Ugh, nightmare

Our flight to Albany, scheduled for about 6pm, never left and was eventually cancelled. Since then, we've been trying to rebook (impossible--everything already filled), or even just get our checked bags back. Now 2am and no hope in sight.

My trips are far too often turning into disaster...

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United Airlines are lying, scheming bastards

Our flight was scheduled for 5.30. By the time I booked it, several weeks ago, it had already been shifted, for some reason, to 5.53. It didn't board until 6.25. As we were about the leave the gate, the entire airport went on hold because of thunderstorms. We waited. We waited. We waited. For over two hours. Other flights took off and landed. We sat there. Eventually we were deplaned and given back any luggage we had checked at the gate (but not, crucially, other luggage).

We sat back down in the terminal. Our flight would just be delayed (although on the plane the captain had told us it would probably be cancelled). We were told to wait another hour. Then two. Then we were finally told the flight was cancelled; we had to rebook for the next day, and if we wanted our checked bags back, we had to stand in line for customer service. Which had three reps for, roughly, about 200-300 people (several flights had been treated the same way. Two more hours went by. astrongteacher  spotted a desk that was not a customer service desk but seemed to be handling some people, so we went over there, hoping we weren't throwing away our two hours of waiting in line. We were not. A very nice man (we thought) tried to rebook us, but the best he could do was a flight the afternoon that got into Philly at 7 and then flew out to Albany at 9, getting in at nearly 11pm. Pointless, since w e would have to turn around and come back on Sunday. We said "Just give us our bags back." He took down the tag numbers and descriptions and promised that if we went back to the main terminal baggage claim, we would get our bags in 30-45 minutes.

We went back. We waited. And waited. And waited. Another hour and three quarters went by. Some bags came by, but not ours or those of other people on the affected United flights. Eventually, E started tracking down people, first baggage handlers and then a supervisor, who assured us she had told everyone that there would be no more bags tonight. We said "No, you didn't; you didn't tell us, or the people sitting near us, who are all waiting for bags we were promised nearly two hours ago would arrive in half an hour." Well, she said, she had told lots of people. And the baggage handlers had all left, so there was no one to get our bags now. "What about all the handlers walking around the area?" we asked. Oh, they work for a different division of United, so they can't handle your bags. !!!????!!! Here is a phone number to call tomorrow, we were told, and then you can "claim" your bags and get them delivered to you.

So here we are back home (at 4 am, almost 12 hours after we got to the airport). There's no practical way we can get up to Williamstown that won't take pretty much all day tomorrow, and we can't go anywhere any way until our bags come back. So I'm out the money I paid the alumni association for room and board and so on. I'm probably out the money for the rental car, and I'm sure United is going to try and find a way to hold onto my money for the plane fares. I'm out the leave that I specifically took so as to spend a long weekend in the Berkshires. And, most importantly, I'm out that weekend itself, including seeing friends I haven't seen in years and showing E where I went to school and where I spent my summers as a kid.

So say we are enraged is putting it mildly. There are so many ways that, given the storms that were no one's fault, United could have handled this honestly and decently, and they missed every single chance. Fuck them.

Well, golly, that's a relief!

It would seem that our bags have been travelling. Our bags...wait for it, you'll love this... went to Albany this morning. At 0830. On a flight that the United agent wasn't able to get us on last night.

Sweet, neh? Not only do we not get to go where we paid heaps of money, but our bags *do* go, and have to be retrieved. They won't even be back in DC until tomorrow, at this rate.

So did Rajiv, or Anil, or Manmit, who I talked to this morning at 0930, know this and just not tell me? Or, as I somewhat suspect, did he not even have visibility into the United baggage handling system? Something about the way he said he was just going to "leave a note" for "them" to let them know that I wanted my bags back here in DC suggested to me that he wasn't *really* tapped into the United system.