A Day at the Airport but Still Only Half Way There

Apparently, not only does United break guitars but they don't really do customer service very well either. Perhaps that's because they are merging with Continental, so United has no incentive to give Continental a good reputation. At any rate, here's a rundown of my experience with the airlines yesterday. I will try to be brief.

I arrived at SFO about two hours early. The airport was packed, but that makes sense because it's a Sunday morning in June and everyone is going somewhere for vaycay. I got my bag checked and made it through security without a body scan or pat down: all was well. I arrived at the departure gate and the boards listed the plane as on time. Sweet!

After purchasing an $8.00 orange juice and reading a bit, I checked the boards again. Ooops. At that moment United was switching the gates because . . . the plane had mechanical problems. We were being sent to another gate down the terminal, and there would be a 45 minute delay in departure. Of course that meant that our arrival in Houston would be late too.

For those people who had Houston as their final destination this was not a problem. And for those people who had a couple hour layover, this would also not be a problem. But for me, this was a problem. I had a very tight layover in Houston before catching the ONLY flight of the day to Villahermosa, Mexico. I was also supposed to be meeting several people at the airport in Villahermosa. So a delay would be unfortunate. But this is travel and these are the things that one comes to expect while on the road.

Because of my concern, I spoke with the gate agent. She told me there were others on the flight who also had tight connections to catch. As though that would somehow make it better for me. She also said I would probably be okay. As though I would not miss my next flight. All in all, her attitude was quite dismissive and her logic was impeccably flawed.

In my gut, I knew things were not going to turn out well. This awareness became particularly acute when, a few minutes later, the gate agent reported that we were not going to be 45 minutes late but rather 60 minutes late. That would give me 20 minutes to get off the plane, run through one of the largest airports in the U.S. and board my connecting flight. This would also mean that the baggage handlers would unload our plane and throw my checked luggage onto the connecting flight. In 20 minutes. Nope. No way. Not gonna happen. And I knew it. But when I approached a second gate agent with some advice about this, he was as dismissive as the first agent. He suggested I talk with the people on the flight.

So, I did. When I got on the plane I spoke with one of the servers. She asked what seat I was in: 24D. "Okay," she said, "we'll call you." This was not clear to me. Call me? What for? But there were people waiting behind me and I did not want to be the one to hold up the line. So I took to my seat which had become my name.

About half way through the flight, after I had not been called, I approached another server. Immediately as I began speaking with her, she said "Are you 24D?" I had been reduced to a number. This is what it had come to in my relationship with United.

"Yes," I said, acknowledging my less-than-human status. "See, here's the problem," I tried to reason. "Technically I will not be late arriving into Houston. I will have 20 minutes between when this plane gets there and when my next departing plane takes off. So, should I try to run and catch the next flight and hope that my bag makes it with me? Or should I give up hope of catching the connection and go straight to ticketing for a new flight? And if I choose the latter, what can I expect for my luggage? Will it go on without me?"

The server who was a human said "I don't know." That's right: she could not answer a single question. Should I stay or should I go now? Bizarro World. I pressed her for answers and she continued to dissemble. We went round and round for several minutes until turbulence caused the seatbelt light to come on and I had to return to my seat. I swear, the pilot probably did that on purpose just to get her off the hook.

Eventually I came to the conclusion that I was going to have to take a chance on getting a new flight AND recovering my luggage. So when the plane landed I ran as fast as I could to the Continental Customer Service (why not United, you ask? because United did not have a customer service counter and my next flight was on Continental). The lady was quite pleasant. She booked me on the next flight to Villahermosa, which was not departing until the next day. She also explained that United was supposed to give me a hotel voucher because it was their fault that I did not catch my connection and had to spend the night in Houston.

Thus began the next round of negotiations. After about 90 minutes of wrangling, I was directed to the location where a hotel voucher was given out. Then it was off to find the luggage. The lady there tried to dissuade me from retrieving my luggage. She wanted to have it stay there and be routed onto the next day's flight. No way. Not gonna happen. I wanted my luggage. With a sigh, she filled out the form and sent me to another waiting area.  After another hour, a hard working young man threw my bag down onto the metal conveyor belt and I was on my way.

Or so I thought. It took nearly an hour for the shuttle to arrive for transport to the hotel. All in all, I spent nearly 4 hours at the airport after my arrival. Finally the shuttle came and deposited me and a vanload full of others who had missed their connections to the Crowne Plaza North Hotel in Houston. It's a lovely establishment. The young man who checked me in, Ryan is his name, explained that Continental/United sends about 40 people each day to their hotel. He also said they have accounts with other hotels in Houston to which they send people regularly. One can begin to appreciate the numbers of missed connections simply by the volume of hotel check ins. The Crowne Plaza does bang up business because of airline inefficiencies.

One other point: Ryan explained that usually when a person was given a hotel voucher, the airline would also give a couple of meal vouchers. I did not receive the meal vouchers so I have ended up spending about US$50 on food since I arrived in Houston. And my flight does not leave until 6:00pm tonight!

So, what's the take away message here? That United employees do not care. Because of re-structuring issues in their organization they have no concern for customer satisfaction. It is understandable when an airplane has mechanical problems. It is understandable when there are delays in travel. What was completely incomprehensible for me, was the way in which United employees did not do ANYTHING to assist me in figuring out a Plan B. They did not give honest information. They did not give ground support. They did not even acknowledge their own role in my travel dilemma. I was simply a number to be passed along. Thus, my advice, don't fly United.