United Passengers Air Their Bitter Grievances

United Airlines stranded Brenda Kitterman in Mexico. Her ordeal didn't end there.

Kitterman, 43, learned last December that United (UAUA) had canceled the first leg of her trip home to Montana from Cancun because of a blizzard in Denver.

But rather than re-book her on different flights or promptly refund the price of her return tickets, United agents in Mexico told her she was on her own, she says. To get home, Kitterman was forced to buy new tickets to her hometown of Kalispell, Mont., on Delta Air Lines, at a cost of $1,198, more than she had paid for her entire week's vacation in Mexico.

Kitterman, a Montana state employee, e-mailed a complaint about her experience to the U.S. Department of Transportation, as did 942 other United passengers last year.

Their discontent with United reflects a particularly vexing problem for the USA's second-largest airline: a severe decline in the quality of service at a carrier that once prided itself on just that.

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Multiple studies show plunging satisfaction with the industry generally. The April DOT complaint rate for US Airways, still grappling with its 2005 merger with America West, tripled year-over-year. The rate for Delta Air Lines, which just emerged from Chapter 11 reorganization, doubled.

But United arguably has fallen furthest and fastest among the big U.S. airlines in its ability to keep customers satisfied. Company officials acknowledge service problems and say efforts are under way to fix them. The performance of Chicago-based United, one of four major U.S. carriers forced into bankruptcy reorganization after the Sept. 11 attacks, is a sign of the times in an industry trying to accommodate near-record passenger volumes with fewer workers.

Some indicators of trouble:

•United had the industry's highest rate of passenger complaints to the DOT for all of 2006: 1.36 complaints for every 100,000 passengers boarded. By April, the latest month for which DOT has data, that rate had risen to 2.6 per 100,000. Last year, United's first year out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, saw its worst showing in DOT complaints since 2002, the year the airline filed for Chapter 11.

•In the University of Michigan's 2007 American Customer Satisfaction Index, airlines scored lower than at any time since 2001, and United scored at the bottom of the industry. The ACSI gauges satisfaction with companies and industries based on thousands of interviews.

•The most recent Airline Quality Rating, done by Wichita State University and the University of Nebraska, ranked United No. 8 of 18 big and small airlines for 2006. American (AMR), Delta (DAL) and US Airways (LCC) scored worse, but United slipped from No. 4 in 2004. Ratings are based on publicly reported performance indicators.

Some of United's most loyal, high-mileage passengers — who get preferential treatment in return for their patronage — say they have seen service decline.

"There were days in the not-too-distant past when United's service was fantastic, especially if you were an elite flier," says Jordan Ayan, CEO of a Chicago high-tech firm.

A million-mile United flier, he used to buy Christmas gifts for his favorite United agents at Chicago O'Hare. "Boy, have times changed."

He says a United gate agent was so rude to his daughter before her March flight that Ayan e-mailed United CEO Glenn Tilton.

Out of luck after 20-25 calls

A USA TODAY review of complaints filed in December 2006 and January 2007 with the DOT about United provides a rare window into the quality of service by one of the nation's largest airlines in the wake of deep cuts in spending and jobs.

Interviews with passengers who complained to the DOT show how hard it can be to reach one's destination, get accurate help from airline customer-service representatives, or get money refunded when a flight goes awry.

Arnold Graham, a Pasadena, Calif., lawyer who begged United for a fare refund for seven months and complained to the DOT, says he was amazed how hard it was to get what he was legally owed.

"I think the system is deliberately designed to never make a refund or listen to the customer," says Graham, whose son Justin, 22, was bumped from a United flight.

In October, Justin Graham was returning from a wedding in Oakland to the University of Michigan for exams. United bumped him from the Oakland-to-Denver leg of his trip. United switched the original plane to a smaller one, so there wasn't enough space. United didn't have a seat until the next day.