If Traveling To Or From Pennsylvania – Don’t Fly United Airlines

This incident with United happened in July of 2009. I will never fly with United Airlines again!

Why? Because I sent my letter of dissatisfaction to them and expected some type of an apology. What did I get? Nothing.

I’ve waited long enough. Out it goes, for all of cyberspace to have.

Do yourselves a favor. Avoid United Airlines.

How badly does United Airlines suck? Let me tell you.

As my students who have purchased and followed my Internet website course, HomeIncome30 know, I travel during the summer. This year my final destination was Las Vegas, before returning home to Pennsylvania.

This article does not relate to the great time I had fishing mountain streams for trout, the camping, the hiking, or even the Vegas nightlife. I had planned on sharing some photos and success stories of the 37 purchasers who met me in Vegas for a great lunch at the MGM Grand and those who joined me later that night for an evening of 5-card stud poker at the Sunset Station Casino.

Sadly, it has to do with the nightmare of returning home via United Airlines ( or as they are commonly referred to by other airlines, “Untied Airlines”).

I have never used the strength of my 100+ websites, plus my forums and blogs, or my knowledge of the Internet to slam a major company, but if my doing so saves even one person the aggravation of having to deal with an airline that cares little about its’ customers, then my own aggravation and time spent warning others will be time well spent and aggravation worth sharing.

Allow me the opportunity to vent – and prevent all of you from having a similar experience I just completed only hours ago.

Normally, I try to fly Southwest Airlines. This time however, a flight home from Las Vegas with SW was unavailable for the day I planned to return. Searching the Internet I found a reasonable fare with United Airlines. I thought to myself, How bad can flying with them be? The stories I read about their service can’t be that awful.

I was wrong. So wrong, in fact, I vowed that I would write this article as soon as I was at my home computer.

July 19, 2009, 8:50PM.

I enter McCarren International Airport, check in one bag and get my boarding pass from the ticket agent at the main counter. My first clue at their ineptitude should have been the attempt to charge me $20 for the bag. Having purchased the tickets in advance, the charge was only $15, which I had to point out to the ticket agent. I received no instructions on how to proceed to the gate, or even when the plane would be boarding. I navigate through the security check and arrive at United Airlines Gate D55 for Flight #327 to Wash/Dulles (where I am to catch my connecting flight) carrying an online printout that stated the flight was departing at 10:35PM.

I am early to the gate, having quickly passed through security. The time is 9:25PM. I decide to get a cup of coffee and take a seat at a table approximately 80 feet from the gate. Between me and the gate are a row of slot machines, which obstruct my view of the gate, but well within earshot of the loud speaker system, from which I can easily hear announcements from the ‘D’ gates, which are constantly being broadcast. Believing the plane will board 10 minutes before scheduled takeoff, I arrive back at the gate at 9:14PM. I hand my boarding pass to the Asian female agent at the gate and the conversation goes like this:

Me: Will the plane be boarding soon?

UA Agent: Are you Mister Des? (Spoken in an accent which totally butchers the easy pronunciation of “DEES”.)

Me: Yes

UA Agent: You just get here?

Me: No, I’ve been at the table across the way since 9:30.

UA Agent: We call you many tems. The plane has left.

Now, I can see through the window a plane outside, still connected to the ramp. It hasn’t left and it isn’t disconnected. The ramp agent next to her simply has to let them know I was there.

Me: Is that the plane? (indicating the one I see outside, knowing full well it is).

UA Agent: The door is close. It can’t be open agin.

Now, I know this is bullshit. I’ve seen Southwest reopen doors to get a passenger on, but I’m not going to make a scene. Instead I ask why they closed the doors early and honestly don’t believe they called for me. Many things are running through my mind. Did I hear “Des” and ignore it, thinking it wasn’t me? But, I certainly would have heard the final boarding call for Flight 327 to Washington/Dulles if it was made. Why in the hell would they leave early?

It’s then I notice the other ramp agent (also an Asian woman who can’t speak English without butchering it) making an announcement. It is barely audible and I’m at the counter.

I’m informed the flight was rescheduled to leave at 9:21.

I ask why their announcements aren’t being broadcast on the same speaker system as the other gates, as it is barely being heard at the counter, whereas others are heard throughout the ‘D’ Concourse.

She tells me because it isn’t working.

I find out later that it was working. Asking questions at another United gate, there are actually two options for the speaker system. One broadcasts throughout the area, the other only broadcasts at the gate itself. This idiot either didn’t know how to use the full system, or didn’t bother to use it. There was nothing wrong with the speaker system.

It is now 10:30. It is only now that the ramp is removed and the plane departs. I spent 16 minutes at a counter with two idiots who could have gotten me on my flight with only a minimum of effort on their part.

The worst of it was the attitude. Straight faced and unsympathetic. Not one person I dealt with even offered an “I’m sorry.” I felt like I was bothering them. I’m now told to wait and see if I can get on the next flight (to Chicago this time) as a stand-by. A flight they knew was overbooked and I wasn’t going to get on.

So, I spend another hour to be turned away again.

I ask a supervisor if I can’t just take the same flight the following night. I would get a decent nights sleep and that same itinerary is wide open. In fact there are plenty of seats available.

Sure, I can, I’m told. It will only cost me $150 to rebook for that flight.

Instead of making something right and waiving the $150 fee, they want to suck another $150 out of me. If I don’t pay I’m forced to show up as a standby on following flights.

Well, I’m a hard head and not about to reward United for hiring dumb-asses who don’t give a crap about customer service.

I go standby. I get out at 8:15AM(PST) the following morning. I get to my final destination of Pennsylvania at 7:00PM(EST). United Airlines only saving grace was a stewardess (excuse me, “flight attendant”) on my second leg home. Teresa was the attendant on my flight from Washington/Dulles to Allentown, PA. She made a cramped two-prop hop home an enjoyable experience with her smiles and great attitude on my United Express flight. The rest of United Airlines should take lessons from that woman. It might save United Airlines from bankruptcy, though I doubt that is possible.

I’m pissed off. I’m tired. I’m disgusted with United Airlines, but understand now why it is in financial trouble. Because normally, one unhappy customer usually results in that person telling 10 others.

In my case, I get to post it on the Internet, linking this story to over 100 websites and directly mailing it to thousands of people on my Internet course mailing list, who I now ask to forward it to everyone on their email lists, as well as linking their websites to my report of United Airlines failure to meet any type of customer satisfaction.