I'm back! (aka the biggest rant of the century, super long)

jhunter89

Short version: Never ever ever fly united...ever

Long version: DH, DD and I left last Tuesday for a church conference in So. Illinois (we're from Seattle). We were traveling with some friends and their DD as well. The plan was to fly to San Fran then to St. Louis and on the way back, St. Louis to Chicago to Seattle. We get to the airport and here's where the fun begins...

1. We find out our flight is 30 min delayed, ok, no biggie, we'll be fine

2. We taxi out of the gate, captain comes on, tells us we can't leave for another hour and a half since S.F. is having traffic control issues. Well, crap, we officially will miss our connection >.< but, i'm sure we'll be able to figure it out!

3. Get to S.F. find out our connection was delayed too! But it left 7 minutes before we landed. Go to customer service...our option is to leave that night for Houston, sleep in the airport and get to STL in the morning. Not an option with the babies so we choose option B and will leave the next afternoon and fly direct.

4. Find out that United will pay for absolutely nothing since the delay was not caused by weather...wtf

5. Find out it's pride week in SF so there are NO hotels within 25 miles of the airport. After an hour and a half, we find a room it's some swanky spa hotel, $$$

6. Wait for 6 hours at the bag claim to find out our bags are on the plane set for Houston and they can't take them off. Wave goodbye to our bags.

7. Take a $100 taxi ride to the hotel and crash

8. Next day, fly to STL in the same underwear as yesterday. awesome. Our bags are waiting for us (yay!) but DD's carseat is not. It was gate checked and there was some mix up. An hour an a half later they get it to us and we're off to Southern Illinois.

9. Next two days are AWESOME

10. On our way back to STL, our rental van gets a flat tire in the middle of nowhere, we are fortunate enough to find a garage that had stayed open late and patches it for us.

11. Get to the STL airport...bad weather in Chicago means our flight is delayed two and a half hours, we'll miss our connection again. We're stuck overnight again.

12. United decides to actually pay for something this time so we all shlepp off to the hotel. Eat some terrible room service and crash. Up at 4:30am this morning, finally made it home.

The end. Moral of the story, fly direct and never with United.

Here's some ice cream for reading my new novel

 

jhunter89

forgot to add that I left my phone in SF in the cab and DH took his swimming on accident. And the plot thickens

LadyJ2949

Oh my goodness, what a nightmare!! I'm so sorry you had to go through all that! Noted: never fly United.

jhunter89

MarBee1214:

I flew out of SF on saturday and thank goodness we flew early!  My mom flew out later and got stuck in the traffic from pride weekend on the way from Napa to the airport.  I'm not regretting the decision to get up at 2am anymore.

That was smart! SF was unreal this week! 

Cara1024

Yikes that sounds like a crazy trip! and yummmmmm now I want ice cream. I wonder if I could keep that down? It LOOKS good though. 

Clbragg33

I HATE United!! We were set to leave at 5am and when we arrived at the airport nobody was there to help us get checked in didnt even have the do it yourself things open when they decided to open at about 4 they only opened the so it yourself kiosk and we had to rush through security and on to our flight! They also do not seem to care to help EVER they just want to take you to the next person who also doesn't care!

MissRdotS

I have always had the WORST time w united and bc of that haven't used them in years. I can't believe they wouldn't pay for that first nights hotel even though it was their fault!

BuckeyeANG

Omg that sounds miserable.  We had a similar incident with our honeymoon.  Our flight was delayed due to fog, we missed our connection, sat on standby in the airport for like 12 hours, spent $300 on a hotel room we were in for like 6 hours in order to try to make a 6am flight, got bumped from that flight and volunteered to go at 11am (we were given 2 free vouchers and a 1st class upgrade because we "volunteered"..yeah right).  IIRC, United/American wouldn't pay for our hotel because it WAS a weather delay.  Bastards. Truly can't imagine doing that with a baby. What a nightmare. 

SvedkaStoli

I am sorry, the whole experience sounds pretty lame. I flew United once and I learned my lesson. 

KristaBelieve

Oh no!  Sounds horrible!

forevergraceful

I am sorry that you had such a bad experience. That does sound awful.

I do have to play a little bit of devil's advocate here. I do not know of any American carrier that will provide hotels, vouchers, or compensation for any delay or cancellation due to weather. Although it may seem unfair, weather is out of the airline's control. 

AmberC1010

I'm not a frequent flyer by any means, but I've yet to have a good experience with SF. Even when not traveling through, it seems like they are always behind...waiting in another city for delayed connecting flight from SF, for example. Sounds like you survived an eventful trip!

adunkin

AmberC1010:

I'm not a frequent flyer by any means, but I've yet to have a good experience with SF. Even when not traveling through, it seems like they are always behind...waiting in another city for delayed connecting flight from SF, for example. Sounds like you survived an eventful trip!

This is so true. I lived in SF. Between DH and I, one of us flew in and out every week. It was a rare day when any airline was on time. Always delays getting off the ground and trying to land in SF. But then Chicago (I also lived here for several years) is always a risky choice too between snow and thunderstorms.

Travel is awesome - but when it goes wrong, it seems to always go so so wrong!

baby2ra

That is so horrible! Traveling with kids is hard enough without all of the extra drama. I have had issues with United in the past and won't use them again. Glad you are home and safe!

yogi1012

I think that this has more to do with the airports than the airline. I am a language teacher and we had a group of 45 students, parents and grandparents go to china in April. The connection was in Chicago. The flight got delayed heading to chicago due to storms, so they missed the connection. Not fun for teachers dealing with finding rooms and food formal these people! We just booked flights to Puerto Rico, and I couldn't find direct. We did get on a direct flight with stops, meaning we don't have to get off the plane. This assures us of not missing the connection!

WinsyWade

OH my goodness!  That sounds horrible.  I'm so sorry. 

My SIL and BIL (Dh's brother) have terrible luck with planes and flying.  The have a 1 year old baby too.  They always end up with delays.  They live in NY and recently just gave up on flying and choose to drive instead when they visit us in IL.  I want to say they usually chose United too.