No I Will Not Fly United!
Early this Thursday Lindsay and I left my home to fly to the lovely town of St. Louis. This flight was a two parter half to Denver and the other to St. Louis. Our transfer time was about 20 minutes from the time our plane let the first of its passengers out to the time our next plain departed. As it would turn out, Lindsay and I would come to know Denver’s airport rather well over the next eight hours. The day went like this, we missed out transfer by minutes, as we needed to walk about 40 terminals. Two hours later (12:15 Denver Time), we then were standby but didn’t make it as there was only one seat available. We then got seats for a flight out at three but that flight was then delayed another three hours. Flash forward to the present and we am FINALLY sitting on an airplane headed towards St. Louis. I would go into more detail but it would likely only aggravate me more so I will leave it at that, however, let me say this. There was a point when this whole situation could have been made a bit easier with some simple customer service. I say this because I understand and ultimately take responsibility for not making our transfer. I also understand that the nature of standby is not a guarantee. The kicker is, when the United airlines system has a problem I don’t think that the burden of responsibility then changes hands. With that I mean this. There are times when extenuating circumstances warrant special care. In the case of Lindsay and I we are flying to St. Louis for my Grandfathers funeral. We then missed our transfer and couldn’t grab a standby spot. So at what point in time do does a company like United say to themselves “these two really need to get to St. Louis now”. Well, apparently they don’t and given our situation I think they could have been more accommodating. That is all I have to say about the issue.
::Update:: On our way back through Denver our plane broke, apparently the baggage hull couldn’t seal properly. They told us they were going to fix it in an hour and a half only to find out they didn’t have a replacement seal for a 757. They then told us it would be two hours before another plane would arrive that we could use. Another great Denver experience that adds up to a total of 12 hours in delays over the course of four days at the same damn airport. All of this has taught me a few things:
1. DO NOT FLY THROUGH DENVER
2. DO NOT FLY UNITED
3. DO NOT FLY UNITED THROUGH DENVER (that one is probably the most important)
June 18th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
I had a bad experience flying United out of Denver a number of years ago. We showed up at the airport and then found out our flight was canceled. They let us use the phone to call our families and then gave us $5 to buy food at the airport while we waited 7 hours for the next flight.
I recently had a good experience though flying out of San Jose. Our US Air flight was delayed enough that we were going to miss our connecting flight. US Airways paid for us to take a direct flight on jetBlue. They were really nice about it, and we ended up with a better flight and got to our destination earlier than we would have on our original flight. Plus, we really liked jetBlue. They have more legroom, better service and friendlier people. We have taken a few flights with them since and they have all been good experiences.
June 25th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
Yeah I haven’t had any problems flying out of SJ but God help me I am NEVER United through Denver EVER!
December 26th, 2007 at 2:28 am
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