United flight from purgatroy

[maxiesmom]

Have you all seen this?

http://my.xfinity.com/video/hundred...883799/Comcast/Today_in_Video?cid=hero_sf_TIV

 

[Flight]

The Donner Party had a harrowing experience. This hardly compares.

 

[minnie mum]

Purgatory? I couldn't view the video, but have read several articles about the incident. Love the hyperbole and exaggeration from a few of the news outlets.

Was their situation ideal? Of course not. But the safety of the aircraft and passengers is paramount. Better to set down safely at a remote Air Force Base and endure a few hours of spartan accommodations than risk lives trying to divert to a more distant airport. I'll take a night in barracks and mess hall food over camping out in a small, cramped airport, which was their alternative.

 

[MillauFr]

It is no secret that United has one of the worst operational records of the legacy airlines. This was not an isolated incident. There are pages and pages of horror stories on the Flyertalk forums. Current United management is running a once great airline into the ground. Word is getting out and United has been decimated in many markets such as Seattle. Delta and Alaska are stealing their customers at an ever increasing rate.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Was it an unpleasant experience? Yes. UA could definitely handled this better; apparently hotel rooms for all the passengers weren't available, but they could have had much better communication with the passengers. Everyone was safe and now they are all getting a free flight to London and probably further compensation.

 

[sam_gordon]

Purgatory? I couldn't view the video, but have read several articles about the incident. Love the hyperbole and exaggeration from a few of the news outlets.

Was their situation ideal? Of course not. But the safety of the aircraft and passengers is paramount. Better to set down safely at a remote Air Force Base and endure a few hours of spartan accommodations than risk lives trying to divert to a more distant airport. I'll take a night in barracks and mess hall food over camping out in a small, cramped airport, which was their alternative.

I don't think anyone was complaining about having to divert or the lodgings they were put in... I think the lack of communication from United is what probably made most upset (and I can understand that).

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Many people complained about staying in the AF barracks. I agree that the main issue, at least from what I have read about this incident was UA's poor communication with the passengers. If you don't know what's going on, it just makes everything worse.

 

[ImDMous]

I saw this on the news this morning and the way they were reporting it you would would have thought they had spent the night in a Baghdad base with bombs going off overhead.

Did it suck? Probably. Were they in any danger? Doubtful. Not what I would consider Purgatory, Harrowing or even Grueling. The first sentence out of his mouth says "passengers are safe in London..." Were they ever not safe?

I'd be pissed, that's for sure. But I wouldn't feel like my life was in danger. I really hate where "news" has gone lately, it just makes me angry.

 

[bookbabe626]

With a brother in the military, I found the complaints of the passengers a little annoying. I mean, they were there for one night. Our family members in service spend every night sleeping somewhere like that or worse.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

The problem is (a) United treated it's customers worse then it's employees... (b) United failed to clearly communicate and APOLOGIZE....

But this is fairly typical of the new United. Customer Service has taken a beating lately .

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

UA should have treated the pilots and crew better than the passengers by making sure they had hotel rooms; they are the ones flying the plane.

I totally agree that UA Customer Service could use a lot of improvement.

I'm wondering if any passengers tried to book themselves into hotels or if there was no way for them to leave the base?

 

[maxiesmom]

With a brother in the military, I found the complaints of the passengers a little annoying. I mean, they were there for one night. Our family members in service spend every night sleeping somewhere like that or worse.

I highly doubt they sleep in ones without functioning heat. And I'm sorry, but please don't use your family in the service as some sort of red herring. You could make a comment like that about any problem--I'm sorry the air plane ride was rough, but it is nothing compared to how our service members are flown. Stop complaining about the buses, you should be grateful you are not in the military, their transportation is horrible." And yes, I have several family members who have been in the service, so I know a bit about their sacrifice.

There is no excuse for the airline not informing the passengers about what was going on. And not excuse for putting them up someplace without heat.

 

[bookbabe626]

I highly doubt they sleep in ones without functioning heat. And I'm sorry, but please don't use your family in the service as some sort of red herring. You could make a comment like that about any problem--I'm sorry the air plane ride was rough, but it is nothing compared to how our service members are flown. Stop complaining about the buses, you should be grateful you are not in the military, their transportation is horrible." And yes, I have several family members who have been in the service, so I know a bit about their sacrifice.

There is no excuse for the airline not informing the passengers about what was going on. And not excuse for putting them up someplace without heat.

It's summer. Even in Canada, we rarely turn the heat on during the summer. As I write this, the current temperature in Goose Bay (10pm there) is 61 degrees F. They certainly weren't in danger of freezing. It was chilly, maybe, but nowhere near life threatening, especially for a single night. And since there were military personnel in other barracks there, also without the heat turned on, because it's summer, I stand by my statement.

Yes, the airline dropped the ball in their communications. But I think they did an admirable job of finding at least someplace to put a full plane load of people that was better than the chairs in the waiting area of a very small airport (local pop is about 7500). The heat wouldn't have been on in the airport, either, btw, nor was it likely on in the hotel the crew stayed in...because it's summer.

 

[jdb in AZ]

With a brother in the military, I found the complaints of the passengers a little annoying. I mean, they were there for one night. Our family members in service spend every night sleeping somewhere like that or worse.

Son-in-law is in the military and has served in Afghanistan and Iraq. Yes, their conditions are less than ideal, but they signed up for it. That's their job, and they're paid for it.

United did say they'd refund the passengers' fares, but the lack of communication was deplorable. Putting a couple in a room with a single bed and one blanket-- gives new meaning to the term United. Maybe that's how they were supposed to keep warm. Overnight temperatures at the time were reported as freezing. The man got up in the middle of the night to answer nature's call and surprise(!) found a strange woman on the other side of the shared bathroom door. Is that the best the airline can do? At least the passengers reported the food was decent and the barracks employees were kind to them.

 

[Polydweller]

Reading through the posts I'm not sure people have a true perspective where this took place. It happened in Happy Valley-Goose Bay which is a small town of 7500 in the middle of Labrador hundreds of mikes by air from anywhere. It has 3 very small hotels (40 rooms or less each) and served by bush plane services and two regional carriers Air Labrador and Air Canada Jazz (strictly regional not the main Air Canada). This is effectively in the middle of the bush folks.

There was no direct United Airlines presence anywhere around, probably the closest might have been Montreal around 1000 km west. Pretty hard to do really good communications when everything is done long distance through a third party. Don't know how United is normally but this is one situation in which it's hard to be critical. Sounds like it was not bad given the isolated area this was in.

And the isolation speaks to the housing issue. It was very fortunate that the barracks was there an available. Otherwise they would have been on mattresses on the floor of a gym. There was no way there would have been enough rooms in that small community.

This wasn't purgatory, this was an emergency situation requiring getting the aircraft on the ground as quickly as possible and the managing the situation as best as pisdible with frankly very limited resources. The resources may have been less than ideal but they were what was available and worked for the one night required.

 

[MillauFr]

It was an emergency situation because United is not doing a good job maintaining its planes. You simply don't hear about these debacles with Delta nearly as much as United.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

UA should have treated the pilots and crew better than the passengers by making sure they had hotel rooms; they are the ones flying the plane.

I totally agree that UA Customer Service could use a lot of improvement.

I'm wondering if any passengers tried to book themselves into hotels or if there was no way for them to leave the base?

Gee when did Flight Attendants get their pilot's license? LOL! That's why they couldn't have ANYONE available to assist the passengers, ALL of the crew was "flying the plane"?

And if those sleeping arrangements were "fine" as United claims then why couldn't the pilots sleep there... Or is it possible they KNEW they were sending their PAYING passengers to subpar accommodations where they would not be able to sleep?

And then how did the passengers get back to Newark? On a plane flown by that well rested crew? NO! A replacement plane with a fresh crew actually came to get them.

EPIC FAIL UNITED!

But it's unlikely to happen again, today the airline announced they are abandoning JFK all together!

http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/b...d-airlines-pulling-out-of-john-f-kennedy.html


The problem folks is NOT WHERE they slept but the fact that the airline just decided that "telling them what is going on is not really something we need to bother to do. " What were they thinking "if we don't tell the passengers anything they won't notice they aren't in London yet?" LOL
(And they need to FIRE whoever responds to their social media postings!)

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Gee when did Flight Attendants get their pilot's license? LOL! That's why they couldn't have ANYONE available to assist the passengers, ALL of the crew was "flying the plane"?

........

I think you're purposely bring silly. FAs are responsible for the safety of passengers on the plane. Seems like a pretty important job to me.

http://onemileatatime.boardingarea....-slowly-rescued-hundreds-in-goose-bay-canada/

 

[BSmithington]

I highly doubt they sleep in ones without functioning heat.

I find your entire post to not only be insulting but downright infuriating. To say you have no idea what our military endures would be a massive understatement. As a veteran who fought and lost for my country I am insulated that military barracks aren't good enough for one night.

 

[MillauFr]

I find your entire post to not only be insulting but downright infuriating. To say you have no idea what our military endures would be a massive understatement. As a veteran who fought and lost for my country I am insulated that military barracks aren't good enough for one night.

One of the biggest insults is that our military veterans have to put up with substandard healthcare at the VA system.