This is a story we had to feature, for a number of reasons. Like so many others, Mr. McCray was treated to UAL's finest in customer disservice. After the first couple of attempts to elicit a satisfactory response from the airline, he could easily, like most ordinary passengers, have filed a Small Claims action, citing both the Montreal Convention and UAL's negligence in failing to provide compensation after the prescribed 21-day limit had passed, beyond which baggage is considered "lost".

But Mr. McCray is a Premier Executive customer -- the airline's bread and butter -- and thus, not the kind of passenger you'd want to offend if you're trying to stay in business. Moreover, his correspondence made it very clear that he wouldn't be placated by meaningless gestures (the perenially insulting "travel certificates"... and it's even more ironic when this supposed "gesture of concern" doesn't even arrive as promised!). No, Mr. McCray just wanted his items returned (or failing that, their monetary value). His communications with the very division that is supposed to help Premier passengers simply passed the buck, sending Mr. McCray to talk to the folks in India at the 1-800 number, while his letter to the top was simply ignored.

And it gets better. Mr. McCray pointed out that his wife is an attorney. In other words, when he intimates the possibility of legal action, it's unlikely an idle threat. Regardless of whether you're a CSR working minimum wage or a corporate vice-president, you've got to realize that this guy should be taken seriously. Unfortunately, UAL consistently manages to outdo its reputation. Rather than deal with the complaint professionally, someone, likely in corporate headquarters, made the foolish mistake of trying to make the paperwork disappear. Forget about whether this is legal... it's simply plain stupid. Mr. McCray is not going to go away because "Oops, we don't seem to have any record of your baggage."

Is there any point in continuing to give UAL practical advice? Nobody seems to be listening!

Here's Mr. McCray's story:

1. United did a 3-way tag switch on us leaving OGG airport for PDX via SFO on Oct 26th, 2007. I received passenger Margit Perry's claim tag, Margit Perry received Jeremy Perdue's claim tag (I've spoken several times to her). Both Margit and Jeremy received their bags and United sent ours to who knows where.
2. I realized United had given me the wrong claim tag during my flight to SFO. I noticed that the tag was issued to Margit Perry and for a flight arriving an hour later than ours at LAX. As soon as we exited the plane I went straight to the United baggage area in SFO and notified an agent there to call LAX and notify them to grab our bag off of the carousel as soon as that flight arrived in LAX. I also waited until the final bag came off the carousel in SFO. These two flights were the only United flights leaving OGG that day, so the bag had to be either on one of those flights or already misplaced or stolen at the OGG airport.
3. Upon arriving at PDX airport and the bag not showing up I filed a claim report with the PDX United Baggage Claim.

   Ed note: Personal details on the claim form have been blotted out by Untied.com

   They checked with both SFO & LAX and neither bothered to do any due diligence on finding the bag. LAX was supposed to grab it off the plane as it landed but didn't bother to do so either. The PDX United agent worked with us for about 2 hours filling out the documentation, entering comments into the record and calling around to other airports to try to locate the bag. We went home empty handed.

4. The next day I spoke to an agent at the 800 India based outsourced service and they claimed they had found the bag in Las Vegas and it would be delivered to us shortly. We later found that this was untrue and they had never found a bag in Las Vegas matching our description.
   
5. We filled out all of the baggage claim form information identifying the bag's contents and faxed it to United as they requested. They recorded receiving it on November 6th as per United agents in PDX - of course United Corportate never bothered to keep in touch with us.
   
   (click on any thumbnail to expand)
6. United had promised to get in touch with passenger Margit Perry several times to see if she happened to know anything about our bag as well as if she had received her bag OK. United never kept that promise and did not contact her. I did my own research and tracked her down at her home near Los Angeles. She was very willing to talk and confirmed that she had received her bag OK but that United gave her Jeremy Perdue's claim ticket instead of her own.
7. The next month was a significant pain as we wasted hours and hours of our time trying to get in touch with someone at United who could help us find our bag. The 800 India outsourced service didn't have a clue and were useless. United Premier customer service refused to do anything and pointed us back at the 800 service. Letters sent to Glenn Tilton went unanswered. Calls to LAX, SFO and OGG airports were futile. The only recourse we had was to drive an hour each way back to the PDX airport (we made the trip about 6 times) and ask for help from the representatives there face to face. They were very nice and tried to be helpful but all of their research in the system and calling other baggage locations was for not. We finally ran out of time and had to return to Brazil so we updated all records with our new information in Brazil.
8. When we left the U.S. for Brazil there were over 200 comments in our claim record (LBFRT3). Heidi Veeder, Kelly Pederson, Diana Geers, Monica, Carol - the entire crew at PDX had helped us and they were disgusted at the way we were being ignored by Corporate. At this same time our record was switched from being locally controlled in PDX to being taken over by XPW (Chicago). We used internal number 503.249.4280 to keep in contact with them, checking the status.
9. I sent another hard copy of our full claim report via snail mail on December 1st, along with a letter requesting United to get their act in gear and settle the claim.
10. I sent a message to United on Jan 2nd with the details of my issue and submitted the same message to Untied.com. In the letter I threatened that "if we don't receive a response soon we will respond with very public legal action." A few days later, checking back with the PDX United representatives they informed me that someone from United had not only wiped out all 200+ comments out of my claim record but that the hard copy documentation for my claim kept in their office at PDX that they had been regularly referencing was now gone (2 months before standard procedure). Calls to United to find out why were responded with the typical "I don't know how this could have happened" response.
11. On January 13th I filed a complaint with both the BBB and the Board of Transportation. On January 15th I received a typical "sorry, we're looking into it" response from Keshaw Kishor of United Airlines Customer Relations. This was just their way of getting their "check mark" that they responded for the BBB to see. The BBB responded the next day saying that United had replied and wanting to know if I wanted to close the case.

    Ed note: This is the part that bothers me. While we've come to expect replies from UAL that simply cause already frustrated passengers to become more frustrated, we'd hope for more from the supposed consumer watchdog bureaus. The existence of the Better Business Bureau gives consumers the false impression that there's recourse to a responsible consumer advocate, watching out for the little guy. In reality, the BBB (and I've had the dubious pleasure of dealing with several of their offices) is a toothless, mindless organization that simply forwards consumer complaints to the company and tabulates results, neither bothering to understand the substance of the complaints nor verify whether there was a serious effort to resolve the problem on the part of the company. We speculate that it's largely due to the ineptitude of supposed consumer watchdog groups such as the BBB that so many websites such as Untied.com came into existence in the first place. At least they continue to indicate that UAL has an unsatisfactory record, whatever that's worth.

    I responded that their reply was unacceptible and that they needed to resolve this immediately. United's Keshaw Kishor reponded again to the BBB follow-up response on January 29th with another "we're sorry, we're looking into it" email - this time with a number to call. This way they get another "check mark" for the BBB. I responded again to the BBB on January 31st that this response was unacceptible.

12. I called the number provided by United in their final email (800.221.6903), which went to a 1K baggage claim desk. Lori attended, saying that she was very sorry for the hassles and that she would escalate the issue again with Chicago.

It is now nearly 100 days since United lost our bag, with no resolution in sight and United getting away with illegal activity like deleting records. We've spent several thousand dollars recoving all articles lost in the bag as well as the bag itself, not to mention the hours and hours of countless time we've wasted. I've been talking with lawyers to prepare a case against United and would like to get this case as public as possible.

Items demanded: Full replacement of baggage, contents therein and additional expenses related to baggage lost by United Airlines on October 26th, 2007 - $3,959.95

From: EliteCustomerCare3 Reply
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 12:20 PM
To: brent mccray
Subject: RE: BBB Complaint Case#94160886(Ref#36-5446-94160886-4-300) -Ref#: 6717916C

Dear Mr. McCray,

I regret the inconvenience you experienced due to your lost baggage.

I have checked our records and I understand that you and your wife are disappointed due to the following:

1. Quality of your dinner salad,
2. Lost baggage,
3. Expenses to buy some important things due to lost baggage

Please accept my apologies for your frustrating and unpleasant experience. We realize that at times we are not doing as well as we should in assisting our guests and we have no excuse for the baggage problems you experienced. I have shared your comments with my colleagues responsible for focusing on new methods to help make checking baggage more reliable and ensuring your baggage travels with you. Also, we want to understand how this experience felt from your point of view, and follow up with our airport teams to ensure more empathy and support in the future. We appreciate your candid feedback very much as this allows us to share your experiences and to learn from them.

While I can't undo the circumstances you and your wife experienced, please accept a $200 travel certificate for both of you as a gesture of our concern. The travel certificates will reach your mailing address within 7-10 business days.

Further, I appreciate your request for reimbursement of the expenses due to lost baggage and I have forwarded your concern to our Central Baggage department for their handling. If you wish to contact them directly, you may call them at 1-800-221-6903.

McCray, as a Premier Executive member of our Mileage Plus Program, you are especially important to United. Please give us an opportunity to provide you the service you expect from United Airlines.

Regards,

Keshaw Kishor
United Airlines Customer Relations

From: UAWebBaggage10 Reply
Date: Jan 16, 2008 7:26 AM
Subject: RE: BBB Complaint Case#94160886(Ref#36-5446-94160886-4-300) -Ref#: 6907964C
To: brent mccray

Dear Mr. McCray,

Thank you for taking the time to visit our web site. Our records indicate your file is currently awaiting review by a claim representative. Once your claim is concluded, we will notify you by mail.

We appreciate your patience and apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused you.

Regards,

Amanda Chakraborty
United Airlines Central Baggage Services.

From: Brent McCray
To: Better Business Bureau
Date: January 18, 2008
Subject: RE: BBB Complaint Case#94160886(Ref#36-5446-94160886-4-300) -Ref#: 6717916C

I thank you for getting at least some response from United, as they refused to respond to me through the number of avenues I attempted.

I do not accept this particular response due to the following:

1. This is a typical sorry, we're working on it email with no resolution to the issue. The Central Baggage department later replied with "we're reviewing your claim". They lost our bag 84 days ago. Review time is long overdue and we need a resolution.
2. Why would I want travel certificates from a company who treated us so horribly as customers that we never want to fly their airline again.
3. They did not respond to the fact that United representatives went in and deleted over 200 comments from our claim record. This fact can be easily verified with a simple call to United employees. How can a public company get away with illegal activity like this with no repercussions?

Thank You,
Brent

From: EliteCustomerCare3 Reply
Date: Jan 29, 2008 5:30 AM
Subject: RE: BBB Complaint Case#94160886(Ref#36-5446-94160886-8-3100) -Ref#: 6717916E
To: brent mccray

Dear Mr. McCray,

The Better Business Bureau has forwarded your follow-up correspondence to us to respond. I'm sorry to hear that you have still not received a response from our Central Baggage department.

Please know that we strive hard to deliver exceptional service, this also includes responding back to our customers on time, every time. However, your message suggests that we failed to meet your expectations on this occasion.

Mr. McCray, your disappointment nonetheless is understood, and I've now contacted Central Baggage department again with the necessary information and have requested them to expedite their research and respond back to you. If you wish, you may contact them directly by calling 1-800-221-6903 for immediate assistance.

In the meantime, we ask for your continued patience. As one of our Premier Executive customers, we certainly want to continue to be your carrier of choice.

Regards,

Keshaw Kishor
United Airlines Customer Relations