As you all know recently I lost my father to an unexpected heart attack. We are still grieving our loss. What you might not know was that my father was planning on visiting us in Germany for the first time since I made the decision to leave the United States. This to me was a big step in our relationship as I felt that he finally accepted my decision.
When he finally decided to come visit I jumped on the internet with my wife so that we could get tickets for my parents. As my parents are not on the internet it might be more expensive and more difficult for them to get flights themselves. My wife and I are big travelers and have gotten the hang of most things with dealing with airlines and getting reservations. I say most things because we were soon to be seriously surprised and shocked.
We ordered our tickets over Opodo.de which is an online discount travel agent. We’ve used them plenty of times in the past without problems and may actually continue to use them. However, we have never used them to book flights for someone not living in Germany before. We were a little disappointed that the travel insurance that opodo.de offered was only valid for people who live in Europe. My parents living in the United States would not be available for this insurance. We went ahead and ordered the tickets anyway thinking “What could happen?”. Well it is obvious now what could happen. My father died and we had to deal with canceling his ticket (my mother will still travel to see us in April so that is nice at least). My wife, being the native German speaker, dealt with Opodo.de and they were really helpful when it came to telling us what we needed to do, and even called to make sure that they were only to cancel my father’s ticket. They were to take care of dealing with the airlines about getting some of our money back. We both knew not to hope to get the entire amount we paid for my father’s ticket but at least a good amount. What we received was 60 Euros out of approximately 490 Euros paid. The only excuse we received from Opodo.de was that the airline kept 383 Euros of the price. The itinerary that my parents (and mother still) will use had a flight from Knoxville (TN) to Dulles International (MD) then from Dulles International to Munich (GERMANY) and then back again by the same route. For three of the four flights they would be using United Airlines. So it is pretty obvious who kept our 300+ Euros from the ticket. We were shocked that an airline would be so greedy as to keep practically the entire cost of the flight (remember this is February and the flight isn’t until April meaning they have plenty of time to fill that seat for the FULL price again) from us when the only reason we canceled in the first place was because the person who was to use the ticket is dead.
These greedy bastards at United Airlines obviously can only think of the bottom line which to them is “Hey we can keep most of the full price of this ticket and charge someone else the full price for the same seat! Ain’t that great we get paid twice for one seat and screw the poor family who have lost their loved one!”.
Now I’m not a rich man. My wife and I rent our apartment. We’ve been saving up for the time when my parents decided to come visit so that we could help defray the costs of their visit so that they wouldn’t be too burdened by the costs themselves. I really felt as though I’ve been kicked while I’m down by this airline. Therefore I can promise you all this and I hope you share this with others, “Neither I nor any member of my family will ever again use United Airlines after this trip for my mother. We will never again use an airline who treats their customers with such disdain and disrespect.” You can quote me on that.
Now you might ask yourself why haven’t I written United Airlines about this. I have and here is what I said.
Dear United Airlines,
I must say that I am extremely displeased with the way the cancellation of my father’s ticket was handled.
In January we booked a flight for my parents to come and visit us in Germany where we live. This was to be their first time visiting us and the first time they were to see their new grandson. After receiving the tickets from our booking agent (OPODO) my father died of a sudden an unexpected heart attack. We of course wished to cancel his ticket and his ticket alone. We knew we should get some money back from the cancellation and knew that we wouldn’t get the entire amount back. What was returned to us was approximately 60 Euros with a comment from OPODO that the rest of the over 400 Euro ticket cost were held by the airline. As for most of the trip my parents would be taking United Airlines it is not hard to figure out who kept the money.
As we booked over OPODO for my parents who do not live in Europe we had no way of insuring their travel, which would have protected us from you. This we are taking up with OPODO directly about their limiting the insurance. This does not excuse your actions.
We are extremely disappointed at the show of heartless corporate greed on the part of your airline, during a time of morning for our family. The money that we were hoping to get back, again not expecting the entire sum, was to be used to make my mother’s stay a little nicer. However, those plans are also now in ruins thanks to your disgusting display of greed.
I will make this known to everyone that neither I nor any member of my family will ever again use your airline. I will be warning everyone I know in as public a place as I can find about your airline’s horrible business practice.
I know that you will cowardly hide behind some contractual or terms and agreement issue that your corporate lawyers have concocted to allow you to charge twice for the same seat when a cancellation is made, and the comments of a single person won’t phase you in the slightest. However, I feel that I must explain to everyone why I am so angry with the way I and my family have been handled by your company.
Sincerely
Jason Reed
I haven’t received an answer yet. I’m doubtful that I ever will. At least I got it off my chest and now that I’ve posted this in the most public place I could I’ll leave it at that.
EDIT!!!
Ok so I can’t leave it at that. Apparently there are a lot of greed issues with United Airlines. Check these links out:
Now some of those links point to dealing with their own workers and how the executives are acting with the company’s money, but there are few with how they are treating their passengers. So I leave you with this question:
Do you really want to support an airline who treats their customer’s so poorly, and yet charge you such high prices? For my part the answer is No, and I never will again.
