bad day at Dulles
 

Took the UAL red eye from SFO to IAD Thursday night and arrived at IAD just before 6 am Friday morning. Next flight was 8:15 to JFK. Had a quick breakfast, go to the gate at 6:45 and find the plane is delayed to 9:41.

Continous rolling updates until 12:45 when United gives us a gate change and says they are ferrying a plane in. Seems original was still in Charlotte on ground with mechanical. Ferried plance arrived at 12:15 but they can't find the original crew. Crew shows up at 12:45 to a round of applause. 15 minutes later they report a slight mechanical with new plane. At 1:30 they cancel the flight.

We get rebooked for a flight to Laguardia at 2:35. Go to gate and informed that all flights to JFK, LGA and EWR are cancelled due to wind.

At 2 pm go to United Pax desk and request luggage. They say it will take 2 hours. Go to rental car phones to get car to drive. None of the rental agencies will allow a car on a one way to NY airports.

Go back to United and wait in long line to get hotel voucher for the night and rebooked on flight for Saturday morning. All JFK flights booked, so we book to LGA.

Go down to baggage at 4 pm, no luggage. Go to Luggage desk for assistance. Repeat this last two sentences 4 times. Luggage finally shows up at 8:30 pm, more than 6 hours after first request.

Get to hotel at 9:30 and have room service and go to bed.

The measure of service is not in how a company and its employees handle regular events but in how they handle unusual ones. United has no clue on this.

PS. One couple on the same cancelled JFK morning flight had a connection in the afternnon at JFK to China. They had informed every United agent and help desk person of their situation during the morning but United did nothing for them and so they flew back to their home.

Have been flying British Airways the last year on all of my overseas flights. BS like what you went through are the reason why...

All of my overseas is BA and left United/Us Air behind for Continental. While not perfect Continental has been much better at the unusual

All of us frequent flyers feel for you. Air travel sucks. But Air Canada - as much as I cuss them - do a pretty good job of getting me there & getting me home on time or a reasonable facsimile. Only 3 or 4 times have I been left somewhere & it was always due to weather, blackouts etc.

Ian

I switched years ago from American to United at the insistence of the company I worked for. I have regretted every minute of it. United has got to be the most clueless, inconsiderate airline I've ever flown. I've got well over a million miles in various airlines under my belt so I've run the gamut.

You're absolutely right about the true test being when things go wrong, and this is where United falls flat on their proverbial face. I feel your pain.

Oh dear, I am leaving Monday on United for Dulles. Yippee-skippy.
Hope my flight is not as bad as yours!

Actually had really good luck with United. 90,000 miles on them in the last two years. Lost my luggage once. Took a voluntary bump once (and got a free round trip ticket).

The situation that occured to you and the other passengers that day is completely unacceptable and their response was woefully inadequate. angela

It really hurts seeing their performance these days. My Father was with UAL until the late 70's (he started with Penn. Central which then became Capital (he was in Viscounts & Connies) then UAL with the merger in '62). IMHO, UAL lost it's soul in the 80's, and I'm sort of glad he's not around to see what became of one of the great old airlines.

You dont know how many times a DAY, ive seen people miss overseas connections due to our incoming flights being late. To be fair, most of it is weather or ATC related though. Its tough say "we hope to make it to ATL in time for your connections" when we know that good and well it probably aint gonna happen.

I go out of my way to NOT connect in ATL, IAD or ORD.

Ian

Last 2 international flights were with BA and Quantas. Excellent every step of the way.

EWR (newark) was bad on Friday. I had a 1035 am back to Denver and we sat on the ground for over an hour after we had boarded the plane.

I have had horrible experiences with American, Delta and NW, but am a Premeir Executive on United (as DIA is a hub).

Bill

I'm sorry to hear about the flight from hell, but I had to call my daughter and read it to her. First, my daughter is now a former flight attendent for Mesa Airlines. Mesa flies United contract flights on the regional jets. Short version is, that was her life. Can't tell you how many times she flew that Charlotte, IAD, JFK route. Her first comment was...oh, Charlotte...the place where the mechanics are always late. Ah, JFK...the UAL jumping off point for Asia. She had a comment about the 3rd world types, summer, and no deoderant...I'll leave it there.

It was fun for her for a year, but she's been happy to move on.

Seems I'm always on a plane heading to/from IAD. :( I am a regular on America West...err...US Airways. By far my worst experiences flying have been on Delta and United. The flight attendents are the worst in the air. Incredibly indifferent to your needs/concerns. My boss forced me on a United flight to Japan early this year - LAX to NRT on a really old 747 with malfunctioning single video screen and 50 year old attendents with bad hair dye yelling "beef or fish?". I got to experience the joy of Singapore Air on my next Asia trip - I can't recommend them high enough. Funny thing is my Sing air flight was nearly $700 CHEAPER than UAL.

Ugh....UAL stinks, AA too.

Internationals are the same though... for example, I flew Swiss Air in Europe earlier this month and loved the little chocolates that they give you...

BUT when they backed the plane out they ran it into a catering truck and it damaged the wing! The whole tip of the Airbus 320 was bent and they didnt know what to do... pilot was freaking out!

So I got off the plane after 2 hours of wait to go on top of my 24 hour + of flying....and got a hotel room North of Zurich.

This week, I have to fly up to Seattle on Alaska Air.

I hope they are sure to Lube the horizontal stabilizer! :(

I know what you mean. I worked for Pan Am in 69-70 as co-op engineer and did a stint with pax service at JFK. Flying was completely different before deregulation, not that there aren't benefits with it, but I am not so sure it did not go too far.

Oh, Friday on the trip to LGA from IAD, they took the strap off my hard sided golf club case. Put a new one on and the on the flight yesterday from JFK to JAX, they took it off again. I asked the rep and she said they always take them off because they can interfere with the luggage conveyors. Thanks for telling me that after the fact.

I will pay 100's more NOT to fly UAL - As far as I am concerned they deserve to go the Eastern Air route...

I stopped flying United after I had a rather disturbing encounter with them at DCA. I had changed my flight and was apparently booked on a flight that was a code share (the travel agent didn't mention this and bears about half the blame for my hassles). I tried checking at the machine and was told to stand in line. I look over and see two people ahead of me one was being taken care of. There were seperate lines for first class and for advanced ticket purchases that were equally short. The lady at the counter had some really compilcated issue that took a long time to resolve. The guy in front of my get taken care of and then the agent behind the counter leaves! I mean leaves and doesn't come back. Its like I was invisible. The guy at first class ignores me and the lady for advanced tickets ignores my. A wait for a little while more and no one shows up. I have waited like 45 minutes at this point. What would have been a nice easy time getting through the lines bcame a nightmare. I finally imposed on the lady selling advanced tickets and she tells me "we don't fly there". I ask her to look at my ticket and she starts yelling at me. What a BI*CH. The thing that strikes me though is the fact that everyone at that united counter had a chip on their shoulder. I never said or did anything to set them off. All I can say, is there is a real problem there at DCA and probably across the airline. I did just manage to make my flight. The USAIR folks who had the code share were great about getting me through the line.

As I said, that was the last flight I ever took with United, and I plan to avoid them.

Air France, after 2 grueling sessions verifying my bags had been transferred from Continenal in Paris, did not ship my bag to Romania. When I arrived and no bag, the baggage people informed me, "OH, it's still in Paris." So, I'll have it next flight. "No, it will not be sent until 2PM tomorrow."

So, I had client meetings today in clothes I've been wearing for almost 3 days...

UAL: I went to a gate agent once and asked for help. Her response, a terse: "I'm busy. Come back later." Hate UAL. No. Loath UAL.

Continental: usually very very good. Lost a bag 2 weeks ago (really TSA forgot to release it). It contained 2 firearms plus 40 rounds ammo. The first agent was just going to fill out a "lost bag" report. I told her she wasn't taking the situation seriously. She huffed and sent me to a supervisor. He really took it seriously and found my bag (still in Oklahoma) before I made it to my car.

American Airlines - screwed me F
Delta - raped me F-
United - screwed me F
Continental - managed to leave me only mildly upset D
Jet Blue - seems to understand the 'paying customer' concept. B+
British Air - God, these people rock. The best line ever "Sorry sir, but you won't be able to go with your friends on this flight because we overbooked coach. We're going to have to bump you to business-class." Friendly Flight Attendants, good food, the whole package. A+

Two weeks ago I had a flight booked from Orange county (john wayne) to Oakland. The flight was supposed to leave at around 1:30 pm. I got to the airport at 11:30 thinking it's a small place, not that busy, should be plenty of time.
Pulled into the first parking lot, all 4 levels were full. I pulled out and told the gate attendant the lot was full, he saId it's been that way all day. why didn't they put out a sign? 15 minutes lost.

I Found another lot, parked and headed to check in. Tried the self serve check-in BS at American Airlines. The machine didn't recognize me. They said "you need to stand in that long line to talk to a person". Arggghhh.
30 minutes later I talk to a person. she says "you are booked on Alaskan Airlines, not American". My reservation says american.
no, that flight is subcontracted to alaskan airlines. AAAAARRRGGGGHHHH.
I walk to the alaskan airlines counter and try the self serve. no dice.
I stand in the long line. These airlines have three people working at the self-serve counter (but they won't really help) and ONE person working at the real ticket counter.
20 minutes later, she says OK, everything is done but you better hurry. Uh oh, that bag is too big for carry on, you will have to check it. no kidding, that's why I put it up on that little shelf so you could check it in.

Nope, baggage check in is already closed for that flight. You can make the flight but your baggage will not go until the next flight that leaves in 4 hours. I say "that fligth isn't going to depart for another 35 minutes. surely we can get someone to throw thing one bag on the plane.
Nope, it's too late. You can go but not your bag.
Now that wouldn't do me much good, so I ask if I can get on the next flight with my bag.
Sure, no problem.
She hands me my boarding pass for the flight that will be leaving in over 4 hours and says, Oh by the way you are on stand-by. I almost explode.
fast forward, I get on stand-by, and get to Oakland 4 hours later than I should have and go to baggage claim area. My bag did not come out of the chute. I ask about it, they say "oh, your bag got here 4 HOURS AGO!"
now it's late at night, I'm driving a rental car that is unfamiliar, I'm driving on freeways that are not familiar, I can't read the map, I'm going on memory of the 4 different freeways and five cities I have to go through to get to the Hilton in Concord.
On the way home I get to the airport (oakland) over 3 hours before the flight leaves, no chances here. I check in, he hands me a boarding pass for a flight that is leaving in 15 minutes. I say I don't think I will make that, then I look and see the boarding pass does not have my name on it, he handed me someone else's boarding pass. I tell him of the mistake and he asks "are you sure?" I felt like saying, no lets go check with security and see if they can tell I have someone else's boarding pass. I bet they'll get a big kick out of it as they strip search me.

So I get my boarding pass for a flight that is still 2 1/2 hours away.
Yep, the flight was 2 hours late. I got home after midnight and had to be at work 6 hours later.

Next time I will rent a car and drive, it'll be faster and less stressful.
F-the airlines.
I understand exactly why people get pissed off and do stupid things on airplanes, it's because they are so stressed out by the stupidity around them.
I can think of no industry that is so screwed up and unorganized. Freaking McDonalds is better run than the airlines. No wonder they are loosing money.