Kepes reaches cash settlement with United

Frequent flyer Ben Kepes says he's reached a cash settlement with United Airlines following his horror-show experience last week.

He is donating the undisclosed sum of money to the Sir Peter Blake Trust (from which he received a Leadership Medal last year).

There are so many ways that modern travel has gone wrong, recently – particularly on United Airlines – but Mr Kepes had the misfortune to discover one more.

He boarded a flight from Nashville to San Francisco on May 24. But, unknown to him, a steward removed his carry-on luggage from the plane before take-off. The removed bag contained his wallet, passport, phone charger and boarding pass for his flight on to New Zealand, among other essentials.

The entrepreneur, tech blogger and owner of Cactus Outdoor, who says he flies United 20 to 30 times a year, told NBR he accepted that mistakes happen. Everybody's human.

It's the way the United reacted from the point it learned about the blunder that has him riled.

The US carrier's baggage services desk seemed uninterested when he arrived in San Francisco. He was offered no assistance, and there was no communication from the airline. He waited hours for a call (during which time United's Chicago-based PR called NBR three times as the airline's comms team adjusted its story, eventually confirming Mr Kepes' version of events).

Mr Kepes, who has 25,000 followers on Twitter, has posted several times about his efforts to win compensation from United.

But he adds, "This was never about retribution or malice, but rather about highlighting failings in United’s customer service and internal systems. I am also mindful that individual United employees have found this situation stressful, and it is regretful that they have borne the brunt of this. It is my genuine hope that despite United’s apparent culture of blame and creating silos, the employee in question suffers no disciplinary action for her mistake.

As someone who flew 350,000 miles last year, would Mr Kepes fly United again? He says he'd prefer not to. But given he's a loyal Air New Zealand customer, and that our flagship is part of the Star Alliance that includes United, he often has little choice.