Chicago Nightmare
 

I was flying PDX-SFO-ORD-SAV in NF on Thursday. First two flights (mainline) fine.
Chicago was a madhouse, presumably because of AA's cancellations and it was....raining. After standing in line 30 minutes at gate C-9 to get to E-3 some woman in a uniform yelled "The ground is closed...you're on your own, and walked off," apparently telling us that the shuttles across terminals were shut down by the rain?!?
We get to E-3 for ORD-SAV after getting 3 EzUpdates telling me fllight would leave at 9:23, then 8:23, then the scheduled 7:23. There was a large crowd at the gate and one UX agent with real attitude. They kept chaning the departure every 10 minutes then after anout an hour the agent leaves the screen crashes and 90 minutes after scheduled departure NOTHING. I call the 1K line and am told the plane now leaves at F-12. There is a break room next to the gate with the door open so I poke my head in and ask one of the two women wearing United uniforms if they can help. "We don't work here," they say.
Finally I announce to the 50 people that I THINK our gate is now in another terminal and I THINK most made their way.
The worst CS I've seen to date at the gate.

My wife finally made it to ORD on Thursday night around 12am and the airport was indeed a madehouse. Having missed her onward connection to BOS, she tried to rebook for the next day.
Apparently, there were only only two agents for the whole B concourse and needless to say a lot of angry travellers

That E/F UX area at ORD is a zoo during bad weather, and the stereotypical agent in that area seems to have eaten pissed-on corn flakes for breakfast that day.

I flew out of ORD last weekend and it was not very pleasent. No weather problems at all but check-in staff were no where to be found, causing delays. The two that were on deck were very slow. Open F/C agents watched the line grow, but did not come over to the 1P/2P/3P line to assist.

Past check-in, I found the agents unwilling to help with a relatively minor request, but ran into a supervisor that did help me after noting out loud that I must have gone with the connection because it was cheaper than the non-stop. They were the same price at booking.

ORD was my home airport for 6 years, but this time it left a bad taste in my mouth.

It is zoo-like during decent weather. Especially that set of F gates all the way down at the end. The only difference is that during good weather when the flights are going out relatively close to schedule, the agent's corn flakes may not have been pissed-on.

I had my first UX experience at ORD a few weeks ago - almost missed the A gates at IAD. It's just as third world. They announced a gate change for my flight, never updated the main monitors and didn't bother to change the signs at the gate. When it was clear the flight was going late, the concern just increases because you just can't be sure the gate really did change and that you're in the right place since no signs supported it. Finally got out of there, but what a mess!!

Pushback for my flight Thursday night was delayed from about 7 to 7:30 because the ramp was closed due to thunderstorms in the area. The threat of lightning, not rain, likely closed down the shuttles.

Par for the course with UX at ORD.

We did have some ugly weather Thursday and Friday. Lots of rain, a few thunderstorms in the area, low ceilings and wind-advisory-level winds.

Add in the AA fiasco that likely had AA pax begging seats (plus the stray ATA pax), and I suspect that ground staff got quite out of sorts.

1) UA runs the gates in terminal 2, not UAX (from a CS/gate persprctive.)
2) The UA breakroom is nowhere near where you describe, so you stuck your head in some other room, so the people were accurate in what they said.

I wonder who you mistook for UA CS employees when you popped your head in a (presumably) non-public room.

32 segments into or out of ORD so far this year and I can say without hesitation that CS is much, much worse this year than ever before. From check-in, to gate, to baggage, it is just sad :(

I wouldn't brag about that!

He doesn't say next to which gate. . .

I bet it was the wheelchair pushers breakroom!

My MSP-DEN flight was delayed for 4-5 hours. The plane had been sitting at ORD for over 4 hours waiting to take-off. It started to snow at MSP and they were down to one runway.

LOL...it was an informative post, not a brag. FT is for sharing info for me, not about bragging.

And the breakroom is nowhere near ANY gate, so he can choose any/every gate, and he still will not be near the place he thought he was.