My Recent Experience With United Airlines
April 22, 2008
Last Saturday (April 19th, 2008), I embarked on Flight 846 operated by United with a schedule departure from Washington, DC (Dulles International Airport) to New York, NY (LaGuardia International Airport) with a departure time of 8:45PM and an arrival time of 10:15PM. My first time flying with United after 3 years and I can certainly say that there standards of service has fallen greatly. Firstly, they would not allow me to check my bag at 7:35AM, an hour and 10 mins before the plane is scheduled to take off. So I am forced to carry my bag as a hand luggage which resulted in me having to throw away my $75 bottle of cologne, my $55 bottle of hair gel and my $25 bottle of hand cream which are not allowed to pass through security. Upon arriving at the gate of departure, the plane is still schedule to live on time, I handed my boarding pass to the flight attendant and proceeded to find me seat. After 15mins of sitting in the plane the air hostess announces that one of the lavatory on the plane is not working and a technician is scheduled to be on the plane in 5 mins to fix the plane. The technician arrives and fixed the problem in 10 mins and leaves but still the plane does not take off. Another 10 mins later the Pilot announces that one of his indicators is not coming on so he cannot take off, that he is waiting on a technician to come on board to fix it. The technician arrives and easily fixes the problem and leaves. However the plane has still not moved, another 10 minutes goes by and the Pilot announces that he is awaiting the clear paper work to be printed on his wireless printer in the plane before he can take off. This process goes on for another 15 minutes before the Pilot cranked the engines up, backs out the plane and gets ready to hit the sky highway. So here we are, sitting on the runway for another 15 minutes but the plane is still not take off. A few minutes later the Pilot announces that he is waiting for clearance from New York to land, apparently he lost his alloted slot to land because of the many delays he had. Eventually we arrived safely at 11:20 in New York.
Comparing my experience going to New York, I anticipated a wonder flight back to Washington, DC. I was scheduled to leave on Sunday (April 20th, 2008) Flight 7295 operated by United Airlines with a schedule departure from New York (LaGuardia International Airport) to Washington, DC (Dulles International Airport) with a departure time of 8:45PM and an arrival time of 10:15PM. At 6:50PM, United calls me and tells me that my flight has be canceled and they have me now on an earlier flight that leaves at 8:15PM. I drop whatever I was doing and headed straight for the airport, printed my ticket at the airport and rushed to the Gate of departure. Arriving at the gate, there is a nice big sign in front of it. This flight has been DELAYED. Inquiring from the United employee stationed at the gate, I was made to understand that the plane has not arrived as yet. I was also made aware that the flight I am not scheduled to go on has been delayed from departure since 2:29PM earlier in the day. The plane finally arrived at 8:10PM and everyone got up and are ready to board the plane, unfortunately there were some weather conditions that caused Washington DC to stop planes from landing. The said that at 9PM they would allow planes to land and as promised at 9PM we were all promptly seated after waiting an hour, some customers have been waiting since 2:29PM. Now sitting in plane it would not leave, the Pilot announces that he is waiting for refueling before we leave. So we sit, twiddle our thumbs, counted our fingers and toes and eventually, 15 mins later the fuel truck arrives and fuels the plane and we taxi unto the runway to join a line of 12 planes that are waiting to take off. We sit on the runway for 35 mins before we could take off. Eventually we landed safely in Washington DC at 11:29PM. They certainly were not lying about the weather conditions here in Washington. It was definitely pouring heavily and lightening flashes could be easily seen. So the Pilot parks the plane about 200 yards from the docking and all passengers are now forced to walk in the rain to the terminal.
There were so many delays that could be avoided. On the 1st flight, the lavatory should have been fixed as soon as the plane had landed. Why wait until all passengers are boarded and the plane is ready to take off to fix this problem? The indicator is not working just before take off. Do they not do equipment test before take off? How come they are now finding this out just before take off. On the 2nd flight, why was the plane not fueled while it was sitting there waiting on OK to take off for Washington. There delays however small they are needs to have adequate immediate remedial measures in place to prevent them. It is because of these delays that airlines lose there slot of use of the runway and they are forced to wait. I was extremely disappointed with my experience with United Airlines. Has anyone out there had negative experience with United? Even if it was positive, I would be happy to hear about. I refuse to believe all airlines are following in American Airlines footsteps and that they are sacrificing there service.
Mr. Shiva B.
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[...] Yid With Lid wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThe plane finally arrived at 8:10PM and everyone got up and are ready to board the plane, unfortunately there were some weather conditions that caused Washington DC to stop planes from landing. The said that at 9PM they would allow … [...]
[...] DrewHasselback wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThis process goes on for another 15 minutes before the Pilot cranked the engines up, backs out the plane and gets ready to hit the sky highway. So here we are, sitting on the runway for another 15 minutes but the plane is still not take … [...]