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Home » United Airlines » Why I Love UA’s Honolulu Call Center
United Airlines

Why I Love UA’s Honolulu Call Center

Matthew June 28, 2010 1 Comment

I just got off the phone with United and dealt with a GREAT agent in HNL. United, take note: Your HNL agents are gems.

While most Dearborn and some Chicago (yes, I suppose I could be exaggerating) agents refuse to go the extra mile and seem perturbed rather than thankful for your business, almost every HNL agent I have ever interacted with (and this is not an exaggeration) has left me smiling.

I sponsored a systemwide upgrade for a friend tonight on an upcoming overseas trip from Asia. My friend is traveling on a full-fare economy ticket, but has no status with UA. She’s attempting to upgrade a flight that is oversold in business class with 35 passengers on the upgrade waitlist. Rather than just applying the upgrade and saying goodbye, the agent took time to examine the itinerary and volunteered to find a better routing that would maximize my friend’s upgrade chances–yes she volunteered to go the extra mile!

After a few minutes of searching, she determined that adding an extra connection on the west coast would really help the upgrade chances and she made the changes for me. Now instead of being on a flight already overbooked in business class with a snowball’s chance in hell of clearing the waitlist, she is on a flight in which business class is undersold and there are more seats available than upgrades requested. The flight is still a week away, but her chances look good.

Next came the application of my SWU. Applying a SWU over the phone requires a trip to the airport to sign a "bluey" (a form authorizing the release of your upgrade and pledging that you did not sell it). The agent suggested I try to sponsor the upgrade online while she waited to make sure everything was okay. I tried to sponsor the upgrade but (figures…) UA’s new MP website gave me an error. Not deterred, she put me on hold to call web support and sorted out the problem so I won’t have to go down to the airport to sign the release form. Now that’s what I call service.

UA has gems at every call center, but HNL has a corner on the market. How often do you hang up the phone after a call to the airlines with a smile on your face? I sure did tonight.

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About Author

Matthew

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 120 countries over the last decade. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, BBC, Fox News, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, Al Jazeera, Toronto Star, and on NPR. Studying international relations, American government, and later obtaining a law degree, Matthew has a plethora of knowledge outside the travel industry that leads to a unique writing perspective. He has served in the United States Air Force, on Capitol Hill, and in the White House. His Live and Let's Fly blog shares the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs and promotions, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel. His writings on penandpassport.com offer more general musings on life from the eyes of a frequent traveler. He also founded awardexpert.com, a highly-personalized consulting service that aids clients in the effective use of their credit card points and frequent flyer miles. Clients range from retirees seeking to carefully use their nest egg of points to multinational corporations entrusting Matthew with the direction and coordination of company travel.

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1 Comment

  1. Damian Reply
    June 28, 2010 at 4:14 pm

    Matthew, you are 100% right.. HNL agents are the best.. Living in Europe I like to call early Morning here and get the HNL call center. ALWAYS helpful.. sometimes they can do things that others do know how or want to.. Just the other week I booked a reward ticket within Europe.. the direct flights were not available.. I did my homework and found a routing that was not crazy but got me there.. Dearborn call center told me Hell No.. HNL, no problem..

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