How United Airlines’ Customer Service System Ruined My DMA07 Conference (and What Catalogers Can Learn from My Experience)

I spent the better part of Monday continuing to call the 800 number, only to get nowhere fast. “I’ll send an urgent message,” was the typical response from the New Delhi-based reps.

Forced to Break the Marshall Field’s ‘Picket Line’

With no hope for my bag to be found anytime soon, at about 11 a.m. I interrupted my day to begrudgingly cross the imaginary picket line Chicagoans set up in front of the old Marshall Field’s store on State Street. It was Macy’s-ized last year as part of its parent firm’s attempt at creating a “Macy’s Nation.” (I’ll dig into that whole thing another time; juicy stuff.) It was the closest store I could find to get some clothes to get me through the conference.