Even the worst airlines treat their best customers better than most.
Case in point: Global Services members on United Airlines.
Global Services is the highest-tier mileage status the airline has. And it’s not just how often you fly, it’s how much money you spend. These are travelers who not only fly over 100,000 miles a year, they buy expensive tickets — business class, first class or at worst, nondiscounted coach fares. You can have your membership revoked for buying too many advance purchase tickets.
I know. One of my clients is a Global Services member.
One a recent trip, he had an electronic business class ticket from San Francisco to Athens on a combination of Lufthansa and United flights. On the return trip, a United agent in Frankfurt demanded a paper ticket. With the help of two supervisors, he barely got onto the plane. And incidentally, another flight on the itinerary did not show up on his mileage statement.
I wrote a letter to United customer relations about it. This is the abridged response, received about nine days after my mailing the letter. That’s right, days — not weeks.
Your travel professional has taken the time to write to us about your recent travel experience on United. First and foremost, please accept our sincere thanks that you continue to fly with us despite our service inconsistencies on this particular journey.
So far, pretty standard letter, which could be the preface to a brushoff.
I have contacted our Mileage Plus Service Center and inquired about the missing mileage credit on your flight from Frankfurt to Athens. I have been advised that mileage credit is not given for Lufthansa code share flights when they are operated by other airlines. In this case, your flight was operated by Aegean Airlines.
Again, standard type letter. You flew on a flight that wasn’t eligible for credit. Sorry about that. But wait.
The mileage earned for this flight segment would have been 1,405 including your elite bonus miles. I will be happy to deposit 1,500 miles into your account because of our over-sight in not advising you of this prior to your departure.
Our oversight? As opposed to “you didn’t read the fine print that you might not even have been able to find on our Web site. Better luck next time.”
I also apologize for the confusion on your return flight regarding the need for a paper ticket. This was definitely not the case, as your agent provided me a copy of your electronic ticket. I am at a loss as to why you encountered so many difficulties on the return journey. I’m very sorry we let you down.
This is usually where the letter says they will share your concerns with management and hope to do better next time.
As a gesture of our concern for how this experience felt, I will be sending you a travel certificate under separate cover. I hope that you will have an early opportunity to travel with us, as we want to provide you with the level of service you deserve as a Global Services member of our airline.
Hey, if you spend money, you get money.
Clearly, any business wants to take care of their best customers. And it was certainly nice for United to try to make things right for stressing out my client.
But in truth, what happened to him, while incredibly annoying, wasn’t awful. The missing flight credit was on an ineligible flight. And he wasn’t even charged twice to get home, which is the most common result when airlines can’t find an electronic ticket.
But United gave him miles and a travel certificate, all within two weeks.
Had this been a “regular” client — an occasional flier or a lower status premier flier — United would have probably sent a letter in about a month or two with a nice formula apology and an explanation of why he wouldn’t get mileage credit. And probably no voucher, either.
But hey, airlines already treat their preferred customers to better seats, free checked luggage, priority check-in and bonus miles. Should we be surprised they get better apologies too?
