I had what was probably the most bizarre trip from Seattle WA to Mountain Home AR, that could ever be. It took me 25 hours, on a bus, airplane, rental car and more.... United Airlines could not have less friendly or uncarring in trying to make my trip any better. You can read the whole amazing and unbelievable trip on my blog at www.workathomemom247.blogdumps.net You won't believe what I had to do to get to Arkansas and then back to Seattle after my trip was done. I will never fly United Airlines that much I can tell you.

Nice rant, very amusing. Lesson: book to correct city! Lesson2: Get luggage first, THEN rental car. Lesson3: call ICC (india call center, which you probably got) and make a lot of complicated changes, then cancel them all. They will probably screw your reservation all up, and then you can get what you really want for free!

-C

Another person shorting UAUA I imagine?

I think the mourning period over this at UA will be short.

sheesh ...

i knew when she started off by complaining about them confiscating her Gatorade and making her take her laptop out at security, it was going to be and ARDUOUS journey for all involved (including readers) . . . .

Good grief, this is one of the most flatulent, boviated narratives I've ever read.

"Trip from hell"? Boo-hoo.

It still sounds preferable to a coast to coast on US Airways.

How about the trip report from hell?

I saw the "Trip Report Part 4" link in the sidebar and knew this couldn't be good.

The announcements likened to Chinese Water Torture. What, no earplugs? Setting the cell phone alarm for a wakey wakey call in time for the flight?

Going straight to the rental car w/o stopping for luggage? Then, complaining about what a small airport it is? I've actually done this a couple of times, but ONLY at a major airport & only when it's obvious the luggage is going to take a while. Yet, she rightly notes it's Springfield Illinois, calls it the smallest town on the face of earth...if it's that small, then it's obvious the luggage won't take long to unload and that carousel should have been her first stop.

Drama like "my family has called 500 times". Really? That many? I was answering 500 phone calls I'd be late enough to miss a lot more than my luggage.

Storms in Illinois that are bad enough ancel & delay flights out of Chicago--not sure why it would be a mystery as to why flights elsewhere in Illinois are delayed?

Now the United.bomb customer service line (so glad I don't have to talk to Bangalore when I call AA) guy first saying it's just a change fee & an expedia fee, THEN saying it's nearly $1K US and she can't go back to the previous res., that's just wrong.

I would say her determination to take care of her family is amazing. Even though its completely obvious that most of her troubles were self-inflicted, and clearly prevent-able (and as such, difficult for gathering sympathy) her determination to care for her family seems to be what drove her to persist thru them all.

I'm sure there's a few people on this board who've incorrectly booked the wrong city, or the wrong day, etc. by accident and have had to cough up the change fee...and I've seen many occasions in ORD where people found out the hard way that there's two Springfield's, five hours apart. I've even been sitting on the plane when the FA reads connecting gate info., a pax goes, "Which Springfield was that?" and the FA doesn't know, or says which one it is and the passenger replies with something that can't be posted here.

The only truly valid arguments I believe she has is the way the ICC handled the situation. "Oh, I can change the airport from SPI to SGF for only the $150 fee plus $25 Expedia fee." Then to come back and say, "Oops, you have to pay the $950 additional, and I've already charged it so you have to pay it." We may know that it'll cost a fare difference but many kettles won't. If that's actually what occurred on the phone with ICC, that's complete crap. But with the other examples of hyperbole, I'm sure there's more to that story as well.

I believe the Donner Party had an actual "Trip From Hell." In that case, routing incorrectly led to actual starvation and cannibalism, rather than a 14.5-hour fast.

Ha!

Funny too that their wayward journey began in Springfield, IL.

^

My sentiments exactly

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