Saturday, November 06, 2004

United We Fall

I truly hate United Airlines, I get nothing but ulcers from them. Major saga today that ended with me arriving in LA after midnight instead of 10:20, when I was supposed to.

Get a call that flight out at 6:20 is delayed such that I'll miss my connection.

Call USAirways (as it was a codeshare flight), wait on hold for 10 minutes, but they can't do anything for me.

Call United, wait on hold for 10 minutes, get a very nice lady who says she can rebook me thru Chicago and get me in an hour later. She also agrees to let me change to a later flight on my return. Just as she's about to do it all, we get disconnected.

Call United back, wait on hold for another 10 minutes, get a rude bitchy guy who changes me thru to Chicago, but tells me he can't do anything for the return flight, says things like, "it's only an hour difference" and "the return flight has nothing to do with it"... doesn't care that the previous woman said she could/would do it, then we get disconnected.

Call United back a third time, wait on hold for another 10 minutes, get a rude bitchy woman who also says they can't change my return flight and also says, "it's only an hour and if I change your return flight, you'd be gaining a whole day". I hate people like that.

So after all that, they say they can't do anything about my return.

But it's not over yet...

The flight out of Rochester was delayed.

Though we arrived in Chicago a half hour before my connection, we sat on the runway for 15 minutes, causing me to have to RUN about a mile through the airport (NOT in sneakers) to catch my plane. I arrived at my gate sweaty, nauseous, and with my lungs about to explode, only to sit there for another half hour while this flight was delayed also.

They put people through this crap all the time and don't seem to think they need to be polite or compensate them. I think I'm about to cut up my Credit Card that earns United miles and always try to fly JetBlue or AirTran or Virgin Atlantic.

UGH!

4 comments:

ljc said...

NOT in sneakers? You had sneakers on when you left the office and I thought... "Oh good she has her sneakers on in case she has to run through the airport." Have an extra Jamba Juice for your troubles!

Tina said...

I know, for some CRAZY reason I thought they might treat me with more respect at the airport if I looked less relaxed. BIG MISTAKE, BIG! (though, to be fair, at the airport and on the plane, they were all very nice). STRONGLY WORDED LETTER IS IN ORDER though. Perhaps with help from Aaron!

Anonymous said...

I'm so sorry to hear about all your troubles.

If it makes you feel any better, I have a horrible airline story to share as well. The short version: Booked tickets with BA six weeks ago, hubby got laid off unexpectedly, called on Friday to extend my stay, got told there was no way I could change my tickets and/or get credit for any unused portion of my tickets. We called THREE times, got only rude customer service, and here we are... using our original dates...

I thought holidays were meant to be relaxing....

Thanks for the great blog!

A

Nicolette said...

That is an awful airline story. I hope the actual flights themselves were painless and with turbulence.

I fly Southwest whenever I can. What other company has a heart in their logo AND offers one way tickets for $59?

- Nicolette