You’ve probably had this video forwarded to you multiple times by now. If not, let me be the first to introduce you to YouTube’s latest hit, United Breaks Guitars.
In short, a musician named Dave Carroll was traveling with his band, Sons of Maxwell, on United Airlines last year. Baggage handlers at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport damaged Carroll’s beloved and expensive Taylor guitar. Carroll spent nine months communicating with United Airlines about the damage to his guitar, but they denied responsibility and offered him no compensation for his loss. In frustration, Carroll wrote a song called “United Breaks Guitars” and released a video on YouTube. Within days, the video had been watched more than three million times. News outlets and blogs took up the cause and United Airlines took notice. Perhaps suspecting that they had a PR nightmare on their hands, United got in touch with Carroll and finally offered to reimburse him. Carroll has declined their offer and says he plans to make two more videos about his experience with United.
My first thought upon learning about this story was that it’s sad that one would have to write a song, make a video and get millions of people to watch it in order to get a little respect from an airline. As most of us who travel frequently know, customer service at domestic airlines is not up to par. They will get you there in one piece (although perhaps not your luggage) but they do not expect that you’ll enjoy the experience. Didn’t have a great time on their airline? They really don’t care. Unless you write a hit song and get three million people to watch it and forward it to their friends.
However, upon closer inspection of the story and a perusal of United Airlines’ “delayed and damaged luggage” policy, it appears that Carroll would have been eligible for at least some reimbursement after the incident were it not for one important factor. He did not report the damage to the airline with 24 hours. It very clearly states on United’s website that the damage must be reported within 24 hours and a written claim must be submitted within 45 days. This is where we all can take a lesson from this story. When you are traveling, you need to be aware of the policies of the airline on which you’re flying. If you have a problem en route, whether it be a canceled flight or lost luggage, make sure that you follow the airline’s instructions to the letter. This is the surest way to positively resolve your situation.
It’s often difficult to report the damage to belongings if one arrives at the destination when there is no one to take a report. In this case, Dave arrived in Omaha in the middle of the night. Presuming the airport is not one’s final destination, it becomes ever more difficult to report, especially since “report” means in person with damaged goods in hand. In this case, the band was scheduled for a week of concerts in Nebraska and they were already on the way to concert #1 when they discovered the damage. They didn’t have the leisure to return to the airport to discuss it. (Think getting to the wedding/conference/Christmas/graduation on time.) They knew their instruments had been tossed around in Chicago, had tried to report it there, but were told they needed to make the complaint in Omaha. At midnight. When no one is around to complain to. Even if they had unpacked all their instruments at the Omaha airport and discovered the damage then, there wouldn’t have been any way to “report” for 8 to 10 more hours.
I’m fairly sure the airlines make the report and recover process as difficult as possible knowing that most people will give up after a while. United deserves this and it is an excellent cautionary tale for the other airlines.