I should start with the positive: got a PMUA agent in Chicago who has been very courteous/nice for the duration of the call.

Still, I've now been on the line for 37:34 in an effort to book a one-way ticket from ORD>LAX in February. That's it, nothing complicated about it. For some reason the website this AM wasn't accepting my credit card (despite the fact that it had for another flight about 10 minutes earlier). In any event, she hasn't even gotten to the point of entering my CC info so that's not the hang-up. She's having "issues" with her system.

Also, I miss the days when I could be put on hold without all the adverts. It really makes for a pretty poor customer experience.

This kind of difficulty/unpleasantness for such a simple transaction isn't acceptable in any for-profit industry. I wonder if they know how poor their execution really is.