ssk1127

So I had a new experience that defies any excuse. Was on MCO-LAX tonight with a connection to LAX-SFO. Clear night, nice weather, no traffic, perfect night for an on-time flight. Left MCO on time, landed at LAX on time...except landed with no gate available at 9:30 PM. So we sat out there for over an hour waiting for a gate to clear...but no planes were moving...until they started towing planes from the gates...which were sitting empty and parked overnight at inactive gates. We finally parked and I ran to my SFO gate, walking up at 10:45 for a 10:45 departure...except the plane was already turning to head towards the taxiway. The gate agent claimed they waited as long as they could but didn't want to hold the flight for 4 people. The flight left early, at 10:42, according to the UA website. He also declined to help me and directed me to the customer service station. Stood in line for 20 minutes at the service desk while 3 agents tried to help people...and not a single one of them actually finished. Meanwhile a supervisor was standing around to reassure people that help was coming...but not actually helping anyone. At the 2 gates next to us, a total of 7 gate agents stood around doing nothing and/or goofing off while their gates were empty. Whenever a passenger tried to go over and ask for help, they waved the pax back to the service desk. Finally a 4th agent showed up and I finally got helped (don't know how long the other 35-40 people behind me - in the exact same predicament - had to wait). I asked him if this happened before and his response was "too often." I looked, and there were only 4 active gates in T7 with flights going out, depsite planes being parked at every one.

So at one of its main stations, UA had no gates open for an expected, on-time, transcontinental arrival because those gates were blocked by idle, empty planes that took over an hour to move, and yet felt no need to hold any of the flights, all the last flight of the day to their respective destinations, even for as little as 15 minutes. Meanwhile, dozens of gate agents stood around declining to help anyone while 3 people couldn't somehow figure out how to rebook anyone in under 20 minutes.

This whole thing is actually a little scary - if they don't even know how to logistically manage their gates and don't have employees willing to actually help customers, I don't even want to know what the other parts of the operation are doing - or not doing. This isn't just one bad night, one bad flight, one bad agent - it's indicative of a systemic culture of failure.