As it turns out, United has PR disasters much more often than when someone decides to check their guitar. I just flew from Salt Lake City to Merida, Mexico. The plane arrived 15 minutes late in Salt Lake. Not bad, right? Even Southwest does that. Wrong. We didn't leave for another hour because we had to wait half an hour for a stewardess who was also on a late flight to arrive.Then they rushed us all on board. There was maybe 30 people on the flight, yet they had us all crammed sitting together? ? ? And we waited another half an hour for a part for a different airplane in Houston that was supposed to arrive in five minutes. Then after an extremely long taxi ride we had to stop in the middle of for the pilot to get out and check for ice on the wings, we finally left for Houston.
There was maybe five people on that flight who didn't have a transfer an hour after the time we were originally supposed to arrive. The majority of us were going to Merida, which only has a flight leave Houston once a day at the same time.
So basically all we had to do was run off the plane, wait for our carry on luggage that had to be checked because it was a small airplane, run to the middle of the Houston airport, get on a train to the other side of the airport and run to the terminal where the kind staff informed us they'd closed the gate because we weren't there in person. No, really? Well, next time I'll just fly the airplane myself and use up twice as much fuel, so we can actually arrive on time. Or maybe, send the part on a different airplane that isn't already late. There's only hundreds of planes that go into the Houston airport everyday.
After finally allowing us onto the flight, we ended up sitting for an hour and a half, waiting for a mechanic to show up to fix something that was wrong with the plane. Now, I'm glad they actually fixed the plane, but really? Really.
So, I did finally arrive in Mexico in one piece, but here is my question for United. How on earth do any of your policies help your bottom line? I'd think the airlines that don't even have their planes half full would want to learn something from Southwest. People buy tickets, which mean people give the airline its profit. For people to buy your tickets you need to make them happy. People want to arrive on time and not be blamed for missing their transfers. People get hungry and five bucks for peanuts is a rip off. Oh, and people do actually need to take their luggage with them. No they don't want to pay $50 for it.
Yes, I'm done complaining now.
