10/06/2017
As shared by John Mahan. This is some BS right here....
Please share this far and wide. These companies need to be educated about their customer service, and basic ethics, being important if they want to keep their businesses operating with OUR money.
Another prime example of United Airlines giving middle finger to their customers.
My co-worker purchased airline tickets on her United Airlines/Chase credit card, back in February, for herself and her 78 year old mother to fly into California, for a vacation. After booking the flight, United later changed the reservation, of their own accord, and moved the flight times by about an hour. This of course causes stress because now you also have to reschedule everything else you have planned by an hour, including other reservations etc. and this can potentially be very costly as well.
Having to re-plan the trip scheduling, to accommodate United's decision to alter the flight time by an hour, was upsetting to both her, and her mother, so for personal reasons (her mom was not feeling well, which I think is understandable at her age, and even more so after having their plans changed without recourse, and with NO compensation of any kind from United Airlines for the inconvenience), the flight needed to be canceled. Unfortunately when she contacted the airline, my-coworker was told they absolutely would not refund any of her purchase price (even though the flight in still 5 moths away and they will re-sell the seats, for a substantially higher price of course), however they did tell her she could use the cost of the flight, $396.00, as a credit toward another flight.
OK.... So she goes back online today to look at some other flights and check out the prices, and when she picked one to check the price, it turns out that "change fee" they are charging her is $200.00 per person , or in other words about $4.00 dollars more than the cost of the original tickets, plus she would still pay 100% the full cost of the new tickets, fees etc.
So it boils down to this, although SERVICES PURCHASED HAVE NOT YET BEEN RENDERED at this point, and are taking a 0% loss, in fact they will actually increase their profit with the reselling of the fare minus the discount, but they also are still keeping her $396.00, plus charging her an additional $4.00 to keep her money for a flight she won't be taking.
(Regardless of United Airlines internal policy, it is a violation of the Visa/Mastercard merchant contract for a merchant to take funds from a card more than nine months prior to a service being rendered and then refuse to refund the consumer for those future services that will not be rendered. As such any consumer has the right to a refund for future services purchased on a Visa or Mastercard that have not yet been rendered)
So now, after taking her money for a flight nine months early, refusing to refund the charges, thereby getting a 100% full, free profit for themselves, plus more than doubling that profit because they are reselling the fare to another consumer for a higher price, (I personally verified this fact with United Air reservation department) and on top of that charging that extra $4.00 to her for them STEALING HER MONEY!!
I am personally disgusted by United Airlines serious lack of customer service skills, as seen on many news networks recently, not only do they assault and batter their own customers, as well as inappropriately removing paying customers AFTER they have been seated, but I now know of their scam that also steals the money of senior citizens and their children, not to mention everyone else unfortunate enough to use their airline. I have also discovered found out that these airlines are making BILLIONS of dollars on "change fees" every year. To be honest here, I might actually be fine with a "reasonable" change fee, maybe 10% or 20% if the flight date were not so far away, but to charge someone MORE THAN 100% of a fare for a change fee???? That is unconscionable, and I can hardly believe that it is legal, in fact I don't think it is, I will find that answer out shortly when we file a complaint with the Attorney General of Arizona's office to investigate the legality of these practices.
At the very minimum United Airlines appears to be in violation of the Visa/MasterCard merchant agreement, so, unless you used a United Card through your own bank, who also profits from United stealing your money, you should most definitely contact your card issuer for any other credit card used to purchase tickets if your service are not refunded for cancellation of future, not yet rendered services.
United Fox News CNN msnbcNazfamily 3TV CBS 5 FOX 10 Phoenix Chase ConsumerAffairs United States Government - Usattorney Office BBB Arizona Office of the Arizona Attorney General, Mark Brnovich
