United Airlines sucks
Jul 2nd, 2006 by Leimamo
I don’t know what happened to United Airlines but my son had such a horrible experience with them. First of all, his flight out of Boston was delayed for 2 hours because of mechanical problems which then causes them to miss their connecting flight in Denver so they finally arrive in Seattle 4 hours late. He’s frustrated and tired because they’ve all been awake since 3:00 that morning. Luckily, we were there to meet them just as they were arriving the baggage claim area so they didn’t have to wait any more that day.
On the return flight to Boston, they stopped off at Denver to meet their connecting flight and it was CANCELED!!! Everyone from that flight was lined up at the Customer Service desk and by the time my son got to the counter (6 hours later) all other available flights to Boston was booked solid. They told him he wouldn’t be on a flight until Tuesday and this was on Thursday. His luggage was already on the way to Boston on one of the earlier flights so they were without change of clothing for themselves and the kids. The next option was for him to fly to Vegas for two days then catch a flight to DC where he could connect to Boston. Since his girlfriend’s parents were in Vegas, they decided to go there and stay with her parents for the two days before flying home.
Well, Saturday rolls around and they leave Vegas but then the flight from DC to Boston gets canceled so they’re stuck there overnight but the airlines put them up in a hotel. By the time they returned to Boston, his girlfriend had already missed a day of work and the poor kids were so tired, my cousin said they were cross-eyed.
I don’t know what happened to United, it used to be so good and I never had any problems with them. I just don’t think I’ll be willing to go through this sort of headaches so I’ll just have to look into other airlines with a better track record. I’ll also need to find another mileage points program.
Found this site via google under “united airline sucks”.
Thank you for sharing your story, relieves me I’m not alone in my frustration. It was my first and last time flying with this horrific airline despite it being recommended by two seasoned travelling friends.
Have you considered to go to complaints.com?
Was told my purse is considered extra baggage and it will cost an extra $80 to check it in which I tought was ridiculous. By the time I repacked my luggage missed my flight. Curbside checkin ended up being curbside deterent, no one was helpful at all, these guys are just staring or ignoring me while my luggage in disarray. No availability on standby, informed to go to customer service. Waited approximately 2-3 hours for customer service along with 40+ people with only 4 people at the desk. Was told I can fly on standby the very next morning. Next day at OHare (AKA ORDeal) was informed I couldn’t fly at all and no refund because the ticket was only for the previous day. Called my friend who bought my ticket because it was her present and the bitchy supervisor wouldn’t speak to her over the phone. Got really frustrated and tried to tell her what the customer service woman told me the previous night but she wouldn’t listen whatsoever and called the cops over.
Lost a lot of money, alas another friend accidentally booked me with United via Pricewatch in order for me to fly out.
So stressed out about the situation, decided to pay more money to go with another airline on the return trip.
A simple 2 hour flight turned into a 2 day nightmare this year.
Lou Ella,
I’m sorry to hear about your ordeal, I guess we’re not alone as other people have similar horror stories to tell. I haven’t thought about going to that site but I’ll have my son look into it. Thanks for dropping by and sharing your story.
Sorry to hear about your troubles with United Air Lines. If it makes you any happier, please take a look at how United Air Lines stole nearly $3000 from my parents. http://evilunitedairlines.blogspot.com/
need to share how bad our very first experience was with united. flight out of brussels 6th of jan 2007 to Dulles Washington. Delay, missed connection to indianapolis, waiting list, next plane full. waited for nothing. should not have been a disaster wouldn’t it be that my wife was travelling alone with 4 (four) kids (7-5-3-9 months) and received NO assistance whatsoever. At teh time we speak ( 30 hours after the 5 left Brussels) I hope that they finally got a connection to bring them to Indianapolis. no sleep, some tears and a lot of shouting… A weekend that was supposed to be fun, turned out to be a 40 hours unpleasant experience with united resulting in unexpected additional costs… i’ll resume flying with the more expensive continental…
[…] So anyway, I’ve been periodically checking this site for new comments and clearing out all the spam that’s been waiting in moderation and I happened to notice that my rant about how United Airline Sucks has been getting comments from others who have experienced the same sort of headaches and mistreatment from the airline staff. […]
My wife and I were flying back from my Fathers funeral. We left for the Airport at 3:00 AM for a flight that left Palm Springs at 6:15 AM. The flight left on time and arrived early in Denver. As we got off the plane we found that our fight was cancel due to snow and ice in San Antonio, Texas. Well I have flown a lot in my days and under stand the flow being canceled, No problem I thought, and went to Customer Service to find my new flight number. To find out United (Sky West) did not try to rebook me or even put me on a standby list. The agents at the counter we all rude, uncaring and did not even try to help find any other option that putting you on the standby list. All they would say is all fights today and tomorrow are FULL. So I was then put on the standby list for the next flight the 8:45 AM leaving at 12:50PM, we did not make it. But we were number 4 and 5 on the standby list that United would roll over to the next flight that was leaving at 1:45 PM. We went right to the Gate and waited. When I checked the standby list I found I was now 24 and 25 on the list. On the next flight we were 43 44 on the standby list. You see, United puts all Frequent Flyer before everyone else then the highest value ticket and then us. I then went back to (NON) Customer Service and requested a supervisor. She was very polite and caring and while talking with her the counter agent found 2 seats (together) on the 6:45 flight. Why did they not do that before? The other three people above us on the standby we told (By Me) to raise hell at Customer Service and speak to a manager. They were on the 6:45 Flight too.
The Real Good Airlines (Southwest) give the priority to connecting passengers and passengers already on the list from earlier flights then first come first served.
I had to spend two days in Chicago because United overbooked my connection flight, and they did not even apologize for that. I used to fly United a lot, now I travel domestic using Jet blue and hoping to switch to other carrier for my international trips. United really socks.
I normally choose Southwest Airlines for travel
because I generally know what I’m buying. For an
unknown reason SW has quit booking reservations from Tulsa to Boise although the flights are still available.
So I chose to book with United instead. What a nightmare! I have never dealt with so many
apathetic individuals in one company in my life. Overbooking is standard operating procedure at United.
They oversold my flight, bumped me, stranded me in Denver, let 7 planes to my destination take off without me, a gate agent actually walked away when I asked if I was getting on the 6th flight and when she returned 10 minutes later told me she had already answered my question when she had said “I just got here” then walked away again.
They’re ignoring my emails requesting compensation for UAL deliberately selling
my reserved seat to someone else. At one point I was 45th on the standby list for three days worth of overbooked flights and there were people lower on the list (they actually booked me a seat after my return flights on United).
I did everything I was supposed to: reserved my seat, paid, got to airport and gate on time, yet UAL ignores all that and flies me when they want to and strands me for 27 hours in a place where a sticky bun costs $4.00 and a Coke $2.50, all the while carrying my 40 pounds of luggage, ’cause you can’t set it down or the Homeland Security agent comes.
When I got to Boise, I saw another scowling face and asked if he’d flown United. He said “of course”. Never fly United.
Attitude is indicitive of why UAL is such a sorry
airline. I’ve seen minimum wage workers in convenience stores worth more than most of UAL’s employees combined.
For 10 bucks I bought a domain name and will be building my own “wish I’d had a better time” on United website. I didn’t think to take pictures of the 400 people in the customer service line in Denver and I’m looking for story contributions as well as pictures, cartoons, whatever… http://unitedairsucks.com/
I have been in the airline industry for 24 years and have NEVER experienced the nasty, unprofessional, abusive treatment from an airline until I flew United. NEVER again, I’ll walk before flying them. Its amazing there are so many horror stories about this peice of crap airline!!!! They need to shut it down or let it die in bankruptcy!
My advice to everyone - STAY AWAY FROM THIS AIRLINE AT ALL COSTS!!!!!