<p>Back in January, I sucked up the extra charge and booked two bulkhead seats to Europe for the end of this month…</p>
<p>Just re-checked our flights and, lo and behold, United knocked us out of our seats, and, no, did not refund our extra $$. </p>
<p>Been on hold for 35 minutes already so figured I’d gripe here; I’m sure I will have company…</p>
<p>What is your United story? I know nj2011mom has one…what about u?</p>
<p>I have enough Delta stories to fill this thread… makes my blood boil just to think about them.</p>
<p>My sister and I had United flights in May to Seattle-seats next to each other weeks in advance. They separated us AFTER we had even done the 24 hour online checkin- never got an acceptable reason why they thought they could do that. Realized they did it the night before and called customer service-remained calm but assertive. They tried to charge more to get us closer (which would have had to put one of us in one of their bogus preferred type seats-I said no way -I had proof we were seated together just hours before and we refused to pay extra.) Stay strong with your position ,be polite and the customer service person is more likely to help you.</p>
<p>Sevmom: haha; I’ll post after they pick up the phone…45 minutes and counting…</p>
<p>I love Delta, I fly on them all the time. Of course, it helps that I’m usually diamond status, upgraded and given free club privileges. No complaints there.</p>
<p>But United stinks. I avoid flying them at all costs, even taking two legs when I could go direct, and cheaper. It just seems that everyone there is annoyed, constantly. On one of my less pleasurable flights with them, the ticket agent insisted that I could not bring my bag onboard because it wouldn’t fit. Mind you, this is the ticket agent, not the gate agent. I told her it was a 20 inch rollerboard and I’d brought it on board for years. She was infuriated with me questioning her authority, and actually tried to pull it out of my hands (I held on tight). The icing on the cake was when I was sitting in my center seat reading, and the flight attendant asked everybody around me if they wanted a drink, and ignored me. I said, “Excuse me sir, can I have some water?” In his snottiest voice, he said, “Generally when people want a drink, they pull out their tray.” It was so disdainful the way he said it, people actually started giggling (though they were scared to let him see). And of course, we all started in with our “United stinks” stories.</p>
<p>When it was just Continental, we were able to use the lounge if we were AmEx Platinum.</p>
<p>We used to get food on Continental, now we have to buy food.</p>
<p>We used to get upgraded 24 hrs prior, but now it is few hours prior unless you are an Elite Platinum because United wants to be able to sell every first class seat.</p>
<p>We used to have new planes with individual TV on our most frequently traveled route, but United replaced those planes with their old planes, so we have to sit for 6 hours with nothing to do.</p>
<p>We used to be the newer part of our frequent airport when we flew Continental (with many VIP lounges and better security check in), but with United we got moved to the old airport which was dirty and crowded.</p>
<p>As a consumer, we got nothing from the merger between Continental and UA, all we got was down grade. UA really sucks.</p>
<p>Maybe there’s a good airlines…but don’t get me started about TSA. Flying used to be fun. With my aging, failing memory I can still remember those days.</p>
<p>Here’s one thing that ticks me off–when they make you consolidate two carry-ons into one. As if the weight or volume were different.</p>
<p>Here is Jeff Smisek’s email address (he was head of Continental). I did write to him and got a response. Maybe if enough people write to him, he’ll get the hint.<br>
<a href="mailto:jeffery.smisek@united.com">jeffery.smisek@united.com</a></p>
<p>May I ask, who do you fly for, busdriver? Is it Delta or a partner? My DH is platinum, but not Diamond. The biggest screw ups lately have been with our kids flights and unless I go get a large glass of wine an plunk it down next to the keyboard and sip between typing words, I don’t want to get started. Grrrrrr… Even DH calling to try to get things fixed did not help.</p>
<p>I’m lifetime platinum on American from all my Dallas years, but now I pretty much only fly Southwest. I’m happy with it.</p>
<p>After years of traveling United, I will only fly Southwest.</p>
<p>I also fly Southwest whenever I can. The trip my sister and I took (originating from different cities for a meetup) just didn’t work out with Southwest. Air travel in general has gotten to be not much fun!</p>
<p>rodney:</p>
<p>I’ve changed flights and had several other issues wrt to the upgraded seats, and have always obtained a refund by an filing online. It usually takes ~3 business days before someone responds, but they have sent the money.</p>
<p>I do not fly for Delta or a partner, jym. I just fly on Delta and one of their partners, Alaska Airlines, all the time to consolidate my miles and keep elite status. It’s a huge effort to keep up all those MQMs, but if I have to fly Seattle to Portland via Paris in December, I’ll do it to keep my status going. It’s worth it, because you do get top quality service (if that still exists with the airlines). Plus, I wouldn’t mind a mileage run to Paris!</p>
<p>We don’t fly a lot, but we were very happy with Continental - both its prices and its routes. Our preferred airline is Jet Blue, but they didn’t have all the routes that Continental had. I was so disappointed when I read about Continental and United merging. I didn’t think much good could come out of that, and it sounds like it hasn’t.</p>
<p>I used to really like Frontier, small enough and new enough that it was generally reliable. Sadly it’s pretty much gone down the drain.</p>
<p>Nowadays we usually fly Southwest, as we have gotten pretty good deals with them. Try to stay away from U.S. Air or United. Never seem to have a good experience.</p>
<p>We took a long trip last December. One of the United partners seemed to lose 9000 (that is NOT a misprint) miles of our trip. We filed a request online for review of our miles from the trip providing them with all the flight numbers and such. We also checked into the lounge at all airports where we had to show our boarding pass. Plus they got the third leg of our trip…did they think we swam the Atlantic? We had checked through bags. They DENIED the request for the FF miles…for both of us. Disgusted!</p>
<p>As much as I dislike United, I will never set foot on an American plane again. Every time I have used them in the past 20 years, my bags were either delayed or damaged. </p>
<p>Last time (8+ yrs ago) we were on our way to scuba trip in the Florida Keys and flew into Miami. Because the flight was overweight, they bumped all bags of people terminating in Miami & not heading to a cruise. (We own our dive gear, so think lots of luggage for 3 divers & 2 non-divers). After waiting in baggage pickup for 2+ hours and being told multiple lies by Elvira’s sister and waiting through the next flight from Newark, we were told they might arrive that evening and they would deliver them to us. Yeah right. After getting to hotel in Key Largo & calling baggage claim, I’m told they don’t deliver past a 30 minute radius of the hotel. Never again…</p>
<p>So rodney, how did it go? Are you still on hold?</p>