Over the 2004 winter holidays, Monika and I flew United Airlines to the West coast from Pennsylvania to visit family and to go skiing in Bend, Oregon. Our return flight was a disaster, and we won't be flying United again.
The flight from Pennsylvania to Oregon wasn't too bad; it wasn't spectacular, but it wasn't particularly unpleasant. United did lose our luggage on the inbound flight, but since they delivered the missing luggage to our door early the next morning -- Christmas Day -- I won't complain much about that. The real trouble started on our return flight.
January, 2004, saw severe snowstorms in the northern states and Oregon. In particular, Chicago got eight feet of snow, and many flights into and out of Chicago were cancelled. Chicago also happened to be the city we were flying through to get back to Philadelphia, since -- for some reason -- there are no direct flights from Portland to Philly.
We arrived at the airport four hours early, and the lines at the ticket counter had already overflowed the looping ticket line and were looping weaving back and forth in front of other airline ticket counters. We didn't notice such severe lines in front of any other airline's counters.
Since the line looked to be several hours long, I got on the phone and called United's reservation desk, and attempted to reroute our flight through some other hub. The earliest flight that United could find for us was the next morning at seven A.M., flying through San Fransisco. The ticket agent refused to find us a flight on another, non-partner airline, and this constitutes my first complaint. If your flight is delayed due to weather, United will not book you on a non-partner airline.
Now that we had our tickets and it was obvious that we were going to have to stay overnight in Portland, I asked the telephone ticket agent if United could find us lodging and/or reimburse us for the room. I was told that I needed to discuss that with an agent at a ticket counter. This meant that I needed to stand in line for two more hours to get to an agent. I was worried that, by the time I got to the counter, all of the nearby hotels would be booked, so I called and reserved a room for us at the Embassy Suites1.
After hanging up, I tried twice to contact United via their 800 number; however, by that point, United's reservation line was not accepting calls due to high call volume. This constitutes my second complaint: in the event of a situation like this, United is incapable of even handling customer service issues; not only will they not assist you in finding lodging, but they don't have sufficient resources to answer your telephone calls.
Finally I reached a ticket agent, only to be told that, no, United does not reimburse passengers or offer any sort of voucher for passengers delayed due to weather. This constitutes my third complaint: if you are delayed due to weather, you're on your own. United will not reimburse you for any lodging or food.
Now, we don't blame United for the snow. Every airline is subject to that. However, United provided such poor service in this situation that we will not fly United, and we strongly recommend that anybody planning to fly choose an airline other than United. Their inability to handily a hardly uncommon situation such as flight delays due to weather makes us extremely uncomfortable with their ability to handle any real emergency situation.