pods8
Contributors
Our worst travel experience; Courtesy of United Airlines (guest appearances by TSA)
Travelers :
Me: (husband/dad)
(wife/mom - 4.5mo pregnant)
(son – 1yr old infant in arms)
Before our Journey started my wife and I were leery flying through Chicago (ORD) due to what seems to be constant issues with that airport. Whether it is only weather or the ability of the airlines that use that as a hub to adapt to weather challenges I don’t know (I suspect some of the latter). All I know is we’ve not had good experiences (a theme echoed by fellow travelers we spent a lot of down time talking to on this trip) and after this trip will definitely avoid it in the future.
Our journey started on Tuesday May 24th, with a redeye flight scheduled to leave Seattle, WA (SEA) approximately 11:30pm PDT connecting through Chicago, IL (ORD) to Saginaw, MI (MBS) arriving around 8am EDT on Wednesday May 25th. Upon arriving to SEA a little before 10pm PDT we tried to check our luggage and were informed the inbound plane we would be taking to ORD was already late and we would be missing our MBS connection in the morning. Various rebooking options were explored but in the end continuing along to ORD with and extra connection through DTW prior to MBS, through Delta, appeared to be our only option of getting ourselves to MBS closest to our scheduled arrival. The agent although friendly was having issues rebooking things and this process took close to 1hr. In the end we were issued PAPER TICKETS for some reason, I unknowingly didn’t realize this would be an issue that would plague us for the remainder of the trip. We flew to ORD around 12:30am PDT on Wednesday May 25th.
Upon arriving in ORD around 6:30am EDT we saw our DTW connection was already canceled. I proceeded to the United customer service to inquire what next, however I was greeted by a couple hundred people standing in line for 2 agents. I then called to 1-800-UNITED-1 to see if I could find out if I was rebooked on something automatically. The automated messages inquired if I was calling about a trip on May 25th through Minneapolis (MSP) so it appeared we had been rebooked but I had no idea what flight. I proceeded to be placed on hold for 40minutes before the system just dropped my call! [This is a good time to point out that other airlines that care about their customers have a system in place in which you can opt for an automatic call back when your position in que comes up rather than sit waiting on hold. This would be very helpful while sitting in an airport with carry on luggage, diaper bag, car seat, and a 1 year old child that you have to move around/feed/change along with taking care of your own bathroom/food needs. Instead, you are stuck with your ear glued to a phone the whole time…] I then proceeded to call customer service back, being placed on hold of course, and got into the now somewhat shorter customer service line. Along the way my wife had to abandon our carry on luggage to be able to go with our son to the bathroom since I was stuck in line and couldn’t carry it all with me while I had a phone to my head. After 35min I finally connected with a customer service agent who was obviously in an India call center (and all the other agents for the remainder of the trip I spoke to were). This agent wasn’t making very logical progress in terms of trying to rebook our flight and I was finally to the front of the customer service line so I terminated the call to work with the customer service agent in person. This agent was fine to work with and rebooked us on a 1pm flight to Lansing (LAN) as we’d told him MBS, FNT, DTW, or LAN would all work at this point, just to get out of ORD.
We debated whether we should sit around for hours for this flight or just drive the 5-6hrs to MBS. We left security to inquire about one way car rentals and were informed it would be ~$200. Although there was risk of the LAN flight being cancelled, the weather looked like it cleared up so we decided to sit it out since we were all tired and needed some food badly. At that point we noticed we only had “boarding management cards” and could not get back through security. We were in Terminal 2 and tried to use the computer to print out new passes but since everything was so screwed up it told us we needed to speak to an agent… Since there were no agents in Terminal 2 outside of security we had to take the train over to Terminal 1. We were greeted by what appeared to be over 1,000 people in line for United ticketing! We spoke to an information person about just needing a boarding pass copy printed out and luckily they arranged to get us a copy so we didn’t have to get into that torturous line. We made it back into security and began our wait for the 1pm LAN flight while calling to make arrangements for someone to drive from MBS to LAN to get us. Around 11:30am an announcement was made our LAN flight was canceled. We canceled the arrangements we had made for getting from LAN to MBS and I didn’t bother trying to call customer service this time and instead stood in the customer service line for 40min. This agent was quite apathetic and acted quite irritated at me, wanting to know why I wasn’t talking to Delta instead (since we were rebooked with them on an earlier flight but had since been rebooked with United) and why I had paper tickets, etc. In the end she dismissively shoved some printouts at me without saying a word about them. I asked if we had seats on this next flight at 5pm to MBS and was told yes (we didn’t). We again debated about just driving but again foolishly thought United would have their act together as it was rather clear out now and even if other airports were having issues they would be able to pull some planes together that couldn’t flight to those routes and get some of their stranded passengers out the door.
So we began to wait for our 5pm MBS flight (along with a group we would be spending some time gate hopping with over the next several hours). Along the way I spoke with the gate agent about making sure we had seats assigned and we did not, over time they worked on it and eventually we were given seats after a couple hours of nervously waiting. The 5pm flight was delayed back numerous times and also changed the gate twice. There was never an announcement to the group of us waiting we would just happen to notice the change on the main departure boards while going to the bathroom, etc. and inform the rest of the group who would all pick up and move. Around 7:30pm we were all waiting for the MBS flight now delayed until 8:30pm when numerous cell phones began to ring. This call instructed us our flights were cancelled and we’d be rebooked in the morning.
So after sitting in an airport for 13hrs with a 1yr old we were told by an automated message we were “**** out of luck” until the morning. We were down to our last diaper and last bottle of formula at this point, there was no way we could continue to sit in the airport. Rather than take a taxi for supplies and book a hotel room at this point to possibly endure the same fate the following day we at this point opted to rent a car and proceeded to drive to MBS where we arrived at ~3:30am EDT on Thursday May 26th (over 26hrs from our arrival at SEA). We hit a 24hr store for diapers/supplies since the carry on supply was exhausted and no one was at MBS to check on and/or retrieve our bags if they were there. The next morning we confirmed that our bags left ORD to DTW around 5pm and then onto MBS the evening prior on Delta flights (this flight option was never presented to us during the 13hrs we sat waiting at ORD).
We’d lost an entire day on our trip and were now quite hurried/tired the remainder of the weekend as we were traveling to my sister’s wedding in which I was standing in. We prepared on Sunday May 29th to fly home from MBS at 3:30pm. Around 1pm on the way to the airport I received a call that our flight was cancelled and rebooked for the morning. We then opted to run some errands before checking on the rebooked flights since we weren’t leaving till the next morning. At 2:50pm when I checked online I saw we were now rebooked for 3:50pm out of MBS, which was in conflict with the direction the automated message had provided. As there was not enough time to make it to the airport I then had to call 1-800-UNITED-1 again and be subjected to being stuck on the phone with horrible hold music that still haunted me from the days prior. After 20min I was connected however while this agent was transferring my call for something I was dropped. I called back and again had to sit on hold for 20min until another agent picked up. I informed this agent named “Ronald” (he would not provide a last name or any other identifying information) I wanted an option to call back without the wait time in case I was dropped again. He refused and promised it would not be an issue. However he needed to place me on hold to work an issue out and our call was dropped AGAIN! I called back and was on hold for 25min this time, I angrily informed this third agent of what I had just endured and requested a direct number to call. She refused but requested my call back number. I provided the land line I was on and my cell phone. She stated they had that cell phone on file… but when questioned did not have an answer why the first agent who dropped me 45min ago or “Ronald” who had dropped me 25min ago had not bothered to call me back. Eventually we were rebooked on a Delta flight at 7am out of MBS and were told everything was taken care of…
At 5:30am on Monday May 30th we tried to check in at the Delta counter at MBS for our 7am flight and a problem surfaced. United’s India folks had booked us improperly due to the paper ticket issue brought on us by the Seattle United agents and Delta could not issue our boarding passes without it. However the Delta agents treated us like humans and worked hard on the issue. They spoke with United’s India folks who said we’d have to wait for a local United person to arrive on site (not until 6:30am) and weren’t phased when the Delta agent informed them that would likely mean we would miss the flight and be stranded for another day. Luckily as previously mentioned the Delta agents treated us like human beings and waited at the United counter until 6:30am when the local agent arrived to quickly get us a paper ticket so they could then issue us a boarding pass. In the meantime the gate agents were holding the boarding door open for us. At this point we were finally free of the horrible experience provided by United Airlines and were in the hands of Delta.
However it was now 6:45am and although MBS is a very small airport we still had to cross through security screening. The Delta gate agent was waiting for us after security and the TSA agents were told we were on the 7am flight. At that point they elected to pat down my wife, swab her, our son’s car seat, and go through and swab most items in his diaper/toy bag. The stress of this trip coupled with the possibility of now missing this flight home had my wife in tears while the unphased TSA agents didn’t put one ounce of effort into hurrying. Additionally they searched more items than any other agents had in the half dozen times we’ve gone through security with our son and his supplies.
Luckily the hard working Delta agents continued to hold the boarding door open for us and treated us like human beings and got us back to SEA without issue. We arrived back around 11am PDT on Monday May 30th rather than 7pm PDT Sunday May 29th as when United was scheduled to get us there.
Travelers :
Me: (husband/dad)
(wife/mom - 4.5mo pregnant)
(son – 1yr old infant in arms)
Before our Journey started my wife and I were leery flying through Chicago (ORD) due to what seems to be constant issues with that airport. Whether it is only weather or the ability of the airlines that use that as a hub to adapt to weather challenges I don’t know (I suspect some of the latter). All I know is we’ve not had good experiences (a theme echoed by fellow travelers we spent a lot of down time talking to on this trip) and after this trip will definitely avoid it in the future.
Our journey started on Tuesday May 24th, with a redeye flight scheduled to leave Seattle, WA (SEA) approximately 11:30pm PDT connecting through Chicago, IL (ORD) to Saginaw, MI (MBS) arriving around 8am EDT on Wednesday May 25th. Upon arriving to SEA a little before 10pm PDT we tried to check our luggage and were informed the inbound plane we would be taking to ORD was already late and we would be missing our MBS connection in the morning. Various rebooking options were explored but in the end continuing along to ORD with and extra connection through DTW prior to MBS, through Delta, appeared to be our only option of getting ourselves to MBS closest to our scheduled arrival. The agent although friendly was having issues rebooking things and this process took close to 1hr. In the end we were issued PAPER TICKETS for some reason, I unknowingly didn’t realize this would be an issue that would plague us for the remainder of the trip. We flew to ORD around 12:30am PDT on Wednesday May 25th.
Upon arriving in ORD around 6:30am EDT we saw our DTW connection was already canceled. I proceeded to the United customer service to inquire what next, however I was greeted by a couple hundred people standing in line for 2 agents. I then called to 1-800-UNITED-1 to see if I could find out if I was rebooked on something automatically. The automated messages inquired if I was calling about a trip on May 25th through Minneapolis (MSP) so it appeared we had been rebooked but I had no idea what flight. I proceeded to be placed on hold for 40minutes before the system just dropped my call! [This is a good time to point out that other airlines that care about their customers have a system in place in which you can opt for an automatic call back when your position in que comes up rather than sit waiting on hold. This would be very helpful while sitting in an airport with carry on luggage, diaper bag, car seat, and a 1 year old child that you have to move around/feed/change along with taking care of your own bathroom/food needs. Instead, you are stuck with your ear glued to a phone the whole time…] I then proceeded to call customer service back, being placed on hold of course, and got into the now somewhat shorter customer service line. Along the way my wife had to abandon our carry on luggage to be able to go with our son to the bathroom since I was stuck in line and couldn’t carry it all with me while I had a phone to my head. After 35min I finally connected with a customer service agent who was obviously in an India call center (and all the other agents for the remainder of the trip I spoke to were). This agent wasn’t making very logical progress in terms of trying to rebook our flight and I was finally to the front of the customer service line so I terminated the call to work with the customer service agent in person. This agent was fine to work with and rebooked us on a 1pm flight to Lansing (LAN) as we’d told him MBS, FNT, DTW, or LAN would all work at this point, just to get out of ORD.
We debated whether we should sit around for hours for this flight or just drive the 5-6hrs to MBS. We left security to inquire about one way car rentals and were informed it would be ~$200. Although there was risk of the LAN flight being cancelled, the weather looked like it cleared up so we decided to sit it out since we were all tired and needed some food badly. At that point we noticed we only had “boarding management cards” and could not get back through security. We were in Terminal 2 and tried to use the computer to print out new passes but since everything was so screwed up it told us we needed to speak to an agent… Since there were no agents in Terminal 2 outside of security we had to take the train over to Terminal 1. We were greeted by what appeared to be over 1,000 people in line for United ticketing! We spoke to an information person about just needing a boarding pass copy printed out and luckily they arranged to get us a copy so we didn’t have to get into that torturous line. We made it back into security and began our wait for the 1pm LAN flight while calling to make arrangements for someone to drive from MBS to LAN to get us. Around 11:30am an announcement was made our LAN flight was canceled. We canceled the arrangements we had made for getting from LAN to MBS and I didn’t bother trying to call customer service this time and instead stood in the customer service line for 40min. This agent was quite apathetic and acted quite irritated at me, wanting to know why I wasn’t talking to Delta instead (since we were rebooked with them on an earlier flight but had since been rebooked with United) and why I had paper tickets, etc. In the end she dismissively shoved some printouts at me without saying a word about them. I asked if we had seats on this next flight at 5pm to MBS and was told yes (we didn’t). We again debated about just driving but again foolishly thought United would have their act together as it was rather clear out now and even if other airports were having issues they would be able to pull some planes together that couldn’t flight to those routes and get some of their stranded passengers out the door.
So we began to wait for our 5pm MBS flight (along with a group we would be spending some time gate hopping with over the next several hours). Along the way I spoke with the gate agent about making sure we had seats assigned and we did not, over time they worked on it and eventually we were given seats after a couple hours of nervously waiting. The 5pm flight was delayed back numerous times and also changed the gate twice. There was never an announcement to the group of us waiting we would just happen to notice the change on the main departure boards while going to the bathroom, etc. and inform the rest of the group who would all pick up and move. Around 7:30pm we were all waiting for the MBS flight now delayed until 8:30pm when numerous cell phones began to ring. This call instructed us our flights were cancelled and we’d be rebooked in the morning.
So after sitting in an airport for 13hrs with a 1yr old we were told by an automated message we were “**** out of luck” until the morning. We were down to our last diaper and last bottle of formula at this point, there was no way we could continue to sit in the airport. Rather than take a taxi for supplies and book a hotel room at this point to possibly endure the same fate the following day we at this point opted to rent a car and proceeded to drive to MBS where we arrived at ~3:30am EDT on Thursday May 26th (over 26hrs from our arrival at SEA). We hit a 24hr store for diapers/supplies since the carry on supply was exhausted and no one was at MBS to check on and/or retrieve our bags if they were there. The next morning we confirmed that our bags left ORD to DTW around 5pm and then onto MBS the evening prior on Delta flights (this flight option was never presented to us during the 13hrs we sat waiting at ORD).
We’d lost an entire day on our trip and were now quite hurried/tired the remainder of the weekend as we were traveling to my sister’s wedding in which I was standing in. We prepared on Sunday May 29th to fly home from MBS at 3:30pm. Around 1pm on the way to the airport I received a call that our flight was cancelled and rebooked for the morning. We then opted to run some errands before checking on the rebooked flights since we weren’t leaving till the next morning. At 2:50pm when I checked online I saw we were now rebooked for 3:50pm out of MBS, which was in conflict with the direction the automated message had provided. As there was not enough time to make it to the airport I then had to call 1-800-UNITED-1 again and be subjected to being stuck on the phone with horrible hold music that still haunted me from the days prior. After 20min I was connected however while this agent was transferring my call for something I was dropped. I called back and again had to sit on hold for 20min until another agent picked up. I informed this agent named “Ronald” (he would not provide a last name or any other identifying information) I wanted an option to call back without the wait time in case I was dropped again. He refused and promised it would not be an issue. However he needed to place me on hold to work an issue out and our call was dropped AGAIN! I called back and was on hold for 25min this time, I angrily informed this third agent of what I had just endured and requested a direct number to call. She refused but requested my call back number. I provided the land line I was on and my cell phone. She stated they had that cell phone on file… but when questioned did not have an answer why the first agent who dropped me 45min ago or “Ronald” who had dropped me 25min ago had not bothered to call me back. Eventually we were rebooked on a Delta flight at 7am out of MBS and were told everything was taken care of…
At 5:30am on Monday May 30th we tried to check in at the Delta counter at MBS for our 7am flight and a problem surfaced. United’s India folks had booked us improperly due to the paper ticket issue brought on us by the Seattle United agents and Delta could not issue our boarding passes without it. However the Delta agents treated us like humans and worked hard on the issue. They spoke with United’s India folks who said we’d have to wait for a local United person to arrive on site (not until 6:30am) and weren’t phased when the Delta agent informed them that would likely mean we would miss the flight and be stranded for another day. Luckily as previously mentioned the Delta agents treated us like human beings and waited at the United counter until 6:30am when the local agent arrived to quickly get us a paper ticket so they could then issue us a boarding pass. In the meantime the gate agents were holding the boarding door open for us. At this point we were finally free of the horrible experience provided by United Airlines and were in the hands of Delta.
However it was now 6:45am and although MBS is a very small airport we still had to cross through security screening. The Delta gate agent was waiting for us after security and the TSA agents were told we were on the 7am flight. At that point they elected to pat down my wife, swab her, our son’s car seat, and go through and swab most items in his diaper/toy bag. The stress of this trip coupled with the possibility of now missing this flight home had my wife in tears while the unphased TSA agents didn’t put one ounce of effort into hurrying. Additionally they searched more items than any other agents had in the half dozen times we’ve gone through security with our son and his supplies.
Luckily the hard working Delta agents continued to hold the boarding door open for us and treated us like human beings and got us back to SEA without issue. We arrived back around 11am PDT on Monday May 30th rather than 7pm PDT Sunday May 29th as when United was scheduled to get us there.
My sympathies, never had one nearly that bad but after one disaster I quit most flying and took the motorcycle regardless. At least I have some degree of control.
