I just got off the phone with a customer rep from United Airlines. I was calling them to book the two free tickets that Jamie and I received when we were vacationing in San Francisco a year earlier (Day 1, 2, 3). Firstly, their phone tree is terrible. My path that I wanted to take was to talk to an agent directly. So, when I followed the phone tree, I realized that I was talking to this computer and it was working for me. I didn’t like it. I already had my flight number and I just wanted to get my tickets confirmed.
Three calls later, I finally tried the “press zero” trick and what do you know… I was taken to an agent. This agent was very difficult to understand and he kept raising his voice to me. I kept saying “I’m sorry, I can’t understand you”. But, what I really wanted to say was, “Can I get someone with better English?”. At any rate, after getting all of the details to the agent, my tickets are placed and I need to send the free ticket vouchers in.
So, here’s my last issue. Why do I have to send vouchers in? I don’t get it. What is the value in sending in a paper ticket when I could have been provided with a one time code that I could have used on united.com? From a customer experience standpoint that would have been ideal. None of this calling some phone tree, tricking the phone tree to get me an agent, and then getting an agent who has a difficult time with English. I just wish I could have purchased these tickets online with a coupon code and have that be the end of it. So, in the future I guess I’ll think twice about taking the free tickets from United. My only problem is that I’m a sucker for free stuff.