United check in desk LAX – Sunday February 28th 2:30pm.

I’m standing at the United check-in counter at LAX, approaching an open station. There are about 20 to 30 self check kiosks. Attending the row of kiosks bouncing between passengers were about three United attendants, plus about 10 contractors from Airserv Corporation. From what I’ve witnessed at other airports Airserv’s employees do not handle reservations, ticketing or access PNRs, but only duties associate with baggage check-in.

Next to me was a gentleman with an eastern European accent. I pegged him as an infrequent US domestic traveler. He swiped a card in the kiosk, and after confirming his name and flight info the screen asked him if he to volunteer for a later flight.

The employee of Airserv, (whose name I later wrote down,) was walking by and the customer motioned him over, asking about the prompt. The Airserv agent said, “It’s asking if you’d like to volunteer for a later flight.” He did not explain whether he would receive compensation for his flexibility, and I don’t think he understood the concept of a voluntary bump.

The man seemed initially concerned that he was not confirmed on his ORIGINAL flight, since the first kiosk exchange was about a voluntary bump. He was honestly puzzled and asked when the later flights were or if it was mandatory.

The Airserv agent replied “You’l have to ask United when the other are.” The gentleman with the accent asked in a normal manner, “Could you look them up before I decide?” He shot back “Does my shirt say United?” and walked over to another kiosk.

The gentleman looked shocked, and after that caustic comment sunk in said, “Is that how you represent yourself and your company?” although by that time the representative had walked away. I stepped aside while guarding my kiosk to explain that it was voluntary, but saw he had already figured it out and was continuing the process.

My coworker had her iPhone in hand and took a few photos and a video of the employee. (She said she stalled while pretending to continue checking in.) While nothing as grating as his initial comment can be heard, it at least documents the employee in question.

Unfortunately, because of this behavior, United Airlines now has a black eye in the mind of this passenger. He most likely has already repeated this anecdote to family and friends. Myself and my co-worker are both seasoned travelers and have overheard less than pleasant comments from both sides of many different service desks, but even to us this is cringe worthy and should never have happened.

Note to this employee: If you are working behind the United Airline’s desk, processing United’s clients and handling United’s bags – you ARE be default working for and representing United Airlines. Nobody cares what your shirt says…

Airserv’s website is airservcorp.com I am passing this post along to the LAX office. Hopefully they can educate and inform this employee on what should be the obvious art of answering questions, or referring and delegating customer inquiries to the appropriate person with tact and a professional decorum.

On a much happier note: One week later, Monday morning at LAX gate 77 my same coworker was commuting here to Denver, and witnessed ONE extremely talented gate agent behind the desk handle ALL passengers boarding a fully booked 767. In addition to processing upgrades and standbys with lightning speed he was helping a cleaning member tag a laptop left in the seat. His many interactions, while short and to the point, were completely courteous. She nicknamed him “Anderson Cooper,” – as he resembled his age and short white cropped hair. Kudos to this genteman. He handled over 100 people in 30 minutes with extreme efficiency and a great attitude.

Edit 3/21. I removed the photo and short video clip which contained the employee – since this issue documented has been followed up on. (see comments)

I also posted this on my Flyertalk account I’d anyone would like to check out the comments there:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/united-mileage-plus/1063883-airserv-does-my-shirt-say-united.html

UAL has a large presence in Denver.
Winter finds many people flying to Denver to visit Colorado’s ski areas.
Some of these people travel with their own snowboards and skis, which usually count as second bags.
With so many other carriers flying to DEN, including Southwest and Frontier, said people will not be choosing United.

$50 for the 2nd bag + $15 for the 1st, = $65. x 2 (round trip) = $130 extra on your ticket.

According to USA Today their announcement states:

United Airlines’ said Tuesday its new $25 fee to check a second bag offers “customers choice, flexibility and low fares,” but travelers were not buying the explanation and took to blogs to protest.

That made me laugh so hard I almost just choked on my delicious leftover meatloaf

First, a reasonable offer:  the extra legroom in economy plus.  I do like E+.  Its a unique offering by UAL, but I’m 5’7 so its not that important to me.  However I like sitting up front as it gets me off the plane faster.  To me that’s even more valuable, but not at $54.   Also I can select this when MAKING my initial reservation.  I can choose then, and don’t want to be bothered about it again.   And I asked for and received exit row seats on both of these flights.  The early bird gets the worm.

Another tactic which I don’t care for is the placement of the “skip” and “purchase” buttons.  Throughout the online check-in process the “continue” button is always located on the far right side.  Now, these buttons default to “purchase” on these offer screens.  It throws the brain and mostly wastes time.

On the E+ offer it doesn’t use the word “purchase” but rather says “continue.”  But your aren’t “continuing.”  You’re making a purchase and taking a different fork in this process.  I’m sure there’s a second screen in which to confirm your credit card, but again its a time waster.  Devil and details and all that.

The second and more ludicrous offer after this screen:

Second offer:  Now this one takes some cajones.  How’d you like to pay $90 for NOTHING?  That’s right, you can double or triple your miles for an, ahem, nominal fee.

Airline miles are definitely nice to collect and redeem.  I have the UAL credit card, (ok yes with the fee.) I shop the Mileage Plus Mall at times when buying online, and look for hotels and car rental deals that kick me back UAL miles too.  But those are all things I’m buying anyway.  I draw the line at outright plunking down $50 or $90 bucks just to build up my account, especially when its so difficult to redeem the miles.  In addition, most experts are recommending USING miles due to future of UAL and other airlines looking so melancholy.

With fewer planes, fewer routes, and fewer available seats, the below offer is a sucker ploy by the airlines to extract extra money from your wallet.  I’d never PURCHASE miles unless it was a tiny amount needed to reach a redemption number or a premium status.

Well this sucks:  Following US Airway’s lead , United will no longer give you a 500 mile minimum for flights less than 500 miles.  

If you fly from Colorado Springs to Denver for a connection, or from Grand Rapids, Michigan to Chicago as I often do – you could always count on at least 500 miles.   Not bad for those who fly from tertiary cities that require a short flight, but would be a long drive.   Now you’ll only get credited the actual distance flown – a measly 70 miles from COS-DEN. 

While I don’t care for the recent avalanche of airline rules and restrictions most haven’t affected me.  I don’t check a second bag, I don’t buy food on short flights, but this new policy is a bummer for me.   Here’s the discussion from flyertalk.com and the notice from UAL (and below)

Mileage Plus accrual policy for flights less than 500 miles
To ensure that Mileage Plus miles earned toward award travel on United and elite status are aligned with actual miles flown, we are revising our base accrual policy. Effective July 1, 2008, all travel on United, United Express, Ted, Star Alliance and partner airline* flights credited to the Mileage Plus Program will accrue actual miles, with no minimum. This change affects only those flights that are less than 500 miles. Flights greater than 500 miles have always accrued actual miles, and are not affected by this policy change.

This new mileage structure applies to travel on or after July 1, 2008, regardless of when the flight was ticketed. (Flights of less than 500 miles flown on or before June 30, 2008, will fall under the previous accrual policy.)

As of May 5th United Airlines will be charging $25 for your second piece of checked baggage.  However if you travel more than 25k miles a year you’re exempt from the fee.

Even though “a la carte” pricing can be beneficial in some cases,  I see more negatives with this in that carry on only travelers will be slowed at checkpoints by those squeezing more luggage onto planes in order to avoid fees.  More carry-ons equals less space for my tiny little messenger bag – all that I need for a weekend jaunt.

Also their “special handling” fee for large or fragile items moves up from $100 to $200.

Rocky Mountain News story.

Southwest Expanding at DIA - Denver Post
Delivering on a Promise – Rocky Mountain News

and I realized how much has changed in 12 years. This is why people in Denver travel are able to travel more, and their friends have more opportunities to visit them here.

If you stepped into your time machine and dialed up 1995, the year Denver International Airport opened, you would find very few flight operations except for United Airlines. Using most of the “B” gates they saw moderate origin and destination traffic, and heavy connecting traffic to cities large and small around the west. Back then DEN, (or DIA as the locals call it,) was the definition of a fortress hub. United Airlines owned it, and with exception to other airlines’ hub service, (i.e. Delta to SLC and Atlanta, Continental to Houston,) there were very few other destinations not served by United. The airport itself had a feeling of emptiness, with many seldom used gates among it’s sleek, modern yet cavernous empty spaces.

Back in 1996 I was in the process of moving to Los Angeles, and I flew out there about three times before making the move. However I like many others elected to drive down to Colorado Springs, located 70 miles from downtown Denver on the south side of the city. It’s not exactly convenient with a small mountain pass, a sluggish drive through a congested urban area, then four miles on arterials. But at that time Western Pacific Airlines, (remember the “Simpson’s” plane,) was in high gear and offering bargain prices. It was a well needed alternative to Denver’s sky high prices. Western Pacific gave Colorado Springs a tremendous spike in traffic; however they ceased operations in 1998, just after announcing plans to merge with Frontier Airlines.

Meanwhile back at the gigantic Denver airport competition was still lacking. Little development was in or around the massive swath of land, making DIA seem ever further away. (In Kansas as many still say.) Frontier Airlines, which started in 1994, was still adding routes and becoming a player in the Denver market. They managed to keep United competitive on the routes they flew – which was mostly two to three flights daily to select major cities. Over the years Frontier converted their fleet of old 737s to Airbus aircraft. Their customer service reputation remains high overall, and similar to jetBlue they offer live TV on board. Frontier also developed a large Mexico presence, (much welcome during our winter months,) and now even flies to Costa Rica. They haven’t had much success with point to point service outside of Denver, so the bulk of their flights still connect in Denver. However for us living here we’ve supported them and consider them a big player in our market, just like United.

Fast forward to the last few years. Southwest finally starts service to Denver in January of 2006. Few predicted they would consider Denver due to the high prices associated with a base there. Colorado Springs would have seemed a more logical choice, or even the northern Colorado Fort Collins/Loveland airport and it’s tiny terminal. (Which only Allegiant airlines charters serve.)

According to this archived press release Southwest’s initial cities were Chicago, Las Vegas, and Baltimore. Over the past two years the number of cities has grown and grown, enough to where airfare shoppers regularly add Southwest into their searches.

That low cost carrier traffic helped bring prices down overall, and things have grown rapidly at Denver by the regulars and more: jetBlue’s flights serve New York, Lufthansa serves cities in Germany non-stop, and United just announcing non-stop London service, adding a choice to British Airway’s already existing non-stop.

The underground trams serving all gates have been upgraded and synced for more frequent service. United is expanding it’s “B” gates to accommodate more, (and probably more,) commuter flights. When completed the Fastrack’s “East Corridor” will terminate at south end of the Jeppesen terminal, providing rail service between the airport and downtown.

I now find DIA constantly crowded, and need to use my not so secret alternative security checkpoint more and more. While annoying, it’s a sign of success – which is a good thing.

People will still have the regular complaints about Denver’s airport:  it’s far from the city, long security lines, and it’s susceptible to blizzards – but we can’t complain about lack of competition and airfare prices. So thank you Southwest Airlines. Oh and please don’t put Frontier out of business. We like all of you – yes even United at times.

The carrier, which has eluded to the possibility of a Denver-London flight for several years, is offering introductory one-way fares starting at $319, not including some taxes and fees.  United will use a Boeing 777 plane with 12 first-class seats and 49 business-class seats.

$640 is doesn’t strike me as that incredible for a round trip to Europe, and that’s BEFORE taxes.  It’s an average price, but nothing outstanding.  However it’s excellent that UAL is adding to Denver’s international roster.  British Airways also flies this route non-stop.

Coming this January Denver International Airport will have separate lines for users of the “Registered Travel Program.”  From KUSA

“When you come to the airport then you have your own special information, security information, a line you can go into. Then you walk up to a station, put your card in and it reads your biometrics to say you are who you are,” said Heck.

If approved a member of the RT program will be able to bypass the normal TSA line and enter a separate and presumably shorter line for registered travelers. Members will still have to go through regular screening steps, such as removing shoes and unloading liquids.

Uh, I’ll pass.   Thankfully I’m not a frequent business flyer, and most of my flights occur at off peak times such as Saturday mornings and Tuesday afternoons.  I’m not a privacy nut.  I’m sure the government and the TSA can find anything that want on me whenever they want.  But I’d STILL rather slowly shuffle through the maze for 45 minutes with my nose in a good book than submit my iris scan and fingerprint.

Here’s more on the Registered Traveler Progam from TSA.gov  Not for me thanks.   James Van Dellen