Sounds like you were one of the many significantly impacted by the recent weather events in the mid-west and northeast. Its days like those that take the fun out of travel
Originally Posted by
Clay_C.
.... When I arrived at MCI the following day, I was shocked to see upon check-in that there were actually a small handful of seats open on this flight! They were mostly Economy Plus middle seats, but still...I had clearly NOT received the very last seat on this flight as I had been told...
This may not be a proper interpretation of the situation.
Open seats on the seat map should not be inferred as available for sale. Some folks don't pick seating until checking-in at the airport. Also, Basic Economy passengers may not receive a seat assignment until the gate. Or the most likely, seats had freed up (perhaps due to all the irrops) between the previous evening and when you arrived at the airport. The latter is not unusual.
Originally Posted by
Clay_C.
Obviously the cancellation of a flight is a rare occurrence that is unavoidably problematic for all involved. Even so, it does happen. In this case, it seems to me the ideal is to be rebooked on the next available seat out instantly. Failing that, the ideal would be the ability to rebook myself online. Failing that, the ideal would be to reach a competent phone agent within 30 minutes or so who is ready, willing and able to get me to my destination as soon as possible. This past Sunday United was not able to provide ANY of the above. ...
The recent WX situation caused major disruptions-- appears UA nor AA nor WN could provide a solution, that might suggest the degree of the major disruption that was occurring.
Plus UA was also dealing with disruptions at EWR (and EWR is a major part of the UA system) so the UA phone system was perhaps under greater stress than its competitors.
Irrops are a pain and the airlines do try to get folks where that want to be but occasionally there are these corner case events which stress the system. We have created an air travel system in the USA will very little slack and these extreme cases do become a problem
Was this on par to what is to be expected, no but not far off from what might be expected in such a set of circumstances.
Note status would have helped some on the phone delays but when there are no seats, there are no seats.
And i would expect UA to say they are sorry they could not meet your needs but if you are fishing for compensation -- very, very unlikely given the WX situation.