This is an old story, but still a goodie.
TLDR I had to bribe someone to get my luggage out of United Airlines.
From my old website, circa 2006……
It all started a few weeks ago in June 2006 when we flew from California to Chicago, a trip we have made many times before. This time unfortunately my bag did not make the flight in time and was “Red Ticketed” to arrive on a later flight. My wife’s bag arrived intact, so I was somewhat confused why my bag, which were checked in at the same time, did not make it.
- Day 1
So after completing the lost baggage form I was told that my bag should show the next day and I could pick it up. What I was not counting on was all the grief, misery and ultimately the $50 bribe I had to leave in an envelope that was needed before my bag finally reappeared….
The airline assured me that my bag would arrive through a process called ‘Red Ticketing’ and then be delivered to my hotel. I learned that this red ticket is issued for baggage that is not accompanied by a passenger. To follow up on my bag status I was directed to call the 1-800 number the next morning.
So armed with my lost baggage form, the assurances that my bag would soon be delivered to the hotel and a friendly pat on the back, I headed out, without any clean socks or underwear. I was thankful later in my trip that a Walmart was directly across the road from my hotel.
- Day 2
The next day at the appointed time I called the 1-800 service, spoke into the voice system with all the appropriate data, and received a wonderful summary of my bag. It had been found and was to be delivered as expected!! Excellent news! And since the airport was only an hour and a half away, I expected the bag sometime later that same day.
So as evening rolled around and I saw no bag I decided to call back a second time and check on its status. This time however the message was different. It stated that my bag had been found but my situation had been escalated to head office for further processing. This sounded somewhat ominous and was making me a little nervous. Was my bag lost? Destroyed? Sent to South America? The possibilities were endless.
Moments later the call was connected to a pleasant sounding chap in India.
The conversation essentially went as follows:
- “Your bag has been found sir and will be delivered shortly” he said.
- “Tomorrow morning?” I ask.
- “Most certainly Sir”.
- Day 3
As you can likely guess by now, the next morning arrived and there was no bag in sight,
So I called back a third time and after going through the identical escalation process as the previous day I was eventually connected to another support representative in India.
The conversation essentially went as follows:
- “Your bag has been found sir and will be delivered shortly” he said.
- “Tonight?” I ask.
- “Most certainly Sir”.
This was annoying news, but as I had to head back to Chicago I would have to follow up on the delivery later in the evening.
That evening came and you can likely guess the outcome: no bag.
I called support again for a fourth time. This lead to the inevitable
- “Your bag has been found sir and will be delivered shortly” he said.
- “Tomorrow morning?” I ask.
- “Most certainly Sir”.
This time however I was irate. The seemingly useless assurances and the apparent run-around was a slap in the face. How the f*ck could they keep repeating the same message and promising that my bag would be delivered a few hours later?
So I blew up at the customer rep. He was essentially lying to me with the same pandering crap that the previous two reps had dished out. So after an appropriate period of controlled yelling, he finally said “Sir, it appears you will need to pay to get your bag”.
WHAT THE F*CK!?!
These idiots would not tell the truth until I blew up at them. Then after numerous requests to talk to a supervisor that resulted in continued run around I threw the phone away and hung up.
I called back to get a different support rep and immediately demanded to talk to a supervisor instead of dealing with the first rep. This time the reaction was completely different. This time when I called I did not get connected to India. Instead I got nice lady from the US call center.
Ironically however the US rep had spent the day training her replacement reps in India and on a whim just decided to take one last call before she and others in her call center were laid off.
Her situation was a shitty one, but if it was not for this nice lady I doubt I would have ever received my luggage. If I could remember her name, I would recommend her as a support person of the year, and if she got a job with a different airline, I would fly that one instead of United any time it was possible.
She knew instantly where my bag was.
“South Bend Indiana”.
I did not fly to South Bend. I was near there, but I had flown to Chicago and my bag was lost en route to Chicago.
However since my hotel was closer to South Bend than Chicago the airline “Red Ticketed” my bag to South Bend to make the final delivery easier. I would have thought the baggage people in Chicago would have known that and told me when I filled out the lost baggage forms.
She then mentioned that the people in India should have known that and should have told me that from the very beginning.
However there was a problem. South Bend Indiana was the closest airport to my hotel but United had a problem with South Bend. Apparently when United came out of bankruptcy they paid lots of people what they owed except for the baggage delivery company in South Bend.
Everyone who worked in the North American United support center knew about this and had a special name for it. The rep I was talking with told me that in fact this was her first “South Bend” call. Everyone else in her call center had already had a “South Bend” call but I was her first. Sadly I broke her record the day before she was being laid off.
She explained that as per the “red ticket” policy, my bags had been delivered as usual to South Bend. They arrived on the first day in South Bend and were handed to the delivery company where they were promptly locked up in a cage to wait until United paid their bills.
Great, now my bags were in lockup since United Airlines could not pay its debts.
It was then that the support rep mentioned she knew the late night delivery person and he was just about to leave for his evening rounds. “Hang on a sec and I’ll call him” she said. So I listened to bad muzak for fifteen minutes while she did some magic behind the scenes. When she returned she asked if it would be ok if I paid the delivery driver a little something to “cover his time and expenses”.
With an envelope left at the front desk with instructions and a little green inside, the late night rendezvous was setup and a bag with my name on it was sitting proudly in the lobby the next morning.
Wasn’t United the Friendly Skies at one time? Apparently not anymore.
Will I fly United again by choice? When pigs fly!
As a follow up I wrote a letter to United and forwarded an email complaint. To this day I have never heard back a single peep from United. The rep did think that they would pay back my $50 or at least compensate me in some way. Nada. Zilch. Butt-kiss. Nothing.
After years of my flying around the world and traveling through many “corrupt” countries with never any incidents of note, I finally ran into this nonsense in of all places, Chicago. Do I blame the delivery company? No because United stiffed them. Paying them to get my bag was not really their fault. They had bills to pay, deliveries to make and also had to deal with United. So paying the delivery guy for going “out of his way” was a small price to pay.
It was the outright lying that each and every United rep outside the US spat up every time I called that really ticked me off. That was totally unprofessional and unacceptable, and as far as I’m concerned, totally their own fault.
Sheesh.