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.