Originally Posted by
bkkchriss4
I was on UA882 on 2/22.
Agreed it was a total zoo. In 15 years flying in and out of BKK on a somewhat regular basis I have never seen it that busy.
That said. There was as always a dedicated 1k/C line, yes the line was long, but maybe only 20-30 people rather than easily 200+ in the Y line. There also was a dedicated GS/F line which had no one waiting and once you went thru the little security questions they were using for C check in as well.
I was at the airport at my normal 5:00 and was in the lounge at 6:00. They were handing out FastTrack passes which is new for United in BKK.
Yes BKK tends to be a bit of a mess in general, but try re-routing a cancelled 747 overbooked (as most of the BKK-NRT flights tend to be) onto a week of already overbooked flights! Not easy even in the best managed UA outpost.
FYI I was on a confirmed NC ticket. No problems. In fact I have always had good experiences on UA through BKK for the most part. Except for the ungodly early flight
Also overall I thought that the crowd, given the situation, was relatively behaved. I have seen WAY more chaotic scenes at LAX on cancelled Southwest flight!
Cheers,
Chris
Man you must have been at a different airport!
I was supposed to be on the 2/21 flight that got canceled. On the 22nd I got there at 5AM with confirmed C class. Hundreds of people waiting at both sides of the checkin area without a clue. Waited 2 hours in Biz Class line and never made it to the agent before they announced no more room.
Most guys around me were 1K(I'm a Premier Exec) and they were fumming. There were no staff in the lines helping sort out the lines - just chaos. I fly this every month and have never seen anything like it. Once I learned that I was not going on this flight, I called UA Chicago to rebook(airport staff were completely useless). First agent told me there was nothing to Tokyo until the 28th! Fortunately, the guy next to me got a flight out the next day, so I called back and got someone with a brain. They booked me BKK, Manila, Osaka, Haneda. Took 15 hours but I got there.
Joe is the head of UA Thailand. He knew it was going to be bad after the first flight was canceled. He should have been there. The guy blew it.