I had an incident with United Airlines today. I have a free flight voucher from them because they bumped me on my flight to New York. I received a voucher to fly anywhere United Airlines fly within the continental US. I have to fly out of the US to fly to another US city. I will be flying from Palm Springs to Chicago.
I called them this morning to book my flight to Chicago (see Bucket List #16 + #26). The reservation agent asked me all my information and booked my ticket. She then said I can mail in the voucher or go to the airport to pick up my ticket. She said if I mailed in the voucher they aren't responsible for missing vouchers. After she said that, I thought it would be a better idea to pick up the ticket at YVR (Van Int'l Airport) instead of mailing it. I went to the airport at 6:30 pm and there were no United Airline counters open. I asked the Air Canada agent, at the neighbouring counter, when the United Airlines counter would be open. She said at 8pm. Parking at the airport is now $3 for 30 minutes. I left the airport and came back at 8pm. I found the United Airlines counter and asked the ticketing agent that I wanted to redeem my voucher for the ticket. The guy at the counter said that they don't redeem the tickets here. The closest airport is Seattle. I told him the reservation clerk told us to go to the nearest airport. He said 'I know'. He said it happens all the time. The reservation people at United Airlines always tell people that. They don't realize that we don't live in the US. He said people have trouble redeeming their ticket in Calgary and Toronto also.
The reservation clerk on the phone told me they will hold the ticket for 24 hours for me to redeem it. So I had 24 hours to go to Seattle to pick up my ticket to fly to Chicago. The guy at the counter changed the code so I don't have that 24 hour window anymore. I now have to mail my voucher instead.
The last time we booked with United Airlines to New York I wonder about their capibilities to do their job. They spelt our names wrong and our address wrong. I was suprised it got to us at all.
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Did you then mail in your ticket? Did everything work?
ReplyDeleteI recently booked something and was told I had to choose upfront whether I would mail it in or take it to the airport. I chose airport, but wasn't able to make it before the counter closed at 7PM. I called United and said I'd changed my mind and would mail the ticket. At first they said that wasn't possible because I'd chosen to go to the airport. They said I would have to rebook. There was no longer space, however, on the flights I'd reserved. I said there was still space as I had a reservation and it was not yet midnight and finally after "consulting with a supervisor" they told me I could mail in the ticket.
I'm curious what happens if you say you will mail in the voucher (with a 2-week hold) and then just go to the airport within that 2-week window. Will the counter agent accept the voucher?