Let me start by saying that I am a very loyal United flyer, and you will see in my posts I always defend United when possible (minus the website ). Yesterday (September 4), I did a mileage run from TPA-ORD-DCA-ORD-TPA. The reason I did it was because it was the cheapest ($159 with a four day advance purchase) and I needed a flight around 3,000 EQM's to get my CR-1's for the quarter because the rest of my weekends are full this month. My expereince was for the first time terrible. Let me quickly recount a few things:

TPA-ORD
It was Ted, so there is little room for error. Our Purser was Italian and did not speak English well. All of the FA's were carrying huge frowns and looked like they had not bathed in a week.

ORD-DCA (this is where it gets interesting):
I upgraded to First Class (737), and had seat 1D. The seat next to me was empty. Across the aisle were these two jabber mouth girls. I am guessing they were non-rev because those seats were empty on the seatmap till the morning of the flight, and since the load was just 3/8 I am guessing their upgrades would have otherwise cleared. Then in 2B there was this relatively large white man and in 2C a relatively large black women. I was already looking around the cabin trying to spot the Air Marshall (just a hobby of mine but found no one suspicious).

There were no pre-departure beverages. So the safety demonstration starts, and while the purser is making the announcement she has to pause and tell the girls across from me to shut up. They are in shock, and quiet for a minute. Then they jabber on for the whole flight, to a point where everyone can hear everything. I always take pictures because I enjoy aviation photography, and there is no problem. It took the purser about 40 minutes into the flight to start serving nuts. We arrived 25 minutes late, five minutes from the 500 bonus miles. That made me pretty angry.

at DCA:
I get off the plane and start taking pictures of the awesome terminal, starting right from when I get off the plane. So, after a two hour layover it is time to get back aboard. This time I have Seat 2A.

DCA-ORD (737)
First Class boarding is called, and I am the first aboard. I am kind of not thinking at that moment, because when I get aboard there are already the same two people that were seated in 2B and 2C in the same seats. Anyway, I sit down in 2A and a pilot in 2D. As soon as I sit down I take a picture of my knee caps and the seat in front of me to demonstrate the First Class pitch. The lady next to me says something along the lines of "Oh, what are you taking a picture of?" I viewed this more as small talk, because a lot of people find my hobby weird. So, we continue to talk a bit, just overall. She remembered I was on the last flight, an I recall her. She told me that she was just dropping off some documents in DCA, and that she is a vary infrequent flier.

So, after talking for a few minutes I am brought my pre departure beverage. She gets up, and goes to the cockpit. At this point, the guy in 2C gets up and goes there as well. Let me say that I am among the younger 1K's, only in my mid teens and white (IOW, I don't look like a terrorist). After they go to the cockpit, the proceed to the jetway. At this point boarding was all complete. The man (who was seated in 2C) comes to me and asks me to step off of the plane. I agree, and once I get there he shows me his FAM badge. Then he asks me to get my ID, and I do. In the meatime, the lady comes to the jetway, and gives me the same routine. They questioned me for 15-20 minutes, with very stupid questions. The lady calls some phone number, and gives all of this info. They asked absolutely everything. I thought this was slightly ridiculous, because not once did they tell me what the problem was. While I may not be a stupid teenager, I think it would have been nice if I would have been treated that way. They rudely questioned me, without ever giving me any reasoning. I explained that DCA was the cheapest, and I am travelling on Labor Day weekend because I am a student and don't have school. Anyway, after a good chunk of time, they let me back on the plane.

Once I get back to my seat I could tell it was going to be a bad flight. The lady next to me took out a Condi book, and a notepad and pen, and pointed it exaclty away from me. She took notes for 30 minutes. The guy in seat 2C was playing with his PDA for the entire flight, and I am sure it was not for solitaire. Throughout the whole flight, I got some of the worst service. Everytime an FA walked by I got a crazy stare, and the level of my service declined. For example, the Marshalls were asked several times if they wanted pretzels, I not once.

So I just sit the whole flight in one position, without doing anything. I was scared I was going to do something suspicious . So once I get off the flight I thought it was all good. NO! As soon as I get up, the guy in 2C says he has a few more questions and that I should step onto the jetway. The lady sitting next to me goes straight to the cockpit. There he questions me with more stupid questions for another 15-20 minutes. They were trying to call an ORD Supervisor (I believe for UA and not for the FAM's). Then the Captain gets off the plane, and he was apparently planning on talking to me but said "Thanks you two for taking care of this", as if they stopped a terrorist. They got my Mileage Plus number and everything. After that, they took me off the plane and into the concourse, There they held me for another 10 minutes. Eventually they realized they could not get a supervisor, so they let me go. they thankes me for my cooperation.

ORD-TPA
Flight crew not overly friendly.


So, after this abismal day aboard the "Friendly Skies" what do you think? I personally think this was on the verge of harassment. They had to question a teenager about taking pictures for the better part of 45 minutes, without EVER explaining anything to me. Now I may personally be more mature then most my age when it comes to flying, but this kind of treatment was not appropriate for a teenager. Should I write UA about this overall abismal experience? You think I will have problems in the future in my M+ account or in any other record? Do you think the crew had something to do with this, at least the captain?

I for the first time yesterday just could not wait to get home!



THANKS!