quote:

Originally posted by kland01s

I have frequently flown from Chicago O’Hare to ABQ’s Sunport but always non-stop on AA. I had to go to ABQ in a group situation to a conference and the company’s travel people booked us on UAL with a change of planes in Denver. This didn’t sit well with me to begin with. We sat out a thunderstorm on the ground in Chicago only to go on to Denver and miss our connecting flight by 10 minutes. Now you’d think that a UAL plane can call another UAL plane and say "hey I have 100 people on board going to ABQ, wait for us" but no, they took off in a nearly empty plane and we sat in Denver for 7 hours until the next flight to ABQ. We finally arrive in ABQ a half hour after most of the car rental places close, including the one I had rented a car through. Our little group of 9 banded together and we rented 2 vans to drive to Santa Fe where the conference was. Now, NYNM knows how confusing Santa Fe can be and this is now 2 am! I am the only one who had been to SF before and fortunetly know it well so I guided us in to the Hilton on Sandoval. It is now 3 am and we have a conference to be at at 8 am. The trip home was uneventful but ever since, I fly AA with no problems.

What a bummer! They say the streets in Santa Fe were drawn up by a drunk on a burro!!

I flew UAL today into ABQ – it was alright – but when I called last week to see if I could change a flight, the agent ( I hate to say it – how can these outsourced Indians improve their "American" accent so I can understand them?), he inadventently mentioned that my return flight was now at 1:30 instead of 4:30. (cutting into precious hours on a long weekend).

I checked this when I took off today with a really nice and smart agent at Newark airport who informed me that, yes, they cancelled my flight at 4:30 and the latest return flight was at 1:30. Now NO ONE told me this, I got no calls or emails or anything – I only knew by accident!!! I told the agent I was annoyed and could they book me on the next day instead of an earlier flight – she helpfully looked up flights found 2 seats left and told me to call right away and FIGHT. So I did and I won!! After a fight, that is. The (poorly accented) phone person said it would cost me $100 to chnage, and said this 3 times and I just kept fighting and he called his supervisor and eventually gave me the seat. Now, what if I just showed up at 4:30 to see that the flight was cancelled and there were no more flights that day?

Boo on UAL!!!(except for the subversive and really cool agent at Newark!!)