Today, I was supposed to fly to LA at 12:25pm. Instead, I got on a plane at noon and then got back off at 1:30pm. After securing a different non-broken plane, we finally took off around 5pm. I missed my connection…by hours.
When we first boarded, a crazy woman (who turned out to be 3 times the legal alcohol limit) was raising a ruckus in the crowded first class cabin of the ancient 757 we were destined not to fly on. Something about her bag being moved and it being filled with absolutely precious and priceless photographic equipment. She was rude to a flight attendant, and that was it. Off the plane she went. Just before we de-plane’d, we saw her being driven off in the back of a police car. The rest of the cabin thought it was all pretty amusing.
But we were not amused when the engine failed on the tarmac. Back to the gate we go. A computer card swap did not solve the problem, but it did delay a real solution for well over an hour. Eventually we got a different plane and re-boarded from a different gate.
Here’s the real problem. For our trouble, United offered us an “appreciation” card (see http://united.com/appreciation), which entitles an inconvenienced passenger to a pittance of a reward for their trouble. Last time something like this happened (a mere two weeks ago), I was offered 9000 miles or $250 as a reward for a broken business class pod on a $7000 round-trip ticket! Nice. Um, wrong order of magnitude. This time I was once again offered 9,000 miles or $250 for a missed connection and a night that in LA that will cost me way more than that. If you ask me, United needs to make their bribes come into line with their fares.
UNITED AIRLINES, anybody listening? Will you please stop sucking when 2011 ends? Please? Or maybe we will give you an “appreciation” 40 lashes and 5 days in the stocks. Grumble, doublespeak, grumble.