Monday, October 12, 2009

In an effort to drive bookings to its website, United charges $25 to book by a flight by phone. That’s fine, unless the service you need isn’t available on the website.

I know U.S. airlines are desperate for every nickel they can squeeze out of customers, but this is just downright sleazy.

My wife and I are both attending the same conference in Toronto next month. She’s flying up the same day I’m speaking at a different conference in Las Vegas, so I’m joining her the next day. It’s a simple enough itinerary: I’m flying to Toronto from Vegas and returning to San Francisco International.

This is a simple matter when booking a flight online; pretty much every travel site has a link that lets you use advanced options, including multi-city trips. So I went to United’s site and went to the Mileage Plus section, since we’re both using award miles for this trip.

There was no option that let me book an award trip that departed from one city and return to another.

So I called and was told that they could handle this reservation over the phone—but that United would charge me $25 for a reservation made over the phone. “Even for a reservation I can’t make online?” I asked.

Yep, United restricts what you can do online so you have to use the phone, then they charge you because you didn’t use the website.

Would you categorize that under “fail?” Or “scam?”

Posted by Shel in • Planes
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