United Airlines Customer Relations PO Box 66100 Chicago, IL 60666 Harrison Taylor Godfrey 3526 North Third Street Arlington, VA 22201 July 28, 2012 To Whom it May Concern, I’m writing today to express my deep disappointment regarding my travel with United Airlines on Sunday, July 1 and Monday, July 2 between Dulles International Airport and Bilbao, Spain. The multistop flight was originally booked on June 19, 2012 (Confirmation #EGFBT1) using United miles of my travel partner, Travis Luther Lowe (MileagePlus Silver Member # DW746682). I was slated to depart Dulles at 10:01 PM local time on Sunday, July 1, to commence a threepart itinerary that would take me through London’s Heathrow Airport and Frankfurt, Germany, ending in Bilbao, Spain at 5:50 PM local time the following day. Unfortunately my flight, UA924, was delayed at Dulles due to mechanical difficulties and did not depart until approximately 11:30 PM, roughly 1 and ½ hours behind schedule. As a result, I did not arrive in Heathrow until approximately 11:40 AM local time the following morning. By the time I deplaned, I had missed my connecting flight, LH905, to Frankfurt, which departed at approximately 11:45 AM. These things happen, and while disruptive, this is not the cause of my disappointment. Once I had ascertained that I had missed my connection, I proceeded to the United Ticket Desk in Terminal 1 (if memory serves me) to rearrange my travel. The agents there were perfectly accommodating and drafted me a ticket for a direct Veuling/Iberian flight 5745 between Heathrow and Bilbao departing at 5:15 PM that afternoon. An image of the paper ticket in question is attached to this message. I was instructed to proceed to Terminal 3, from which the flight would depart, where I would exchange the paper ticket for a boarding pass. I did as instructed. Upon arriving at Terminal 3 I did not find a Veuling/Iberian desk in the ticketing area. However, staff there informed me that I could take my paper ticket to the boarding gate, where I would be able to present it to the desk agents, receive a boarding pass, and board the flight. I waited until the gate was announced (roughly 40 minutes prior to departure) and proceeded there. This is where the trouble arises. At the desk in front of the gate I was informed (in a very curt and unsympathetic manner) by Veuling/Iberian staff that they simply did not accept the paper ticket issued by United. This declaration was reaffirmed after they contacted their superiors via phone. Contradicting the United representatives, the Veuling/Iberian staff asserted a relationship didn’t exist with United whereby such transfers were permitted. It wasn’t a matter of the flight being full – I’d later learn it was half empty – it was simply a matter of procedure. As luck would have it, my travel partner en route to Bilbao from London, Travis Luther Lowe, saw me at the gate. As the boarding process had already commenced and there would be no possible way to exit the terminal, clarify United’s apparent contradiction, and return, we had no choice but to a lastminute oneway ticket at the gate for $367.11 so that I could board the flight. Had that not happened I would have been stuck in London without immediate recourse, disrupting my travel schedule indefinitely.