Fly A Bankrupted Airline? Never Again!

Sorry Flight Attendants! Sorry Pilots and Co-Pilots! Sorry Ground Crews! I tried! I tried my best to help you out. But after my recent trip from Philadelphia to San Francisco, and the events that can only be described as INSANE, I will never, never, never fly an airline that is in bankruptcy. I could only think to myself while the events transpired, "Is this why you are in such financial woes, United? Perhaps you shouldn' be in business if this is how you run your business!" Below is a letter I sent to United detailing my bizarre and unbelievable sequence of events:

July 1, 2005

To whom it may concern,

On 6/23/05, my friend and I were scheduled to fly United Flight 89 from Philadelphia, PA., to San Francisco, CA. The flight was supposed to leave Philadelphia at 8:55AM. We arrived at the airport before 7:00AM to have plenty of time to make boarding preparations. (I might add that it is about an hour drive to the Philadelphia Airport from where we live).
When we received our boarding passes, we were notified that the flight was delayed until 10:10AM. We proceeded to the gate to await our flight. As we waited, we were told several times that the flight was delayed even longer. Finally we were notified that the reason for the delay was that a flight crew was being flown in from Washington, DC to fly the plane. (The plane was on the ground and had been ready to go for the original 8:55AM take off). Passengers would be notified that as soon as the crew arrived, a flight time would be announced. Finally, around 1:00PM (EST), passengers were notified that the crew had arrived and the flight would leave approximately 1:45PM. About 10 minutes later, the announcement came that there was GOOD news: the plane would probably leave around 1:30PM. (This GOOD news after waiting over 4 hours). The plane was boarded and taxied to the runway about 1:50PM, taking off after 2:00PM. This was almost five hours after the flight was originally scheduled to leave.
While on the plane, we learned the flight attendants that they too had been at the airport since 7:30AM, and they were just as unhappy as the passengers. "So we're all in this boat together," quoted on flight attendant. One of the flight attendants openly complained about "being in bankruptcy” and "not having a pension,” and "to take it up with United, not us." The pilot explained that the delay was due to the original crew getting in late due to weather, and the replacement crew being held up in Washington, DC due to mechanical trouble. The original crew finally flew the plane after getting their FAA mandated rest. The flight itself was fine, and we arrived in San Francisco about five hours 50 minutes later.
This is absolutely ridiculous! No contingency plans for a crew to fly a plane? And the behavior of the flight attendants, being miserable and speaking badly of United, was inexcusable! Nobody seemed to provide any decent explanation or any sincere apology! I thought this was the end of our troubles, but it wasn't.
On our return trip from San Francisco to Philadelphia the fiasco continued. We were scheduled to fly United Flight 90 at 12:00 Noon on 6/29/05. We arrived at the airport at 9:00AM (PST). After receiving our boarding passes and proceeding to the gate, the departure board showed a delay in the flight. This continued to change until about 2:00PM when the boarding began. While in the tunnel boarding the plane at approximately 3:00PM, passengers were notified that because of bad weather on the East Coast, the FAA would not permit the plane to take off until 6:00PM, and passengers should wait in the waiting area until boarding could continue. At approximately 4:00PM, notification was given that the flight had been cancelled. After being herded to a customer service area, we made arrangements to stay at a local hotel, which I was under the impression from the Customer Service Rep. that United would be paying for the cost of the hotel. (I later found out at the hotel that the pink coupon only gave US the United hotel rate and I had to pay for the hotel). We then proceeded to the baggage area to await our luggage to we could take it with us to the hotel and bring it back the next day with our new flight. (The new flight was SFO to Boston, flight 172, leaving 8:45AM(PST), 6/30/05, then Boston to PHL, US Airways 1170, leaving 6:30PM(EST) on 6/30/05). At the baggage claim area, a "reclaim" order was put on our luggage so it would not wait to be placed on the next day's flight. We waited FOUR hours to get our luggage to go the hotel for the night.
We arrived at SFO on 6/30/05, to take Unite Flight 172 to Boston. The flight was scheduled to take off at 8:45AM. We boarded the plane and taxied to the runaway, where the engines were shut off and passengers were informed by the pilot that there would be an approximately 30 minute delay due to heavy air traffic on the east coast. The flight took off at approximately 9:35AM (PST) and arrived in Boston at approximately 6:15PM(EST). Our flight from Boston to Philadelphia (US Air Flight 1170) was scheduled to leave at 6:30PM(EST). We were to go to the United Customer Service area between gates 19 and 20 upon arrival to Boston. We went to the Customer Service area to find no United employees, and other customers there said no United employee had been around for quite some time. Fortunately, a security guard came from a door and said he was to take us to the US Airways terminal (on the other side of the airport). US Air Flight 1170 was delayed and not leaving until 7:34PM(EST) instead of the originally scheduled 6:30PM time. We therefore were able to board the plane. However, as I feared, when we arrived in Philadelphia about 9:00PM, our luggage was not on board. I put in a baggage locator for our luggage, which I am currently awaiting on. (I have been informed that as of 11:30AM, 7/1/05, the baggage had been located and should arrive within 4-6 hours).
Our entire experience with United was a disaster. We have flown United before with no problems, but this was absolutely INSANE. Although weather played some part in the delays encountered, United MUST take some responsibility with thedelays. An entire DAY OF OUR LIVES (24 hours) was wasted because of United! My friend and I have vowed never again to fly United, and I will make sure everyone I come in contact with knows what a poor operation United runs. In addition to the delays, we were constantly given misinformation; being told one thing in one part of the airport and something totally different in another. There was NO excuse for what we encountered on this trip.

Could anything worse have happened? Well, I don't even want to go there, because I wouldn't be sitting here writing this now.
The trip to San Francisco was great, and you'll hear more about that later.