<p>Busdriver and Threesdad, you said it all.</p>
<p>Regarding United - Continental, yep, after relating the story of the fiasco to other parents, one asked me “did you fly United ‘United’ or ‘Continental’ United? There’s a difference?” What?</p>
<p>Boy do I fondly remember the United Airlines of old! Never had a trip without great service and when there was a problem customers were promptly and courteously accommodated. May Frank Lorenzo have insomnia for the rest of his natural born days.</p>
<p>^^May he also have stomach ailments to go with the insomnia.</p>
<p>United used to be okay, but I swear, every time I get stuck on them I run into at least one rude employee. I might choose to fly them first class over three legs coach with someone else, but it would be a close call. There is always an unpleasant experience with them, as they don’t seem to understand the concept of treating their customers with respect.</p>
<p>When we arrived on campus, we could see flames on a distant mountain. Everyone assured us that wildfires are normal in the summer and that hundreds of firefighters were up there fighting it, and would have it under control very soon.</p>
<p>Wow, toledo! Some of Pomona’s orientation adventure trips (but not my kid’s) were supposed to go to Yosemite, I wonder if they had to be changed.</p>
<p>We flew Southwest for their free baggage. I also like that they will hold connecting flights for late arrivers; our first flight home was delayed, but the connection was there waiting for us. I used my free drink coupons on the way home to drown my sorrows!</p>
<p>Youngest DS drove off on Saturday morning to go back for his sophomore year. His car was packed to the brim with stuff for his new apartment, and he was making the 10 hour drive by himself for the first time. </p>
<p>Less than two hours goes by and the phone rings. He says “Mom, I’ve got a problem…”, then the phone cuts out. Knowing that he was in the middle of the desert where cell phone coverage is spotty, I wasn’t too panicky, but I wondered what the trouble was. </p>
<p>To make a long story short, after multiple dropped calls to me and to AAA he finally gets a tow truck called out. Of course the tire he needs is not available in any of the little desert towns nearby. He has to get towed 100 miles back home where I’m calling every tire store in the city before I find one that has the proper size available (thank you, Goodyear!).</p>
<p>The second try on Sunday went off without a hitch!</p>
<p>LakeWashington, when we were in your shoes, the situation was flipped: logistics went fine, kid was miserable. Count your lucky stars.</p>
<p>Sounds familiar! Sitting in the airport now, after one United mechanical failure delay, now experiencing second delay on next leg of the trip. D is sooo ready to finally be at school. Hope to arrive by midnight.</p>
<p>United stranded my student and the rest of her group studying abroad last year for FOUR days in a non English speaking country with expiring visas and no funds. Wouldn’t put them up in a hotel or give them food.</p>
<p>Apparently, United’s fleet is mostly made up of jury-rigged machines held together with spit and wire.</p>
<p>But LW United makes up for this fleet with their great customer service & friendly warm staff…he he he !!LOL!</p>
<p>Quoting tylertexan:
</p>
<p>I’d love to know more about this. Four days seems excessive. Of course, no airline can control how much their passengers have in extra funds, or whether they speak the language of the country they’re visiting. What did your student and her group do for the 4 days?</p>
<p>I always buy and recommend trip insurance, because you never know what can happen. When my sons were quarantined for 5 days in a foreign country, the insurance covered all their expenses ($3000 paid out on a $49 policy). They travel with my credit card for emergencies, so they charged everything, and I got the insurance reimbursement before the bill was due.</p>
<p>Also, my son’s student visa is good for an additional 8 months past the end of his semester. I’m curious where your student was that had a visa expiring so quickly.</p>
<p>It was a visa for a six week summer program in a former soviet republic, so not a year long program visa. They pretty much stayed in the airport for four days, but had to keep going in and out of customs. The United reps either couldn’t or wouldn’t utilize any translation services to explain to these high school students why there was no plane, why they couldn’t leave the airport and find a hotel, why United wouldn’t comp a single meal (or even a bottle of water). The parents in the US couldn’t get a straight answer from United either – we all got different versions of why there was no plane, why United couldn’t or wouldn’t put them on another airline (of which there were several flights available over those four days), why they weren’t allowed to leave the airport, and why United wasn’t responsible for any of it.</p>
<p>Tylertexan, that’s the gist of what happened to myself and other parents trying to get to Move In Day/Orientation last week. United’s customer “no service” representatives spent all their energy insisting that the airline wasn’t responsible for any of it. But you should have seen the senior manager’s expression when those email alerts appeared on my fellow travelers’ smartphones. The airline really cut her legs off, so to speak.</p>
<p>By the way, I’ll mention now that to add insult to injury, the abrasive customer “no service” representatives CALLED THE AIRPORT POLICE! Yep, apparently you can’t calmly and firmly disagree with a United customer “no service” representative. Let me tell you how “dire and dangerous” (note the quotation marks) the situation was for the United staffers. NOT AT ALL. In fact, the United staffer that exhibited the most obnoxious behavior toward the customers was yucking it up with a cop who straggled in after the senior manager provided some real assistance. Saw that with my own eyes. When I found out later that Mr. Obnoxious had summoned FOUR COPS to the customer “no service” desk, I asked myself ‘where’s the fire?’</p>
<p>Oh god! United sounds awful! I’ve never flown with them and after this thread… I don’t intend to!</p>
<p>Unbelievable, LW, just unbelievable. I’ve had my share of United problems–mostly to do with attempting to make connections through O’Hare–but that beats everything. Well, everything except the 4 HS students in a former Soviet republic!</p>
<p>United has bumped us more than once, even though we had confirmed tickets. In each case, we were not able to select seats ahead of time. So my policy after that has been to get on the phone and DEMAND assigned seats if we can’t do it online. I just stay on the line until I get someone with the authority to do it for me.</p>
<p>MaineLonghorn, did I mention that at nearly EVERY PLANE that I boarded on my trip on United last week, the flight was OVERSOLD. If I had any inkling of the trouble ahead I would have offered up my seat, since I didn’t arrive until later than planned anyway.</p>
<p>Are people getting bumped after they have boarding passes, or before? I thought once you had a boarding pass you were “good to go”.</p>
<p>This is just an airline story (no orientations involved). We had a flight to Brussels and were to fly through Atlanta which was having weather problems (my radar didn’t think it was that bad). Our captain tried everything to get our plane off the ground to no avail. They deboarded the plane since not much hope of going soon (which I’d never experienced) and the crew passed out peanuts and told whomever that could to get on their phones and try to reschedule.
At the 11th hour my husband got on his iPad and we found a flight leaving to NY and going to Brussels–we had 15 minutes before the plane left. Thank goodness we were carry-on. I RAN to the front of a very long line of disgruntled passengers and practically grabbed the poor guy by the collar and told him we NEEDED that plane RIGHT now! He says “how do you know?” I said it’s on your website! They put us on the plane, it was already boarded just about. But the guy at the counter was “RUN! that way!” But if we hadn’t been able to go right then or if web service wasn’t available we would have been out 2 days of our vacation (although it took two days to recover).</p>
<p>AXW–getting “bumped” is getting more complicated. Many airlines require you be AT the gate 15-30 minutes before take-off. If you aren’t there at start of boarding, you could be fair game to get bumped.</p>