San Francisco to London Heathrow on Tuesday 12th December 2006 on flight UA 954. As she is a large woman, I contacted your customer service department for advice. We were recommended to purchase two seats for her and raise the armrest between the two. We have previously done this when flying with Southwest, and this has worked very well.
On arrival at San Francisco, we inquired at the check-in desk as to whether the armrests could be raised on the seats we had selected. We were assured that they would. This was consistent with my journey on the same flight in October, where I was able to raise the armrests, and also on the outbound flight from London to Chicago on the 7th December 2006.
My first complaint arises here. As my fiancée was emigrating to the United Kingdom, we had one bag in excess of the baggage limit, for which we were charged $127. This would have been acceptable, had I been able to use the $150 Travel Certificate I had been given in October when my baggage was lost. However, I feel that, given the degree of custom I have given to you in the last year, that I should have been able to use this.
We then made our way to our gate to await boarding. We inquired about pre-boarding, to ensure my fiancée could board comfortably in her own time. No special arrangements were offered, so I feel fortunate that my Premier Mileage Plus status allowed us to pre-board. Approximately ten minutes before boarding, we were informed that we had to change to another plane, as a fault was discovered with the first plane.
When we were finally able to board the plane, we were then left standing for ten minutes at the plane door as the plane was not yet ready, despite us being allowed to board by the ground staff. This meant that a queue of passengers had built up behind us by the time we could board, rendering the limited pre-boarding we were offered completely useless.
When we boarded the plane, it quickly became apparent that the armrests on our seats could not be raised. We were fortunate that a very helpful flight attendant, Sue ****, who gave her staff number as ******, attempted to help us. However, she was unable to raise the armrest. By this point, the remaining passengers were boarding, and this lead to a very uncomfortable, traumatic and embarrassing situation for my fiancée. A mechanic was eventually called, but he was unable to help. At this point, an United crew member, who I assume was the senior flight attendant became involved. He was rather rude, and offered absolutely no solutions. His only suggestion was that we removed ourselves from the plane, and that the ground staff would do their best to get us on the next plane, though he informed us this plane was unlikely to be any better. By this point we had been at the airport for some seven hours and my fiancée was extremely traumatised and humiliated by the attention that had been brought to us.
We decided that our only choice was to attempt to remain on the plane. My fiancée was then forced to endure an 11 hour flight with both armrests digging extremely painfully into her sides. This, in addition to the relative immobility imposed by the armrests, could very easily have lead to serious health complications such as blood clots.
To add insult to injury, I have since checked my United Mileage Plus summary and my account has not been credited for the miles accrued by my fiancées flights, for which I paid for both tickets.
In light of the fact that the second seat we purchased was completely useless, I am requesting that you refund the cost of this seat in full. I also suggest you give consideration to compensation for the humiliation and trauma my fiancée was forced to endure at the hands of some of your staff. I am considering legal action as I believe her treatment was completely unacceptable.
This has led me to question my choice of airline. I had been very pleased with the service I had received from United to this point; indeed, achieving Premier status in a single year, and I feel it is only fair to give you a chance to rectify this situation.
My fiancée is an active member of a size acceptance community, and I strongly believe that her reporting this experience to them as it currently stands would cause United to lose significant business. You have some redeeming features such as good disabled toilet access, but the seating is one area where you appear to be moving backwards not forwards.
Yours sincerely,
**************
(At this point, I spent two months sending United endless emails to try and get any response from them. After calling them, this is the response I got a few days later.)
Dear Mr *******:
Thank you for contacting us about your flight to London, on December 12, 2006. Im sorry for the dissatisfaction you have expressed, and I appreciate the opportunity to respond.
I appreciate your letting us know about your broken armrest. Your disappointment is understood. Please know that United inspects all of our cabin equipment regularly to make certain everything is working properly. However, problems with a seat mechanism can occur during a flight. If the problem is not reported to one of our attendants, the situation may go unnoticed until the next scheduled inspection. Please be assured that our cabin maintenance personnel schedule repairs as soon as its discovered. I will give your comments to our aircraft maintenance staff to ensure the repair was made. I have asked our Passenger Refunds Department to refund the ticket for the seat that could not be used because of the inoperable armrest.
When you asked our staff to allow you to use your travel voucher to pay for excess baggage you were requesting an exception to the restrictions of your voucher that they could not fulfil. I apologize. The certificate involved was given with the understanding that it can only be redeemed for the purchase of a new ticket for air transportation only.
Regarding your Mileage Plus credit for the tickets you purchased, Mileage Plus rules state that a member earns credit for a flight actually flown, not for purchasing a ticket. This information is available in your Mileage Plus Members Guide. In order to earn bonus miles for tickets you purchase for others, you may want to apply for and use the Mileage Plus Visa credit card. For details, click on Mileage Plus on our web site at www.united.com.
Please accept my apology for the dissatisfaction you have expressed. Although United does not compensate customers for this type of situation, I would like to make our apologies more tangible. Please use the travel certificates Im providing for you and Ms. ***** ******* when you plan another trip with United. As a Mileage Plus Premier member we value your business and will continue to work on service improvements that will better meet your expectations.
Your feedback will make a difference and help us improve our service. Please give us the opportunity to provide a more positive experience.
Yours Sincerely,
Debra ******
Customer Relations
Dear Debra,
I write with regards to your recent response to my complaint. I appreciate you taking the time to investigate and respond to the issues I raised.
I feel perhaps one point of my complaint did not come across the armrest between the seats was not broken, it simply would not raise. The flight attendant checked several other seats, which were the same. We were informed at every opportunity that the armrests on our flight would raise. If it was simply a case of a broken armrest, I would be able to understand. However, it seems that your aircraft have been modified recently to remove this facility. I flew on several United aircraft over the past year and I never had any issues raising the armrests.
I feel this modification is a mistake. My partner (now wife) is large, and the only way she is able to comfortably undertake air travel is to purchase two seats and raise the armrest between the two, as we were advised by United to do. To remove this facility basically means you are removing the possibility of air travel for a significant proportion of potential passengers, which at best seems ill-advised, and at worst could be seen as discrimination against large passengers, which is illegal in the United Kingdom.
This is an opportunity United could profit from. By having a defined policy, with the facility in place to enable large passengers to travel, you would be seen as leaders in this field.
My wife is left in the position that she cannot travel to the USA (where she is from, and her family live) as your planes have been modified by fixing in place these armrests.
I would be delighted for both my wife and I to travel with you in future, and indeed, we plan to travel with you for our honeymoon in August, but can you offer any reassurances that she will be able to travel? Do you know which of your planes, and which seats, if any, the armrests can be raised upon? We are more than willing to book two seats for her, but we need to be given the opportunity to do so.
I look forward to your response, and I hope you are able to take this opportunity to improve your service.
Yours Sincerely,
Dear Mr. ******,
Thank you for contacting us again regarding the ability of our armrest to raise. I apologize for the misunderstanding of your complaint and appreciate the opportunity to revisit your concerns.
I have contacted our maintenance department regarding the modification of our aircraft to remove the ability of our armrest to raise. Our San Francisco Aircraft Planning analyst assured me that this is not the case. We purchased new seats and they gave up the armrest movement in order to provide meal trays that are stored in the armrest rather than pulling down from the back of the seat. You may identify them on the united.com web site under international configuration 2. They are specifically seats in the middle of the aircraft at rows 25, 41,42 and 43. You may also notice that they are the rows with only four seats, not the usual five.
I hope this information assures you and your wife that we are sincerely interested in the comfort of all our customers. You may proceed to book your honeymoon for August and enjoy.
We appreciate this opportunity to be of assistance and look forward to serving you again.
Sincerely,
Debra *******
Customer Relations
Dear Debra,
Thank you for your response to my letter dated 6th March 2007. I have looked at the seat plan as you suggested (http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6722,50977,00.html) for the Boeing 777-200 International Configuration 2 which we flew. In row 25 (in which we were seated), there are five seats (not four), and the meal tables are in the backs of the seats in front, not in the armrests.
The armrest were able to be raised approximately 6 inches, but obviously this still caused my wife significant pain.
We need seats in Economy Plus due to my height and my wife's size, between which the armrests fully raise. Could you please recheck your information, as it is at odds with our actual experience, and inform us which seats on this aircraft, in Economy Plus, would be most suitable.
Could I suggest that you add information regarding which armrests do and do not fully raise to your seating plan? This would aid travellers in our situation greatly in future.
Yours Sincerely,
Dear Mr. *******,
Thank you for contacting us again regarding our seats on the 777-200 aircraft. I appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns.
The seat map that I was instructed to view was found by going to united.com, 2) click on site map, (found on the bottom in the middle of the page), 3) find additional links and click on search united.com. This should give you the search results screen, 4) type in seat maps and click search, once you get the results 5) move to the bottom of the page and click on page 6. Once on page 6 move to the bottom and click on United Airlines-Inflight Services, 6) find airplane maps and click, 7) your screen should show our airplane fleet, under United click B777-200, 8) go to international conf 2 and click. You will find that Economy Plus seating includes rows 17 through 26 and row 25 has only four seats in the middle. I believe that any seat in the middle of the aircraft before row 25 would be good.
I tried the short version and it did not work for me. You may also try it my typing:
http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6722,50977,00.html#international_config_2.
I appreciate this opportunity to be of assistance again, if you have any other concerns please let me know.
Sincerely,
Debra **********
Customer Relations
Debra,
Thank you once for replying promptly to my queries. I have just
one more query. Can you confirm that the armrests can be fully raised
(i.e. flush with the seat back) between the central five seats of rows
17-24 of a Boeing 777-200, international configuration 2?
Yours Sincerely,
Dear Mr. ********,
Thank you for asking that question. Here is the information you requested.
No, none of the armrest will adjust to be completely flush with the seat backs. However the mechanics have given us a simple solution. When you make your reservations ask for C, D, and E seats. The San Francisco Maintenance Supervisor has assured me that there is just one bolt that needs to come out and the armrest can be removed. It is not a safety hazard. When you arrive at the gate let the agent know that he or she needs to have the mechanic go onboard and remove the armrest. You may take this letter with you.
Please do not hesitate to let me know if you encounter any problems. Again thank you for your patience in this matter.
Sincerely,
Debra *******
Customer Relations
So, the eventual outcome is, if you fly United Economy Plus, the armrest between certain seats, on this plane at least (Boeing 777-200) can be removed, to make flying much more comfortable. Two economy seats are much cheaper that one business class seat! I hope this helps at least someone.
Thanks, Mike (tired now LOL)
Dear Sir / Madam,
I wish to complain about the treatment my fiancée and I received on a recent United flight.
My fiancée and I flew from San Francisco to London Heathrow on Tuesday 12th December 2006 on flight UA 954. As she is a large woman, I contacted your customer service department for advice. We were recommended to purchase two seats for her and raise the armrest between the two. We have previously done this when flying with Southwest, and this has worked very well.
On arrival at San Francisco, we inquired at the check-in desk as to whether the armrests could be raised on the seats we had selected. We were assured that they would. This was consistent with my journey on the same flight in October, where I was able to raise the armrests, and also on the outbound flight from London to Chicago on the 7th December 2006.
My first complaint arises here. As my fiancée was emigrating to the United Kingdom, we had one bag in excess of the baggage limit, for which we were charged $127. This would have been acceptable, had I been able to use the $150 Travel Certificate I had been given in October when my baggage was lost. However, I feel that, given the degree of custom I have given to you in the last year, that I should have been able to use this.
We then made our way to our gate to await boarding. We inquired about pre-boarding, to ensure my fiancée could board comfortably in her own time. No special arrangements were offered, so I feel fortunate that my Premier Mileage Plus status allowed us to pre-board. Approximately ten minutes before boarding, we were informed that we had to change to another plane, as a fault was discovered with the first plane.
When we were finally able to board the plane, we were then left standing for ten minutes at the plane door as the plane was not yet ready, despite us being allowed to board by the ground staff. This meant that a queue of passengers had built up behind us by the time we could board, rendering the limited pre-boarding we were offered completely useless.
When we boarded the plane, it quickly became apparent that the armrests on our seats could not be raised. We were fortunate that a very helpful flight attendant, Sue ****, who gave her staff number as ******, attempted to help us. However, she was unable to raise the armrest. By this point, the remaining passengers were boarding, and this lead to a very uncomfortable, traumatic and embarrassing situation for my fiancée. A mechanic was eventually called, but he was unable to help. At this point, an United crew member, who I assume was the senior flight attendant became involved. He was rather rude, and offered absolutely no solutions. His only suggestion was that we removed ourselves from the plane, and that the ground staff would do their best to get us on the next plane, though he informed us this plane was unlikely to be any better. By this point we had been at the airport for some seven hours and my fiancée was extremely traumatised and humiliated by the attention that had been brought to us.
We decided that our only choice was to attempt to remain on the plane. My fiancée was then forced to endure an 11 hour flight with both armrests digging extremely painfully into her sides. This, in addition to the relative immobility imposed by the armrests, could very easily have lead to serious health complications such as blood clots.
To add insult to injury, I have since checked my United Mileage Plus summary and my account has not been credited for the miles accrued by my fiancées flights, for which I paid for both tickets.
In light of the fact that the second seat we purchased was completely useless, I am requesting that you refund the cost of this seat in full. I also suggest you give consideration to compensation for the humiliation and trauma my fiancée was forced to endure at the hands of some of your staff. I am considering legal action as I believe her treatment was completely unacceptable.
This has led me to question my choice of airline. I had been very pleased with the service I had received from United to this point; indeed, achieving Premier status in a single year, and I feel it is only fair to give you a chance to rectify this situation.
My fiancée is an active member of a size acceptance community, and I strongly believe that her reporting this experience to them as it currently stands would cause United to lose significant business. You have some redeeming features such as good disabled toilet access, but the seating is one area where you appear to be moving backwards not forwards.
Yours sincerely,
**************
(At this point, I spent two months sending United endless emails to try and get any response from them. After calling them, this is the response I got a few days later.)
Dear Mr *******:
Thank you for contacting us about your flight to London, on December 12, 2006. Im sorry for the dissatisfaction you have expressed, and I appreciate the opportunity to respond.
I appreciate your letting us know about your broken armrest. Your disappointment is understood. Please know that United inspects all of our cabin equipment regularly to make certain everything is working properly. However, problems with a seat mechanism can occur during a flight. If the problem is not reported to one of our attendants, the situation may go unnoticed until the next scheduled inspection. Please be assured that our cabin maintenance personnel schedule repairs as soon as its discovered. I will give your comments to our aircraft maintenance staff to ensure the repair was made. I have asked our Passenger Refunds Department to refund the ticket for the seat that could not be used because of the inoperable armrest.
When you asked our staff to allow you to use your travel voucher to pay for excess baggage you were requesting an exception to the restrictions of your voucher that they could not fulfil. I apologize. The certificate involved was given with the understanding that it can only be redeemed for the purchase of a new ticket for air transportation only.
Regarding your Mileage Plus credit for the tickets you purchased, Mileage Plus rules state that a member earns credit for a flight actually flown, not for purchasing a ticket. This information is available in your Mileage Plus Members Guide. In order to earn bonus miles for tickets you purchase for others, you may want to apply for and use the Mileage Plus Visa credit card. For details, click on Mileage Plus on our web site at www.united.com.
Please accept my apology for the dissatisfaction you have expressed. Although United does not compensate customers for this type of situation, I would like to make our apologies more tangible. Please use the travel certificates Im providing for you and Ms. ***** ******* when you plan another trip with United. As a Mileage Plus Premier member we value your business and will continue to work on service improvements that will better meet your expectations.
Your feedback will make a difference and help us improve our service. Please give us the opportunity to provide a more positive experience.
Yours Sincerely,
Debra ******
Customer Relations
Dear Debra,
I write with regards to your recent response to my complaint. I appreciate you taking the time to investigate and respond to the issues I raised.
I feel perhaps one point of my complaint did not come across the armrest between the seats was not broken, it simply would not raise. The flight attendant checked several other seats, which were the same. We were informed at every opportunity that the armrests on our flight would raise. If it was simply a case of a broken armrest, I would be able to understand. However, it seems that your aircraft have been modified recently to remove this facility. I flew on several United aircraft over the past year and I never had any issues raising the armrests.
I feel this modification is a mistake. My partner (now wife) is large, and the only way she is able to comfortably undertake air travel is to purchase two seats and raise the armrest between the two, as we were advised by United to do. To remove this facility basically means you are removing the possibility of air travel for a significant proportion of potential passengers, which at best seems ill-advised, and at worst could be seen as discrimination against large passengers, which is illegal in the United Kingdom.
This is an opportunity United could profit from. By having a defined policy, with the facility in place to enable large passengers to travel, you would be seen as leaders in this field.
My wife is left in the position that she cannot travel to the USA (where she is from, and her family live) as your planes have been modified by fixing in place these armrests.
I would be delighted for both my wife and I to travel with you in future, and indeed, we plan to travel with you for our honeymoon in August, but can you offer any reassurances that she will be able to travel? Do you know which of your planes, and which seats, if any, the armrests can be raised upon? We are more than willing to book two seats for her, but we need to be given the opportunity to do so.
I look forward to your response, and I hope you are able to take this opportunity to improve your service.
Yours Sincerely,
Dear Mr. ******,
Thank you for contacting us again regarding the ability of our armrest to raise. I apologize for the misunderstanding of your complaint and appreciate the opportunity to revisit your concerns.
I have contacted our maintenance department regarding the modification of our aircraft to remove the ability of our armrest to raise. Our San Francisco Aircraft Planning analyst assured me that this is not the case. We purchased new seats and they gave up the armrest movement in order to provide meal trays that are stored in the armrest rather than pulling down from the back of the seat. You may identify them on the united.com web site under international configuration 2. They are specifically seats in the middle of the aircraft at rows 25, 41,42 and 43. You may also notice that they are the rows with only four seats, not the usual five.
I hope this information assures you and your wife that we are sincerely interested in the comfort of all our customers. You may proceed to book your honeymoon for August and enjoy.
We appreciate this opportunity to be of assistance and look forward to serving you again.
Sincerely,
Debra *******
Customer Relations
Dear Debra,
Thank you for your response to my letter dated 6th March 2007. I have looked at the seat plan as you suggested (http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6722,50977,00.html) for the Boeing 777-200 International Configuration 2 which we flew. In row 25 (in which we were seated), there are five seats (not four), and the meal tables are in the backs of the seats in front, not in the armrests.
The armrest were able to be raised approximately 6 inches, but obviously this still caused my wife significant pain.
We need seats in Economy Plus due to my height and my wife's size, between which the armrests fully raise. Could you please recheck your information, as it is at odds with our actual experience, and inform us which seats on this aircraft, in Economy Plus, would be most suitable.
Could I suggest that you add information regarding which armrests do and do not fully raise to your seating plan? This would aid travellers in our situation greatly in future.
Yours Sincerely,
Dear Mr. *******,
Thank you for contacting us again regarding our seats on the 777-200 aircraft. I appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns.
The seat map that I was instructed to view was found by going to united.com, 2) click on site map, (found on the bottom in the middle of the page), 3) find additional links and click on search united.com. This should give you the search results screen, 4) type in seat maps and click search, once you get the results 5) move to the bottom of the page and click on page 6. Once on page 6 move to the bottom and click on United Airlines-Inflight Services, 6) find airplane maps and click, 7) your screen should show our airplane fleet, under United click B777-200, 8) go to international conf 2 and click. You will find that Economy Plus seating includes rows 17 through 26 and row 25 has only four seats in the middle. I believe that any seat in the middle of the aircraft before row 25 would be good.
I tried the short version and it did not work for me. You may also try it my typing:
http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6722,50977,00.html#international_config_2.
I appreciate this opportunity to be of assistance again, if you have any other concerns please let me know.
Sincerely,
Debra **********
Customer Relations
Debra,
Thank you once for replying promptly to my queries. I have just
one more query. Can you confirm that the armrests can be fully raised
(i.e. flush with the seat back) between the central five seats of rows
17-24 of a Boeing 777-200, international configuration 2?
Yours Sincerely,
Dear Mr. ********,
Thank you for asking that question. Here is the information you requested.
No, none of the armrest will adjust to be completely flush with the seat backs. However the mechanics have given us a simple solution. When you make your reservations ask for C, D, and E seats. The San Francisco Maintenance Supervisor has assured me that there is just one bolt that needs to come out and the armrest can be removed. It is not a safety hazard. When you arrive at the gate let the agent know that he or she needs to have the mechanic go onboard and remove the armrest. You may take this letter with you.
Please do not hesitate to let me know if you encounter any problems. Again thank you for your patience in this matter.
Sincerely,
Debra *******
Customer Relations
So, the eventual outcome is, if you fly United Economy Plus, the armrest between certain seats, on this plane at least (Boeing 777-200) can be removed, to make flying much more comfortable. Two economy seats are much cheaper that one business class seat! I hope this helps at least someone.
Thanks, Mike (tired now LOL)
