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Not flying United (Read 240 times)

stadjak


Interval Junkie --Nobby

    Yeah.  I used to have a wonderful bag that was like the Millennium Falcon of luggage that one day was declared too small by one of the Red Jacketed/Jackbooted TSA line fascists.  Like you, I'd taken the same plane model on previous leg of my trip.

     

    Fortunately, there was another Security entrance, so I just went to the other line and had no problem at all.  Bag fit with room to spare.\

     

    I think the thing that makes Air Travel so detestable is the insecurity caused by new rules that pop up -- especially if you don't fly very often:

     

    - Need to show up at the airport 2hrs before your flight

    - Take off your shoes

    - 3-3-3

    - No, your belt is fine

    - Are disposable razors allowed in carry-ons?

    - Shit, I brought my great-grandpa's fishing pen-knife with me

    - Forgot to empty my nalgeen bottle

    - Please don't X-Ray my high-speed film - it's in that lead container for a reason

    - Luggage too large (why did you get one with outside pockets?!)

    - Your flight is delayed for 2hrs . . . maybe cancelled; we're not going to tell you until we have to.

    - TSA line is incredibly long and even though you're there 2hrs early, you fear not making the flight

    - You're late, but flight hasn't boarded; people ahead of you in TSA line are permanently stupid and slow -- with kids -- and needs.

    - the gate doors close 20mins early

    - Gate changes, and nobody tells you

    - In-bound flight hasn't arrived yet with your plane

    - In-bound crew late; crew "timed out"; your flight cancelled

    - We're waiting for to repair a mechanical problem

    - Crew timed-out; everyone off the plane.  Standing in this 3hr line to rebook

    - You need to go through security again for your transfer

    - For this flight you also need to go through American security; which includes a pop-quiz

    - Yes, your carry on fit the last flight, but Euro rules are different, so it needs to be checked . . . for $100.

    - You have 45mins for your transfer and your incoming flight is 35mins late . . . and parked on the other side of the airport

    - Your boarding pass has no seat assignment

    - Only way to guarantee a seat is to buy an upgrade (this seems to be a new "gotcha")

    - You got bumped

    - They start demanding you surrender your carry-on because the "flight is full" (even though when you get on the plane there are still spaces left for your bag)

    - Hold on, was my medication in that bag?

    - Where is my luggage

    - Wrong carousel

    - Always the last bag onto the carousel

    - Crap, my luggage lost a wheel in transit

    - Does Uber pickup at this airport?

    - Phone almost dead

    - Why is my Uber downstairs at the "Arrivals" area when everyone knows ride-share picks up arrivals at the Departures area. (ORD)

     

    Fun times.

    2021 Goals: 50mpw 'cause there's nothing else to do

    stadjak


    Interval Junkie --Nobby

      In the interest of being fair about fares:

       

      United customer service called me and listen to me politely vent about the non-sense of paying to "re-ticket" a return flight, if you don't use the out-bound flight.

       

      In the end I walked away with $100 in United-bucks. (which is about half the price of the original ticket)

      2021 Goals: 50mpw 'cause there's nothing else to do


      Feeling the growl again

         

        Even with a properly scanned boarding pass I've had an airline try to move my son from his paid seat to my lap so they could make way for more passengers. They had already promised the seat to the passenger, I stood my ground, and the agent was in tears by the end of the fiasco. What a shitty flight.

        MTA: Just realized this was about 13 years ago. Where did the time go?

        Yes, this is my primary gripe with American.  Twice traveling with the family, they revoked our reserved-at-booking seats and split up our family of five - at the time, putting a 5 and 3-year-old in middle seats across the plane from either parent.   The American people told me it was my problem and I had to get someone to switch seats with me.  Nobody would.  So I sat my 5-yr-old daughter in her seat, crossed the plane, and took my assigned seat.  Of course she lost it sitting between two strange dudes, drawing in the flight attendant.  They asked whose kid, I raised my hand.  They told me I needed to take care of her so I said no, you put us in these seats against my choice and have refused to fix it, I am obeying your rules.  So unless you re-seat us, she is now YOUR problem.

         

        Very quickly, the seating snafu was fixed.

         

        However, this was repeated on the second leg of the outbound trip, and both legs of the return trip.

         

        No more American.

         

        And yes, my biggest pet peeve is also the lack of consistency in enforcing carry-on baggage size rules.  I love it when I miss my connection because some dude delayed our push-back trying to cram a human-sized duffel into the overhead of a Delta commuter jet.

        "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

         

        I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

         

        jerseyrunner


        Half Fanatic 12680

          To add to the list of complaints, how the airlines treat passengers in wheelchairs is appalling. On one flight, United refused to store my son-in-law's wheelchair in the main passenger space and insisted in putting it in the luggage area. There is a space to store wheelchairs in the passenger space and airlines are required to do so, but many prefer to use this space for first class passengers to store their coats or extra carry-ons. Of course, they broke the chair, a $4,000 piece of machinery and my son-in-law had no way to get home from the airport. The airlines provided him with a push wheelchair, but his is motorized so he can use it on his own. Eventually, the airlines paid for the repair of the chair and a taxi to his home, but it took hours to arrange the transportation home and a week to get the chair repaired -- a week that he was confined to his apartment. The airlines would rather break chairs and pay to have them fixed then to use the designated space for it's intended purpose.

           

           

          rlopez


            Air travel indeed sucks. Now, I could go through stadjak's long list one at a time and say why most of those things are the way they are, but it doesn't really matter because abstractly, it all just kind of sucks. Air travel sucks.

            As for airlines being required to store wheelchairs in the cabin, kind of. The actual rule about this (https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/passengers-disabilities) just covers aircraft with over 100 seats and the requirement is just for "new" aircraft (this was from 2015). Of course, that little word causes all kinds of consternation because it isn't really crystal clear.

             

            Anyway, I bet most of you don't get pulled aside as often as I do (above 50% of my visits through TSA in 2017 so far). Or sent to a little room for a chat. Or have your bag(s) removed from the plane and placed on the tarmac in your view as you push back. Or have your bags sent on strange odysseys as often (I'm pushing 25% on that this year). Or have your stuff randomly searched supposedly because the bags are monogrammed KNIFE (that's my girlfriend's name and while it sounds like the lamest excuse ever by TSA, it's really just supposed to be a goofy "we so dumb!" cover for why they might actually be pulling my stuff aside).

              Sounds like the TSA assholes are profiling you my man. I travel with a 32 liter backpack, and haven't had any issues, so far.

              xhristopher


                To add to the list of complaints, how the airlines treat passengers in wheelchairs is appalling. On one flight, United refused to store my son-in-law's wheelchair in the main passenger space and insisted in putting it in the luggage area. There is a space to store wheelchairs in the passenger space and airlines are required to do so, but many prefer to use this space for first class passengers to store their coats or extra carry-ons. Of course, they broke the chair, a $4,000 piece of machinery and my son-in-law had no way to get home from the airport. The airlines provided him with a push wheelchair, but his is motorized so he can use it on his own. Eventually, the airlines paid for the repair of the chair and a taxi to his home, but it took hours to arrange the transportation home and a week to get the chair repaired -- a week that he was confined to his apartment. The airlines would rather break chairs and pay to have them fixed then to use the designated space for it's intended purpose.

                 

                My son uses a wheelchair and I used to travel with a printout of that regulation, which goes back before 2015. I needed it as airline employees were either ignorant of the rule, willfully wouldn't comply, or lied and denied there was such a rule. It was usually a battle as we found crews like to claim that as as their personal closet and are absolutely loath to move their stuff out for a wheelchair. They would give excuses like it's the crew's closet (not officially), the chair won't fit (barely did when wheels were removed), you are supposed to gate check it, and just make stuff up and so on. I always won the battle but it was frustrating and eventually I didn't want to bother waging the battle up to 4 times per round trip so now we now fly with my son's backup manual chair with power assist wheels (he uses a power chair daily). We go ahead and gate check the frame while everything goes in a duffel and I bring the expensive wheels in too. The crew usually tells me they won't fit overhead but they do.

                 

                The level of strategy required to fly is appalling. First on and last off and no ability to ever get up and use a bathroom! Sometimes the plane is cleaned before we can get off. Fortunately the crew can not leave until the last passenger is off so the have strong incentive to help round up the folks who bring the aisle chair.

                 

                Experience with employees is mixed. Once on a smaller regional jet that required checking the chair it was raining. We watched a guy pull the chair off and let it sit int he pouring rain. By the time it made it to the jetway the cushion was soaked. The employee who assisted us was appalled and had already gathered us a stack of blankets to put over the cushion.

                 

                Really, it's simple. If airlines would only train their employees to see their actions from the customer's side they may make better decisions. When they fling wheelchairs around and break them do they realize those are someone's legs? I could go on...

                rlopez


                  Sounds like the TSA assholes are profiling you my man. I travel with a 32 liter backpack, and haven't had any issues, so far.

                   

                  I am universally loved by both TSA and Border Patrol.

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