I suppose an “About Me” page is where you would expect to read a third person professional write up on myself. Hmmm…. well that’s not really my style, so I’ll just go ahead and tell you “about me” in my own words. 
Operation Turkey Fry Pt. 2 - United Airlines Sucks
November 21st, 2007 by Jeremy EnkeHappy Thanksgiving to all my friends and blog readers. Even though today is only Wednesday, it feels like a Friday. Many of my friends are off today and here I sit in this office writing in my blog. Holidays are an exciting time as my family is all in town. My twin brother and little brother both got in today, so we will be catching up tonight I’m sure.
The pressure is on tomorrow morning as well. I have committed to preparing the Enke Thanksgiving Turkey in my new Turkey Fryer. Yes, it’s the Midwest, that’s how we roll. Cans of Miller Lite and Turkey Fryers! I will be going to my Mom & Dad’s tonight to inject the bird with a creole butter garlic marinade.
I will see if I can get some pics of the family this weekend. I bet many of you didn’t know I had a twin brother.
I have also rescheduled my trip to California. I’ll be leaving Sunday and returning Wednesday. My dentist told me had I flown this week with all the pressure that my abscessed tooth had, I would have probably wanted to kill myself on the plane. Looks like I made a good decision.
Two quick Wednesday rants. So I call United Airlines twice in the last two days to reschedule my flight and I am almost embarrassed for them. The last few times I have flown have been International and with International carriers. With KLM, Quantas, and BA, I have had nothing but great experiences all around. All the U.S. carriers however are shit now days and so broke that you are lucky to get a bag of peanuts and a $5 set of headphones that actually work. Their financial struggles have directly resulted in their lack of customer service also.
So I call United and it took me 5-10 minutes just to get through the automated system and talk to someone real. In any automated phone system, when someone pushes “0″, for the love of God just transfer them to a real person. THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT 100% OF THE TIME! Someone please tell me, in such a competitive market, why do companies make it so difficult to speak with a real person?
Anyhow, I finally somehow get through this monkey shit system and connected to a real person. I am fairly confident I
was connected to a call center somewhere in the middle of Pakistan. Nothing against Pakistan or India, but I am trying to reschedule a UNITED flight, not Pakistan Air. I would prefer to speak with someone in this country. So we finally get past the language barrier and my debit card to an account that has $XX,XXX in it doesn’t go through. The gentlemen questions if I have proper funds on the card.
When I tell him the card is good, he gets rude and says I will need to use another card. Dude, run the fu**** card again. There’s a good chance you misunderstood my English when I gave you the information in the first place, so NO I am not going to use another card.
It’s bad enough I have pay a $100 change fee due to a medical condition. But then I also had to pay a $20 surcharge just to book over the phone instead of online. I tried to book online, but there is no field to enter my change # and get the credit I had. Furthermore, if you’re going to charge me an additional $20 bucks just to make a phone call, at least let me talk to a hot girl named Heather somewhere in Texas.
Bottom line, U.S. air carriers deserve to be bankrupt providing the shitty service they give both on the ground and in the air now days.
I hate to end a blog post with something negative, so Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone! I know I have so much to be thankful for.
November 21st, 2007 at 4:05 pm
Def. a good decision to reschedule the flight - I’ve decided to cook a Ham this year (Not much on turkey)- I actually saw a turkey fryer in Wal-mart yesterday and thought about buying it for about 2 seconds. If I liked turkey it would be the way to go..
It’s amazing that some of these airlines are completely busto yet. Late flights, higher rates, less service. Most businesses would be done in because of crap like this. Must be nice to get all the federal funds they get.
November 22nd, 2007 at 10:08 am
First off Happy Thanksgiving!
As for US carriers… I agree, they are brutal! When I went to vegas, US Airways lost my luggage (along with 30% of the other people on my flight!). How is that even possible! They didnt offer to do anything, and said that if the problem was still ongoing after 24 hours they would give me a whopping $30! I had to go out and buy a bunch of new stuff because we had tickets for La Reve that night and I wasn’t dressed properly. They handled it reall bad IMO, but fortunately I did get my stuff back.
November 22nd, 2007 at 3:51 pm
All that talk about turkey is making me jelous, Im stuck here wishing Canada’s thanksgiving hadn’t already passed! Have a good Thanksgiving Jeremy!
November 22nd, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Happy Turkey Day! I flew United last month and ended up having my flight get cancelled after them saying it was delayed for four hours. It was a disaster.
And yes, foreign call centers for U.S. companies is horrible.
November 23rd, 2007 at 10:52 am
I’ve always wondered how airlines could get away with just CANCELLING a flight. That is such BS, don’t they realize people need to get home.
November 24th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
I know before my last flight to Dallas, they kept asking for 4 people to take a later flight. How in the hell do they overbook?? They said something about weight limits. Made me nervous as hell..
November 26th, 2007 at 12:29 am
Yea, I’ve seen that also. Pretty stupid if you ask me.
November 28th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
For sure Graham, I’m always amazed when people walk up there and say “I guess I’ll stay”.. When the airlines get desperate they start with the “Our flight has weight restrictions it must meet”.. WTF?? Really??!!!
November 29th, 2007 at 10:19 am
Honestly, I think some people just wait for it… they are probably thinking “I hopes to gets me a free flight! Woo hoo!”