I have a love hate relationship with UA. Love the way they treat their 1K’s but the company is really going downhill and going fast. My most recent adventure is
UA 897 on the NRT to SIN leg on 22 August. It was literally a comedy of errors but it was not to a full load of passengers on the 777.

We were all packed into buses for the ritual trip to NRT remote parking area. The announcement came on the bus that there was a maintenance problem and that we have deboard the bus and go back to the terminal. We were told that maintenance was repairing an alarm and after an hour of “fixing” we boarded the bus for the plan. Boarding went fine and after sitting for 45 minutes the Captain announced that we had a problem and that maintenance was again looking at it.

The crew started a movie and after the movie finished the first officer announced that the part was replaced and that they were loading software. Another half hour went by and the crew decided that they were going to feed the passengers – so the stews started service in business and first and when about half the places and entrees were served, the Captain gets on the intercom to tell the crew to prepare for departure. Imagine the mess??? Well the crew gets everything stowed and we are pushed back from the remote gate and sit – for a ½ hour. Captain gets on the intercom saying ---- well we still have an error message. So we sit. It is now 11pm and they make the decision to move us to a real gate, with no decision yet. Another ½ hour decision is made to cancel the flight – but they still want to feed us while they get their act together for hotels. It is 12:15 now and they let us leave the plane and thru passport, baggage and out to the hotel bus – and a 45 minute trip (United puts their Biz passengers not at NRT, but a long bus ride away at a 5800 Yen hotel). It is 2am and made it to the hotel. Hotel staff has no idea when our rebooked flights are, despite the fact that UA told everyone they would FAX details of our rebooked flights to the hotel.

It is 3:30AM – ring ring goes the phone. Woken up from a deep sleep. The front desk person says my flight has been rebooked on SQ995 at 0925 and be at the front of hotel at 0630. At 0630, 30 tired passengers show up for the bus, unfortunately the bus will hold only 25 plus luggage.

Get to SQ check-in and present my documents to the SQ agent?? You name is not on the list. Please stand over there pointing to a long line of other dazed passengers. Are there any UA agents there – NO. After about a ½ hour wait two UA agents showed up after lot of phone calls from the SQ manager. Apparently UA did NOT get confirmation from SQ that space was available. SQ995 was near fully booked and some people were booked on JAL and not told.

UA did take care of its 1K’s – we all (1Ks) made the flight, but what of my fellow stranded passengers?? What happened to the passengers of UA 898 the return end, since UA did not get a plane to SIN.

UA there were MANY regular fliers on UA897 that said that was it. I am pissed but I used to fly PAN AM. IF UA IS READING THIS – GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER!!!