United we stand—NOT! Nightmare travel story.

Posted On March 25, 2011

My poor hubby has been traveling for the past few days, and my kids and I anxiously awaited his return in the wee hours of the morning.  He’d been kind enough to help a brother out with a special project, and called out of town for a few days.

You know how air travel can be.  Especially if you have a layover.  Sometimes it seems like miles in between the gates when you have a connecting flight.  And god forbid that your flight is delayed for whatever reason.  Talk about running the Hertz run through the airport.  Not only do you have to make a sprint to get to you flight, but you have to figure out where the hell you are going because you are not necessarily oriented with the airport that you are making the mad dash in.   The moving sidewalks they have these days are cool, but they’re not really built for speed if you get my drift.  I guess you could really tumble everyone over on the way by if you are going for extra velocity, but I’m guessing you wouldn’t make too many friends in the process.

So the dash begins.  You know you don’t have much time to make it to that connecting flight.  It seems like at least a mile to the next gate.  Your weaving and bobbing in and out of traffic like nobody’s business.  Ah, you made it.  Aw, crap!  You didn’t make it, the posted gate for your connecting flight was moved to a different gate….NOOOOOOO!  And the race ensues again! Weaving.  Bobbin’.  Making your way through the crowd, you once again, make it to the newly assigned gate that was mislabled in the first place, only to find they were closing the door just as you stepped up.  Sorry sir, you are out of luck….to add insult to injury, literally, as you were frenetically speeding through the obstacle course to get to your flight, you tripped.  Not only tripped, but you’ve got a bleeder.  Nice.  Really nice.

After speaking not only with the customer service agent the gate, but also to the supervisor on the scene, the best you can get is to be on standby with half a dozen other folks who are also trying desperately to get on that next flight out.  The really cool thing is the next flight out is not for another FOUR hours!  Oh holy good god, what is next.  We’d certainly be happy to offer you a hotel, but you’re going to have to pay for it, but we’ll give you are special discount as you are paying for it being bumped from our flight because we did not have the gate properly assigned at the airport.  Are you kidding me?  Seriously.  Wow.  I know air travel can suck sometimes, but I didn’t realize it could get that bad…the next best alternative is flying out the next day at 11 something o’clock and not returning to the DC area until 5 o’clock the next day.

Do these people have a conscience for god’s sake?  I can’t imagine what my poor hubby must be going through.  And to make matters worse, all this drama has caused a migraine to rear it’s ugly head.  Can you imagine having to talk to these people while you have a migraine?  He’s been standing at the customer service desk for over an hour and a half, and no one seems to be able to help in.  Great, that’s all I need is for my diabetic husband to have an insulin fit while he’s waiting for someone to actually help a brother out.  He, of course, has no more of his diabetes medicine since he was supposed to be home today.

So, being the good wife that I am, I tried calling customer service to which, of course the person did not speak very good english, and could not help me at all.  So, I asked to the speak to a supervisor.  I asked if he could book with a partner airline, perhaps fly into National the other local airport.  Why I am I the only one of the phone trying to solve the issues.  Arrgggghhh!   Frustrating!  I asked if he might be able to possibly upgrade to first class, to which he implied my husband was a peon because he bought coach, and just because there was a flight delay, that does not allow you to fly in first class, there are other people that they need to accomodate.  Please, he was even willing to pay to upgrade if it would get him on  a flight out. Good grief.  So after spending 56 minutes and 23 seconds on the phone, I still get no where other than possibly a flight tomorrow after noon arriving near 7 o’clock, nearly 24 hours after he was originally supposed to be here.  The person on the phone can’t help with a hotel, because they don’t know the situation on the airport, hmmm, maybe because you are in India perhaps??  He couldn’t possibly allow him to get rest in the United lounge, because he’s not at the airport, and after all, it’s not normally done if the only reason he’s there is because of a plane delay, lady.  There are many other customers that have also been delayed and we must help them all, especially all those who paid higher ticket prices than you did…nice. This story only gets better and better.  No wonder airlines get pummeled on their customer service reviews.

So, the drama ensues and he’s waiting to be the lucky guy flying in on standby four hours later.  Wish him luck!