<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by j379pa:
I flew United (actually the shuttle, now run by Sky West) from PHX to OAK last Sunday. It was supposed to be a direct flight.
I arrrived and saw the board behind the desk said Los Angeles. Double checking my ticket, I saw I had the right flight number, and checked in. Nothing else said.
Smaller plane, so had to check my bag at the gate. They wrote "OAK" on it. Again, nothing else said.
Arrived at LAX (late, due to fog there), watched everyone else deplane, and two of us for OAK are left. The stewardess said we had to get off, that the plane was going back to PHX. We pointed out that we were going to OAK, showed her our tickets, etc. The plane was parked in the boonies, far from any gates.
Soon, a van shows up, drives us and our luggage around the outside of the airport to an empty gate, where another plane with the same flight number had already left for OAK. The people at the desk said they wondered where we were when they loaded the plane (!?!). Finally got another flight to OAK, arrving there 10 hours after I had left home for a 2 hour flight.
Lost several hours, and was astounded that nothing or no one said anything about changing planes in LAX, or even going there. Also--it's apparent that United had two flights in the air at the same time with the same flight number.
Needless to say, United has lost my confidence and will receive a note from me later this week. I would be interested in your comments.</font>
I would have said something at check in when I saw the board said Los Angeles and not Oakland. My experience with United Express/Skywest is that they don't often know what they're doing...and I dont just mean the counter people. It seems like they wing it sometimes as far as which aircraft are going to go where.