My girlfriend and I bought United tickets for the same flight. When we purchased roughly around the same time, her purchase went through, but my purchase encountered an error on United's site. No reason was given, but it suggested that I call United to resolve the issue. After trying multiple times to purchase the ticket online, even going on a different computer, I finally caved in and called United as it looked like the company's site was down. When I spoke with the United spokesperson over the phone and told them my issue, they quoted me the same rate that I saw online, and I said, "okay, let's book this." Then all of a sudden their machine goes down after they try and confirm my purchase on their end. When it goes back online, the price jumps up. They tell me because their system went down, they can't honor the original price and that I would have to pay for the new, more expensive flight. I admittedly show some frustration over this, and the lady on the phone says, "Well, I'll wave your phone fee to talk to me." And in my head, I'm like, "The only reason I'm talking to you is because your site doesn't work!"
Because I wanted to sit next to my girlfriend on the flight and wanted my father to be able to pick us both up together, there was basically nothing I could do. I had to book the more expensive flight. United basically forced my hand to pay them more money.
When I contacted their customer service department about this after the fact, they didn't so much as offer free peanuts and told me "Sorry, but you do not have a confirmed reservation until you receive a confirmation number."
United sucks.
July 18, 2017 at 03:15PM
