United Goofs Again!

Anything that happens on the ground, can happen in the air.

Obviously, there is a human factor behind this unfortunate "glitch". Someone had to input the figures into the system and it flew out into cyber-space in milliseconds. And in those milliseconds, the "greedy" people displayed their ugly heads and devoured it like a bunch of scavenging vultures. I know "Common Sense" left civilization awhile back but there are those that still carry that all important attribute to one's mentality. Although, ethics and morality are closing in on being another mental extinction. Does anyone look at something anymore and say to themselves, "This is too good to be true!!" ? And they still follow up on it because they are in that "greedy" mode and want something for almost nothing and/or they think that they have hit the "motherlode"! No wonder people are scammed out of Millions, if not Billions of $ a year...all in the name of "greed". They think they have won the Nigerian Powerball! When they find out that they have been scammed...they run around in circles trying to find someone to blame. This error is on UAL and the person who made the error. No doubt, that person is now filling out applications for other employment. No. United should not honor a ticket at that price. All of United's "Goofs" are due to management having the lack of management. Fortunately, it doesn't trickle down to the Flight Crew and Inflight Crew training!

Now that's what I am talking about!

Of course not! No one in their right mind would ever expect United to honor that price. That's not the issue. What is the issue and is most troubling here is that in an industry where 99.999% is not enough - United has demonstrated that it is lapse and careless to allow it to happen in the first place, and it is public knowledge. Everyone now knows it! Once management and operational problems, such as this event, become public, the question is what is actually happening behind the scenes. Usually these events are the tip of the iceberg. Something is definitely not right at United.

You might very well be right. They might see it as a great way to attract new customers!

Perhaps United is considering, on those tickets, a surcharge to pressurize the cabin. ;-)

Yes, it is both amazing, and disturbing as most of these folks have zero knowledge of the business operations they are charged to support.

Of course not! No one in their right mind would ever expect United to honor that price. That's not the issue. What is the issue and is most troubling here is that in an industry where 99.999% is not enough - United has demonstrated that it is lapse and careless to allow it to happen in the first place, and it is public knowledge. Everyone now knows it! Once management and operational problems, such as this event, become public, the question is what is actually happening behind the scenes. Usually these events are the tip of the iceberg. Something is definitely not right at United.

How does this happen? lol

I dont think United should have to honor a 33.00 price. 33.00 to HK is ridiculous, any reasonable person is going to know its a glitch. Im sure "some" of the people who booked a flight owns their own business. How would they react if this happened to them in their business?

Good point. Here is the "reasonable man test". The same management team is ultimately responsible for all systems operations - reservations and other wise.

No, not at all, just concerned about public safety, which is the real issue here!

Then Good Luck to you! You should buy that $33 car too! At least when it fails, you will be on the ground when you find out that it really wasn't such a good deal!

No different than a tech site db error. I caught an error on some hard drives last year.They should have been 300 dollars, but they hit the site at 10. I bought one, but evidently others that caught it bought 10 and 20. The vendor noticed the activity and cancelled all the orders. That sites policy was that they could cancel any order at any time for any reason. Greed probably got my order cancelled, but it was worth a shot.

Image is everything in an industry where 99.999% is not good enough! If a company can not maintain a simple customer reservation system, what makes customers think that they are doing a better job maintaining all of the other systems that must be controlled to safely operate an air line?

Any time a company has negative publicity, it is not a good thing, especially if you are in a line business where safety is a concern. You are not suppose to make mistakes - period. Who wants a free voucher to fly with a carrier who demonstrates publicly that they can't properly maintain their computer systems!

I don't see in any of the rulings, that United is required to honor the flight when someone bought it for 4 FF points; that United won't just cancel the reservation. This was clearly a mistake, not intentionally. While I understand new DOT rules prohibit United from increasing the fare, it does not prohibit them from canceling the reservation. Everyone who booked the ticket for 4 FF points KNOWS it was a mistake. Even the most unsensicle person out there knows when a deal is to good to be true; that was the case of this. United is right by honoring the tickets on trips already started, but they will end up canceling the reservations of people whom have yet to begin their trip. I would guess that a $250 voucher will be given to all those tragically "affected" buy this harsh and inhumane computer error.

George Hobica has it right.

F...United. Several years ago I went and booked a trip with my FF points online. Their site was running slow and I had to hit the back broser several times because my entries weren't taking. When I was finally finished I noticed that I accidentally booked a return trip on wrong day (one day later then I wanted). I immediately call them and let them know what happened. They very smugly told me that no changes or refunds could be made.
Obviously they will take advantage of us!

In the words of Yogi Berra, "it's like deja vu all over again."


http://flightaware.com/squawks/link/1/7_days/popular/27903/4_United_Reward_Miles_for_a_Roundtrip_Ticket_to_Hong_Kong_We_ll_See