We booked 5 seats from Springfield to Jackson, WY months ago. The route sent us from Springfield to Denver to Jackson. About one week before departure, they notified us that our original flight was cancelled. They went ahead and rescheduled us to go from Springfield - Chicago - Denver - Jackson, effectively adding 4-6 extra hour in the sky with 2 little kids.
My wife called their customer no service number and explained the situation to them and they said that nothing was available and we were stuck on the crappy flight they rescheduled us on. After she told me about this, I immediately called their customer service number. While waiting on hold, I went to their web site and began the process of buying a flight on the same day, with the same original route (Springfield - Denver - Jackson). While on the site, it was clear that I would be able to buy 5 seats for this route on the same travel day.
Keep in mind the donkeys at united told my wife there were no other flights like this on our traveling day of 2/26. A few minutes later, someone with a thick foreign accent came on the phone. I explained to him how we were bumped and that we would like a flight the way we had paid for it (SPFD-DENVER-JACKSON). He "looked" on his computer and said there was nothing available. At that time, I told him that I was on their web site and that they were trying to sell me the exact route I described to him. He still couldn't find it. At that point, I provided him with all of the flight information for the flights they were trying to sell, including flight number, departure times and locations/destinations. He still claimed to be unable to find them. After realizing he was going to play this game with me forever, I asked for a supervisor.
The supervisor came on and was slightly easier to understand. I again explained the entire situation along with the fact that they were trying to sell the route in which they were pretending didn't exist. Finally, she gave in and let us have the original flight route back. It's evident that they were trying to sell the pricier route and force us to fly an extra 4-6 hours for no reason. While this is pretty bad, I thought it would be the end of awful experiences with these clowns. Wrong I was.
Departure day:
Springfield to Denver goes fine. We arrive at Denver and realize there's an earlier flight going to Jackson.in an effort to avoid a 4 hour layover, I sprinted down to the gate where the plane was departing from. I got there about 30 minutes prior to that flight departing and politely explained how our original flights were bumped and asked if we could move onto the earlier flight. I also explained that we would gladly return to the airport and pick up our checked luggage. The man at the gate told me that United wouldn't help me, because if we didn't pick up our bags, they would have to pay to have them delivered to us. Awesome. How many people deliberately do this?
Ok, thinking maybe we would be finished with their garbage, we boarded flight 6198 from Denver to Jackson. This flight was the icing on the cake and clear indicator as to what a piece of garbage united is. This really shows to the heart of the company how much they suck.
We board and notice over 20 seats empty on the flight. Most of them are towards the front of the plane. Additionally, the entire exit row on both sides is completely empty. When it appears the plane is done loading, my father in law politely asked the flight attendant if it would be ok if he moved into the exit row. The flight attendant indicated that he could not, because those seats cost more and we didn't pay for a better seat. Huh?
From there, about a half hour later into the flight, I was holding my 8 month old and he was ready to go sleep. I went to recline my chair and it wouldn't recline.By reclining the seat, it makes it 100 times easier and he's used to being tilted back a little. When the flight attendant passed by, I told her my seat was broken, in that it wouldn't recline. I asked her if I could move to any other seat, so that I could recline it to help my 8 month old fall asleep! Her response was|."no, it's not broken, you're in front of the exit row".
No, you can't move to those other seats, they cost more and you might be able to pay more and move to one of them/. I'll check on it?" She never even came back. Keep in mind, we weren't asking for first class, just any open seat in the main cabin and there were many:. We fly a lot and will gladly pay more money to not fly with these jerks". They won't be in business in a few years unless they get a government bailout.
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