Sorry about the lack of updates the fact that its been 9 days since my last one is making me uncomfortable! I promise that there will be an update tonight after work.
The main reason for this is that my return trip home from KC after finishing my conference turned out to be a much more complicated ordeal thanks to United Airlines inefficiencies. Please feel free to skip the rest its going to be a LONG vent.
I was suppose to fly home on Friday at 6pm to Dulles. During one of my breaks at the conference around 1:30pm, I happened to check my flight status and noticed that it was cancelled. (So nice of United to proactively notify me ahead of time NOT
). This was not too surprising as they were forecasting some severe weather in the DC region for the night. I spent the next hour on the phone with Uniteds agent trying to rebook my flight. First she tried to put me on a flight connecting through Newark and arriving in Reagan National at 11pm that night. I calmly told her that wasnt going to work because in addition to having my car parked at Dulles and I wasnt going to ask DW to come and pick me up at Reagan at midnight, that shouldnt the Reagan flight also be cancelled since all flights to Dulles were cancelled due to the weather pattern? So, she found me a seat on a flight leaving on Saturday morning at 8am. I was perfectly happy with this. Weather happens, theres nothing the airline can do about the cancellation, and Im not going to fault them for not trying to risk my life by attempting to land a plane in a midst of hails, wind, and rain!
I called the hotel I had been staying at to book another night. After I checked in, I got some take out BBQ from Jack Stacks (Highly recommend if youre ever in KC
) topped off with a carrot cake the size of a brick!! Went to bed at 9pm since I would have to be up bright and early the next morning.
However, at 9:30pm my cell phone rings. DW was telling me that she just received an automated message phone call from United notifying me that my flight was cancelled and I was rebooked. My first response was, Boy that was really delayed considering I already figured it out by myself and rebooked hours ago. I thought I should double check online and lo and behold, they did indeed cancel my replacement flight in the morning and rebooked me on a flight leaving SUNDAY at 4pm!!! Needless to say I was not a happy camper. And I have to give props for them calling my home phone rather than my cell phone which I know they have the number for
. After spending 10 minutes on hold, the phoneline agent tells me that all flight options are completely booked and thats the earliest they could get me out.
I calmly explained to her (I learned a long time ago that getting angry over the phone with customer service agents never gets you anywhere and its really not their fault) that this is extremely disappointing, that they are asking me to stay another night in KC which will lead to more lodging expenses, and that I was going to miss an event at home (my brother-in-law had been visiting from Ohio to help DW with the kids while I was gone and as a thank you, I got a pair of tickets to the Nationals ballgame for Saturday 4pm), and that I should be receiving some form of assistance with either lodging or efforts to put me on a flight with another airlines. She told me since the cancellation was weather-related (And when she says weather-related for the second cancellation, she means that the weather in Dulles on Friday night led to NO aircraft at KC airport the following morning), that there is nothing to airline could do with compensation (more like, WILL not do). My main argument was, that they should never have rebooked me on this flight to begin with, that they should have the foresight to figure out that there would have been no aircraft at KC, and that if they had rebooked me on the second flight out two hours later (which there were plenty of seats earlier in the day when I was rebooking but not anymore), I could have avoided this mess. She still said no, so I asked to speak with her manager.
I was on hold for another 40 minutes before the manager came on which I am sure was because there were dozens of people like me waiting to speak with him. While on hold, I was searching online frantically for one way tickets and fares home on other airlines. He read me the same script that the previous agent did. And I mean literally read the script. It was clear that United was outsourcing their phone lines overseas, and there was no personalized response at all despite my explanation of what happened. It was clear that I wasnt going to get anywhere. I joked with him that I really didnt envy his job tonight considering they would be spending all night (or all day since theyre most likely located in a different continent) talking to angry customers and its really not their fault but the airlines policies.
Once I got off the phone, I spent another hour looking for flights on other airlines and decided to purchase a one way through American Air, connecting through Ohare then arriving at Baltimore (BWI) at 2:15pm. Yes, BWI which is 1.5 hours from my car in Dulles. That was sadly the best option available. By the time I got everything wrapped up (as I had to call American on the phone since my reservation was languishing in un-ticketed status online), it was 1am. My new flight was leaving at 6:30am, so I had to get up at 4am, shower, pack, and check-out.
The flight on American was hassel-free. I had a two hour layover at Ohare. Decided to treat myself to a sit down breakfast at a Wolfgang Pucks café inside the airport which was pretty decent. Arrived early at BWI at 2pm where my brother-in-law picked me up. We headed straight for the ballpark in DC and arrived 30 minutes before gametime. On Sunday afternoon, he had to drive me to Dulles so I could pick up my car in the Economy Lot (Thanks again, United!)
Im still very happy that I decided to make an effort to come home on Saturday instead of Sunday. Got to spend time with the kids, took DD to a birthday party. Had fun at the ballpark the day before. Our washer also decided to completely breakdown during this weekend, so it was a good thing I was around to shuttle the kids around yesterday while DW went shopping for a new washer while running the laundry at a Laundromat.
Im drafting a letter to mail to customer service at United explaining what happened. Needless to say, I have soured on United. Have been flying with United and Continental (which merged) for awhile now. Im sure if this had happened on another airline, the response may have been the same but at the same time, I would have thought the interaction on the phones would have been more efficient and personalized. When I did call American Air after purchasing my ticket, I got a far more friendlier agent on the phone who understood my question promptly. Sadly, my flight to San Diego with the kids this weekend is with United. After that, I will be staying away from them for awhile, just out of spite!
If youve read through all of this youre a more patient person than I am!
sorry about all the flight cancelations!! I'm not a huge fan of United either. I'm a Westjet gal ALL the way even though dh hasn't booked through them lately. I used to work for them and feel I'm betraying them every time I fly with someone else. LOL but I also know they are TOP in customer service which i very much miss when we fly with other carriers. 
I am sooooooo freaked out by birds! The seagulls in the parks are enough for me!! 
