OP back again: boy this is my sentiment. The refusal to hold that 2d to last flight of the night to EWR (when the next flight was nearly sold out and after repeated statements that "they know you passengers are coming" reflects the worst in airline service. Think about it - what other industry could get away with such treatment of its customers time and again? Yes, iI know the airline industry is unique, in some ways, but that is not a sufficient excuse.

Yes, in retrospect I should have immediately called 800 United right way. As we ran to the connection I actually had searched my phone for United's number, but then focused all my attention on running tot the gate instead. And per a prior comment, I similarly said to my iwife: boy, you could have a heart attack sprinting for a connection. We then ran to a rebooking agent desk, rather than hopping on the phone because - like lemmings the dozen plus of us all did the same thing at the same time.

Two hours to connect domestically late at night should have been plenty of time, we thought. We avoid tight connections when we can. Setting aside the fact UA sold the connection to us.

The "cleaning crew in Kona" reference is not me trying to lash out at folks. That explanation was given to me by three different United ground crew at KOA as a few hundred passengers waited to board in the open air terminal. Each said to me the cleaning crew was well known for not moving quickly enough. They explained "we cannot let you board while the crew is still cleaning."

The captain called out every close connecting flight as we approached SFO, together with the departure gates. Plainly UA knew all of our schedules and advocated that we dash for our connecting flights. And then? The worlds' meanest/least empathetic gate agent tells us: "no one ever said anything to us about holding the plane, there was a miscommunication." I don't believe that for a second. And, as SFO was slowing down at 11 pm the idea that our EWR flight "had to clear the gate" is not credible. We waited on the runway 30 minutes, so too could any plane which may have needed that gate. A timing out crew is similarly no excuse.

Finally, save for one outstanding supervisor in SFO who got us blankets, some snack bars and water we were shown no empathy at all from any United agent we interacted with that evening. Frankly, UA created the nightmare; for hours led us to believe they were on top of a solution ("you will make your connections"); lied to us when we arrived at the EWR bound flight; and then treated us terribly when we tried to solve the problem they created. insult to injury? Not once did we ever receive an "I'm sorry" from anyone we dealt with that night.