United nightmare
I haven't enjoyed flying for years, but this trip was by far the worst I've
been through. The culprit? United. The trip from Orlando to Colorado was uneventful
(and I have to say that the Orlando airport is the quickest and most efficient
airport I've been through). But the return trip was something else. Since I
was relying on group transportation from the event I was attending, I arrived
at the Denver airport four hours before my flight. Luckily, I had a couple drinks
at the bar....I didn't know it then, but I would be needing them! At the gate,
I was 'involuntarily bumped', along with 11 others-no explanations, no apologies
from the gate clerk with a bad attitude--just a "go to the service desk
and they will refund your ticket or give you a free one-way". I didn't
want a free ticket....I just wanted to get home after a long business weekend!
After hiking to the other end of the United terminal, there was a line of 30
people at the service counter! I figure that the long wait (30 minutes) is designed
to calm you down....however, it didn't really work that way with me. When I
got to the counter, I was told that the next available flight was almost two
days later--even though there are at least 12 flights from Denver to Orlando
every day. At one point I told the clerk I was going to stand at the counter
until they found a way to get me home!! I also asked why I was bumped. It turns
out that it depends on how much you pay for your ticket. Those of us that buy
our tickets early and get a good price are more likely to get bumped than those
who buy them at the last minute. After an hour of trying all kinds of flight
combinations they finally found a way to Orlando--via an overnight in Chicago.
They did put me up in the Hilton, but since my bag was already in Orlando, it
wasn't my idea of a good time. When I checked into the hotel at Chicago, the
desk clerk told me that he had customers that told him it was the fourth or
fifth time that United had 'involuntarily bumped' them! And my flight in the
morning seemed to show this is a systemic problem. They were again asking for
people to volunteer to take a later flight, the standby list was 72 people long
(!!), and they ended up involuntarily bumping people from that flight also!
I am not going to be flying United for awhile--they are undergoing serious problems....I'll
wait for them to get it sorted out.
Then I get home and that evening the lines outside are hit by lightning, taking
out one of my phone lines, my computer and my TED (a real time electric usage
moniter). (sigh!) What a week.
10:53:47 PM 
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