As a result, I was not able to fly on my scheduled departure date.

I looked up seat availabilty online, and flights that would get me back to the Newark, NJ airport prior to Christmas Eve were showing available seats. When I attmpted to switch my flight, I was told by agents, supervisors and Customer Relations that those seats were ONLY available for purchase.

Since I have been stupid enough to be loyal to United, I had an additional 50,000 miles available and offered these miles in exchange for a seat on one of these flights. I was told by a United airlines Manager at LAX that this was not feasible, as the way the airline makes money is by selling seats, and the only seats they had available were for purchase at a fee of $1,000 or more. The soonest they could let me use the remaining portion of my frequent flyer ticket was on the red-eye Christmas Eve into Christmas day.

They could clearly see at the ticketing counter that I had just had surgery, as I still have a black eye, stitches and a plate in my mouth. What they offered was a “special fare medical emergency ticket.”

What’s even more insulting… they said that I could fly Orange County to Laguardia, if I paid a $100 change fee. ARE THEY SERIOUS??????

Did I mention that I spent a total of 10 hours yesterday and today trying to resolve this issue in person and on the phone?

Finally, I figured I would get the last laugh… I will fly stand-by. They have many seats available, and I will undoubtedly get one just by showing up. I won’t have to pay more and I won’t have to give them any more miles. Screw United.

I will be canceling my United credit card and telling my company travel agentcy that we will no longer be using United.

Oh… every United employee I spoke with thanked me for being a Premier customer, having flown nearly 200,000 miles with this airline alone.

What do I want as compensation? There is no compensation for the grief and suffering caused by their unfriendly policies.

Happy Holidays.

I awoke at 5 am to get on a 645 United Flight in Orange County, CA. The United website said it was on time. Passengers boarded the plane on time, then proceed to wait on the plane for forty minutes BEFORE the pilot announced, “There’s going to be a delay in this flight because of a technical problem WE SHOULD HAVE FIXED LAST NIGHT. The part we need is in Los Angeles and needs to be driven to Orange County so there will be another two hour delay causing anyone with a connecting flight to miss theirs. We deplaned and stood in line to rebook our flights. I rebooked on the 8:45 flight which would now give mea four hour layover in Chicago instead of a two hour layover. Twenty minutes afterwards, an announcement came over the lous speaker that the SECOND flight was “indefinitely delayed” because of yet another mechancical error. I tried to get my bags off the plane and reschedule again but they would not let me. The line to reschedule was now twice as long because everyone on the second flight now had to rebook. While standing in line, I also tried to rebook over the phone on Uniteds “voice recognition system”. While speakign to the automated voice, and pressing a series of buttons to go through the process, a voice came on over the loudspeaker about the cancellation and the “voice activiated system at United said, “It’s sounds like you said, “Good-bye. Good-bye.” and disconnected me. I called another time, but did it outside of the airport becasue i didn’t want to have the same thing happen. Before my call went through to an attendant a recorded voice asked me if i would like to take a customer service questionnaire after I was done speaking with the attendant. I would have done so but she discconnected me. My bags are now in Pennsylvania, containing an important business report which will hopefully be sent back to Orange County.

Please continue this blog until this airline is shut down. This is only one of many United nightmare stories. Others - please share yours.

Sandra