Sunday night SO and I VDBd at IAD en route to NYC. The entire process was pretty awful -- so much so that I don't think I'd do it again. My question is whether our experience was par for the course or unusually bad.

We arrived at IAD with 2+ hours to spare before our connecting flight to NYC. Had a liesurely dinner at Vino Volo (^) before making our way to the Seventh Circle of Hell that is the UX A terminal. Flight was oversold and the two flights before ours -- and the one after -- had been cancelled. We volunteered several times and were told it wasn't necessary. Two hour delay. Finally we board, sit for a while, then GA comes on board -- the same one that said repeatedly that no volunteers were needed -- and announces that due to weight restrictions, they need to offload four pax and are there any volunteers? SO and I jump up, grab our things, and leave the plane. There on the tarmac, I confirm that we get compensation plus hotel vouchers, transportation, meals, etc., and he says yes. Okay. So we go back to the gate.

The rest in a nutshell: It quickly becomes clear that this GA is a rookie and has no idea how to process us. (His supervisor was tied up dealing with all the other cancellations.) The GA works on our four VDBs for an hour and a half. He has problems with every step, from rebooking the flights, to printing the travel credits (^ thanks FT!), to getting the hotel/cab/food vouchers. After 90 minutes of this, at which point all he's done is rebook us and print the travel credits, he basically gives up, telling us to go to the Customer Service line to get the hotel vouchers, that he has other flights to work. We go, and of course there are about 100 people in line ahead of us. We wait there for about 15-20 minutes, during which time the line of course does not move. I call the 1K line and am told they can do nothing for me, it all has to be done at IAD.

Leaving my SO in line (nice to be able to divide and conquer in such situations!), I go back to the gate and basically tell the GA there's no way we're waiting more hours in the CS line for the hotel vouchers and that he has to process us at the gate. He relents...and takes another hour to get the hotel vouchers etc. By the time we get to the hotel, a few miles from IAD, it's 2am. That's over three hours from the moment we VDBd, over 5 hours from the time the flight was supposed to leave and about 6 hours from the time we first asked to be put on the VBD list.

Questions:

(1) Was our experience "normal" for an overnight VDB situation durring irrops, or was it particularly bad?
(2) Is it worth complaining to UA about our treatment?

Admittedly we got out of the airport much faster than the poor souls waiting in the CS line, and so I suppose I can't complain too much. On the other hand, we very likely would not have VDBd had we known what a mess it would be.