Our flight was cancelled... a pox on United!
 

After our last experience with United, I swore I'd never fly with them again (got bumped for suspect reasons, they wouldn't pay for our hotel in NYC, terribly rude service, etc.)... but out of four flights we're taking to and from Spain, one leg is with United. We live in Chicago; they're hard to avoid.

Anyway. I should be on a plane to Amsterdam right now, with a connection to Barcelona tomorrow. However, our flight was cancelled due to mechanical problems. TWO planes were brought to the gate, and BOTH had problems that could not be fixed soon enough. So now my husband and I are leaving tomorrow at 4 p.m., and we won't find out until tomorrow the details of our connection from AMS to BCN on Saturday. We are losing at least one full day of our vacation.

So now we're back at home, kind of in shock... I'm just so sad and mad, I had to write a post here! At least United paid for our cab home and back to the airport tomorrow. Tomorrow I will attempt to have them pay for the hotel we'd booked in Barcelona for tomorrow night. It's too late to get a refund.

SO frustrating... words can't describe.

If the flight is canceled due to mechanical problems, United is required by law to put you up in a hotel for the night and put you on the first available flight to your destination.

That said, United has a number of problems besides their enormous debt, mechanical breakdowns are not uncommon for the airline.

Strass - I am so sorry and can understand how you must be ready to spit tacks!

I hope, after the details of the flight are worked out, that you will enjoy your trip but what a rotten beginning!

They did give hotel vouchers to people, but we didn't need one since we live here in Chicago.

I'm just mad that I've lost a day of vacation. I'm actually on hold with a reservations agent right now trying to confirm our connecting flight to Barcelona. She told me it was a good thing I called, since the flight we'd want is almost full. Good lord.

Thanks Happy! A nice cold beer is helping somewhat. :)

I think that's really unacceptable, as ORD is their main hub and HQ. They can't get a substitute, and can't get a plane fixed in a few hours? That's ridiculous.

Hi strass,

I feel for you. It's just such a let down.

Here's one on me. ((B))

This was the glitch, here's to smooth sailing for the rest of your journey!

strass, my sympathies. An awful start to your holiday. I hope the remainder exceeds your expectations and I hope you get to BCN tomorrow. Hope you succeed in getting credit for your hotel - it would only be fair!

Two interesting comments: firstly TWO aircraft had tech problems; secondly, Robert's comment "mechanical breakdowns are not uncommon for the airline".

My personal experience with Air Canada is that mechanical problems are very rare on transatlantic flights. What's happening: are UA not maintaining their planes because of financial difficulties?

I'm sorry to hear, that's very upsetting. American Airlines did the same to me last April in Dallas. First they said our plane had mechanical problems, but they eventually admitted that our plane was actually OK but was urgently needed for another destination. We were subsequently given two broken planes that were not allowed to take off even after they tried fixing them after they boarded us. They avoided having to put us up into a hotel since we were boarded into the broken planes before the 3 hour delay limit. We managed to sleep inside the two broken planes. The only silver lining I could think of is the fact they didn't let the broken planes take off.

Yes, planes broke down, but they can also be fixed. And being a Chicago-based airline flying a plane made by a Chicago-based manufacturer (Boeing), and can't get a plane fixed and go out? That simply mean one thing - they don't try hard enough.

In contrast, compare that to Continental, which all my family members fly often. Yes, their planes break down too, but they will try everything to get a substitute or get the plane fixed, especially for international flights. I know for a fact that they've sent flights out to Beijing and Hong Kong after mechanical problems. 7 or 8 hours delay is much better than 24 hours when something starting a vacation or having a meeting to attend.

Or if a plane broke down in Europe, they'd immediately ferry out a 757 out there to "rescue" those passengers. Again, maybe 7-8 hours late and may arrive back in the US late, but that's still better than 24 hours.

See, it's all about perspective. Strass's situation is a major disappointment.

The one you describe rkwan -- " if a plane broke down in Europe, they'd immediately ferry out a 757 out there to "rescue" those passengers. Again, maybe 7-8 hours late and may arrive back in the US late, but that's still better than 24 hours."

No it's not. :-)

An extra 24 hours in Chicago, at the beginning of my vacation, is unacceptable.

A 24-hour delay in Europe? Heck, that's a bonus! :D







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Sorry for your trip delay. That brings back memories of the first night of our trip several years ago . We got to spend it in Baton Rouge right across from the airport instead of in Paris!! Thanks, Delta. Three cancelled flights before we got off the ground!

AHH United. Yes we booked a flight this summer for our HONEYMOON using United. And it was also cancelled- we got 2 reasons the first one was bad weather in Philly made the staff go over the contracted work time sitting on the tar mac waiting to pick us up. Second reason the pilots wife was seriously ill??? Well, that threw everything in to a three day nightmare. The flight we were finally able to get on to Europe was cramped and horrible on Air France. Once we got to Florence the hotel we book cancelled us, even though we called. That is only part of the story- the whole thing takes about half an hour to tell and even though it is mostly fun and ironic now it wasn't then. We will NEVER fly United again regardless of the price! I hope you trip is wonderful and all you can do now is laugh- it will keep you from going nuts:)

Hey! I thought they went bankrupt. Is this the result of letting it still operate?

Hi Strass,

Well, the worst is over. :)

Bon Voyage.

((I))

When Swissair went bankrupt, they were grounded. Then they started a new company called Swiss which later was bought up by Lufthansa. Swiss is finally doing OK again.

Different countries, different practices.

That stinks. Sorry to hear that it happened strass. I'd be very upset too - I wait all year for a big trip and to lose a day of it would be worse than a financial loss. I hope you're in the air today and suspect that you'll avoid United in the future. Certainly a last choice for us. We dont fly from ORD, but rather we fly through it a lot. AA can be frustrating at times, but as they are so heavily ingrained there, it has allowed us to avoid United for several years now.

I agree with rkkwan. If an airline can't arrange a plane and crew in their HQ city, with TWO in disrepair, they're either completely unwilling to work through it or they're just not servicing the planes to begin with. I HOPE it's the former, as sad as that is. I remember sitting in Melbourne airport once waiting as Qantas FLEW IN a replacement long haul 747 from Sydney, as "ours" had been in a damaging hailstorm on the inbound. Granted, it's a smaller airline in some ways, but it was also not a plane that's easy to swap for another model (nothing else could carry as may passengers) and the circumstances was real damage, not malfunction. Qantas would have had much more rationalization for cancelling, but they planned for it, so that they didn't have to. Some airlines seem to be in the situation that they're lucky to be able to keep flying, much less have contingency plans.

I'm sorry to hear that you missed part of your vacation. It doesn't sound like a fun start.
However, this stuff can happen to anyone at anytime. I've been on 76 United or United Express flights this year. One flight was delayed due to weather around Chicago so United bought me a ticket on Northwest to get me home that day and my flight home from Houston last week was delayed for two hours due to flow control in Chicago. Our flight to London in January had mechanical problems and United had to get another plane giving us a two hour delay. Other than that all of my flights have been on time and relatively uneventful.
Ron

I am furious for you.

That said...and I haven't read all the threads so someone else may have said this already...

Every time Life throws such an annoyance at me, I strive to think, "Maybe something much, much worse was going to happen if things were not changed in some way...maybe this infuriating roadblock was put here to keep me safe."

Have a safe, wonderful trip.
s

I'm a United frequent flyer with no financial interest in the airline but I wanted to clarify a few points:

- United is no longer in bankruptcy and posted profits last quarter.
-While flying from a hub city improves your chances of getting on a different flight/aircraft, you are still subject to the whims of scheduling. Oftentimes, being at a hub city will work to your disadvantage, since all flights are usually completely booked and the airline will have little wiggle room to move their payload around.
-Not all planes are configured/approved to fly internationally. Most airlines don't have spare jumbo, internationally configured planes sitting around to use as backups.
- United has one of the safest, youngest and best maintained fleets of aircraft of all the legacy carriers.

That is really too bad, I'm sorry for your situation and hope you get on your way soon. Sheez, what a let down!
kindly, Suze

Thanks, everyone, for all your replies. It definitely helps to read through them! My husband and I got a good night's sleep and will be leaving for O'Hare soon... getting there in plenty of time to visit the ticket counter to get our tickets for our new Amsterdam-Barcelona flight (luckily, they were able to fit us on when I called about it last night). I'm also going to pretty much demand they pay the $75 we're losing on our first night's hotel in BCN.

Now we have a six-hour layover (before it was four hours) in AMS, which is a bonus... we love that city and will try to get into the city center for a couple of hours. Trying hard to see the bright side of all this!

I just hope our bags make it to BCN. That's all I need now...

Forgot to add, although the security lines at O'Hare yesterday were the longest I've ever seen them anywhere, we brought our small liquids and gels in the requisit ziplock bag and had no problems whatsoever. If you follow the rules, things go smoothly. And it's great being able to buy water afterward and bring it on the plane!

I wouldn't excuse UA this easily.

- AMS is a major international airport. While not as important for them as LHR or FRA (LH hub), it's still an important overseas destination.

- ORD is UA's HQ, and they have tonnes of 767 flights to Europe. You tell me they have <b>two</b> broken 767s that they can't fix in a few hours? Sorry, I don't buy that.

- UA has 34 767-300s in service, 21 of them with 3-class international configuration. They can't find ONE operable plane at ORD that can substitute? And this is not peak summer season either.

- As for age, their 767-300ERs were delivered between 1991 and 2001. Fairly young.

Had a similar experience 7 years ago with the added insult that UA wouldn't take telephone rebooking and instead you have to stand in line for 3 hours to rebook and they said this rebooking in NOT guaranteed!! Never flew United again not even if their price or connection was better.

I wouldn't excuse them, either, but what can you do. AA did the exact same thing to me in Paris. So, it's not their hub, but it seemed odd to me they couldn't get another plane or fix one within a day. They even lied to us, so it was worse. We had a cancelled flight from Paris to US due to mechanical problems. Many hours of fooling around and waiting at CDG -- one day wasted in an airport before they admit we aren't going anywhere that day because they can't fix it so they have to fly another plane in for us. Why this is so difficult as they should have a lot in Europe, I don't know -- also, I think they claimed it took longer to get some part than it would if they flew it from their home in the US.

SO, they have to pay for hotel for everyone who doesn't live there, and we go back the next morning and go through that security all over again, and get on the plane -- and sit there and sit there, start, stop, sit there -- and finally the pilot comes us and says we can't go anywhere again because the plane is still broken because they lied to us and put us back on the exact same plane we had the day before rather than getting a new one.

Smoke was coming out of the tires and a couple blew or something, and the fire trucks came out. It was something overheating. After another half a day, they did fly in a new plane from London or somewhere and we finally left.

United may have &quot;one of the safest, youngest and best maintained fleets of aircraft of all the legacy carriers&quot;, but that does not belie the fact that they have problems with service, over-booking’s and delayed flights for one reason or another. Mechanical delays cost them money and create problems for everyone down the line, both passengers and employees. And if you are not a club member where you can get preferential service, delays can be a real headache.

BTW, UA's average fleet age is 11.7yr. It's about average among the legacy carriers.

CO 8.5
AS 10
US 10.4
NW 10.8
HP 11.9
DL 13.1
AA 13.3

From www.airsafe.com Also, HP and US have merged.

Just an update that United will not refund our $75 hotel fee for the first night of our vacation. A nice man in India seemed to do all he could to help me. He could offer me a &quot;special&quot; gift certificate of $125 for future travel, but that's it. (Everyone on the cancelled flight was issued a $100 certificate already.) I declined and strongly stated my displeasure. Apparently since the money was paid to the hotel, not United, they won't cut us a check.

I will work VERY hard in the future to stay away from this airline!

...transatlantic flights rarely break down...
I was on a flight to Iceland then UK that broke down about 2 hours out of Baltimore and it landed in Gander NF for repair. There were several other transatlantic flights at Gander waiting for repair. It seems that Gander is the last airport with a runway that can handle heavies before a flight from the US east coast heads out over the Atlantic, so that is where they will land for repair if something seems seriously amiss. The airport has extensive repair facilities and far more hotel rooms than one would expect for a city its size.

I would demand a free glass of wine on the next flight. Oh wait, United stated charging $5 for beer and wine going across the Atlantic a few years ago.