pmoran28

For me well let's just say the last 48hrs of my trip with United (GRU-ORD-AUS) have been the most unexpected turnaround I've ever had. My Saturday outbound plane from Sao Paulo, Brazil made and emergency landing in Manaus, Brazil. We lost 2 of 3 generators and with no power on the plane's main cabin caused us to land immediately. Quite a ride. Fire trucks & police on the runway, the whole bit. We land at roughly midnight and wait for 45-minutes on the ground then 1.5 hrs in the airport before being transferred to a hotel. Need I mention the hotel check-in for 300 unexpected guests takes 2 additional hours? The 5-star hotel was very nice but the rooms had stained floors and little ants everywhere. (Think Motel 6 and you'll get the idea of what the room was like)

So after spending a lovely day in Manaus we finally were given clearance to go home. On the same plane. At 2:30am Monday. Sooo finally we leave and they are handing out tickets on the plane for your connections in little envelopes and guess what? They hand me mine and NO tickets were inside. I thought to myself, "Oh isn't this nice." Landing in Chicago at 8am I wind my way through security and end up at a ticket counter to discover my fate. A 13-hr layover. I smile and think to myself, "Why not?" After checking with the guy about code shares and standbys (it really helps to know the lingo here by the way) the guy puts me in First Class out to Denver and then in Coach back to Austin. I got home at 8pm Monday. I was supposed to arrive 12pm Sunday.

So the moral of the story is if you have to fly from Sao Paulo, to Manaus, to Chicago, to Denver, to Austin. Bring a pillow. Cause all you want to do is sleep the whole fricken way!

Now here is my question to the Flyertalk forum. What kind of "gift" can I expect from United for our little adventure? I somehow expect that I will recieve the standard $300 certificate or so...which just seems short changing it to me. What is your experience?