Rocket Science

After successfully circumnavigating the globe, and having my checked luggage make it with me through India, Thailand, Japan and to Vancouver… United managed to leave one of my checked bags in Chicago. Thanks, United.

I’d be very disappointed to know if this was an issue of weight–that is, they left at least 10 bags off of the flight because of the weight.

Ok, I don’t want them to fly in an unsafe manner, but…

• Don’t leave First Class passenger’s luggage off of the flight.
• Don’t leave Mileage Plus Premier Executive or greater passenger’s luggage off of the flight–there has to be some value for membership.
• Don’t just forget to load one baggage container.

So at least three passengers from Vancouver had one or more bags left in Chicago, as did at least five others. They’re on the next flight.

But if they were left off to save weight, how do I get compensated for my time and inconvenience (since I paid to have them fly with me, and they’re supposed to fly with me because of TSA rules, or so I thought). Here’s my math:

• .5 hour = time spent waiting to see if the bag showed up at baggage claim, and waiting in line at the baggage office = $75
• 4 hours = delivery window from 6am to 10am for the bag to be delivered = $600 (I’ll use the delivery window, instead of the total time without the bag, and the fact that my electric razor was in that bag)

I’d like a $675 flight credit — if the bag even shows tomorrow morning. Thank you.

Update: I received my bag at 10:18am. Ok so that’s close enough to 10am. However, when I called in to see if they were going to deliver the bag this morning, the representative from United said I was called at 7:15 am. Um, unless AT&T barfed again on my iPhone, no I never received a phone call. So, call it 50/50 if the delivery company or United was lying.

Well, this is probably my last update on my stay at the Portola Hotel.

On Friday, I received a voicemail message from the hotel’s general manager, and I’m paraphrasing here, thanking me for “my honest feedback on my experiences” with the Portola Hotel in Monterey, CA. She noted that she’s new as a general manager and is “working on the issues I discussed” in these previous posts.

She did the stand up thing of waiving even the $95 “reduced” “cancellation” fee for “changing” my reservation. Thank you for that.

All in all, her voicemail and fee waiver is probably the best possible outcome of my posting–the hotel is tracking what’s being said about it online, the general manager did address at least one of the issues directly, and the interweb worked as intended.

P.S. I tried calling the “other” customer care number printed on the card in the room, after another 15 rings I gave up…again.

Ok, so this is all about customer service and what a company should do.

Back in 2002 or 2003 I purchased 3 Sequel bookcases from RoomAndBoard.com. When I moved to Logan from Oakland, one of the shelf pegs was lost. I really should have called Room and Board then, but somehow managed to not do it. Fast forward to my move to Lexington. Guess what that shelf peg is still missing, go figure.

I called Room and Board and spoke with Leah. She was very helpful in locating this unusual shelf peg. Here’s a really fuzzy photo (hey I took it with my iPhone). She said she’d take a look–she usually keep spare parts (as do all the customer service reps) and would also check with the warranty department. After a couple days I got a call back from Ray (warranty/service guy) that he’d gotten ahold of the manufacturer and that they’d be sending me two directly.

Yay!

And that’s why I love Room and Board…oh, they’ve got cool furniture too.

Thanks Leah and Ray!