How to treat a 2.8 million mile flier - by United Airlines

I have 2.8 million miles on United.  It took me 28 years and about $500K to do it but I did it.

There have been good times and bad times.  I like to praise them when they do good, but they need to be held accountable when they don't do so well.

Here is my latest...

I called United and said, "I want to skip the final leg of my trip.  Instead of flying into Chicago and then on to Milwaukee, I just want to get off the plane in Chicago.  This means I want to skip the 15 minute leg from Chicago to Milwaukee."

United's response was "That will be $200 for changing your flight plus the additional cost of rebooking your flight to Chicago."

Me: "You don't understand.  I don't want to rebook anything.  I just want to fly into Chicago on my currently scheduled flight, and then drive to my worksite, instead of continuing on to Milwaukee."

United said, "That will be $200 for changing your flight plus the additional cost of rebooking your flight to Chicago."

I said, "Let me talk to a supervisor."

Rex, the manager gets on and tells me the same thing.

I say, "What happens if I just get off in Chicago and drive away.  In other words, I don't ask for your permission to miss that last leg."

Rex from United said, "In that case we will cancel your return trip without refund."

Me:  "So you are forcing me to take an additional flight that I don't want.  I don't even want to be reimbursed for that flight AND, if I don't take that additional flight, you will cancel my return trip and keep all of the money for yourself.  Am I getting this correct."

Rex: "Yes, that is correct."

Me: "You realize that I have flown over 100,000 miles a year on United for the last 28 years right?

Rex:  "Yes, I am aware of that."

Me:  "I guess I will take that trip to Milwaukee after all.  You should know that I intend to make this as public as possible.  I cannot see where any reasonable person would read this and think United is a Customer oriented operation."

Rex:  "You are free to do whatever you want to do."

With that, I wished Rex a nice weekend.  After all, he was right.

So, help me out here.  Repost this and tell everyone you know to repost it.  Or...and I'm just sayin....we can continue to be sheep and let United (and the other airlines) do what they will without consequence.

Jim