United dinged me for the last time

[Sevenrider860]

Two million miles and counting on United and still hate them the least of any airline. Helps when you have 2M on your card. Now...Continental used to be a great ride. I miss Bethune.

@tridacna I am in 100% Agreement. I was a Northwest FF and since NWA and Continental extended reciprocal benefits, I would take Continental at every opportunity. Continental treated me better than Northwest!! At the time I would never fly United, ever. When they merged, the old Continental customer service disappeared and was replaced by the United "standards". That was the end of Continental as I knew it.

As an old NWA FF I am now on Delta. They certainly do not meet Continental's standards, but as a 2M Miler and Diamond Medallion...I certainly have it better on Delta than any other US carrier.

 

[dead dog]

I had a beautiful trip to Bonaire planned - until yesterday morning. I got an email from United saying "sorry, we effed you over again". Travel went from one short plane change in Newark to a flight from Albany, to Huston, to Washington, to Bonaire with longish layovers. But that's not the worst. Coming back they gave me all of 7 minutes to clear customs and make my next flight in Newark. Are you kidding me?????

After a long phone call with a representative whose final answer was "Sorry, those are the only available flights. But for your returning flight you can stay in Newark until late the next day. Only a 20+ hour layover". To be fair, he did look at flights on different days - but no joy.

I cancelled the flights and got a refund. I am cancelling my United credit card. I will never, ever, under any circumstances fly United again. This is the third time they effed me over.

I'm back to trying to book flights with reasonable flight times. I can get there OK. Getting back home is the problem. I may have to stay in Atlanta an extra day and go to the aquarium unless I can come up with something creative. That or cancel the Bonaire trip altogether and eat the $225 Hamlet Oasis reservation.

Go to their FaceBook page and post this there. Also, post on Twitter. That will get more attention than here.

 

[JamesBon92007]

Get someone to drive you to & from the airport or take a taxi. Surely that would be cheaper than parking for a month.

Oh yes. That works for us when we fly out of San Diego--we park at a friend's house and they drive us to the airport. 72 miles eac I don't know anyone who is willing to drive us 72 miles each way to LAX either in the middle of the night or during traffic. Hopefully someday we'll make some friends who live near LAX. We've tried hiring a private shuttle etc but unless we really are staying away for a month it's just too expensive too. We've looked into taking Amtrak but it includes a bus ride and some walking with luggage so we haven't quite worked up the nerve for that yet.

 

[KeithG]

Well, I almost cancelled my trip. I finally decided that I'd take a chance and booked Delta one-way - 7 hours 49 minutes travel with a short stop in Atlanta. Took this flight down last time and it was fine. I splurged and went comfort because I'm most probably not going to do this again unless travel times change.

As of now I'm hanging in the wind for a return. All airlines are from 20+ to 72 plus hours. My one glimmer is flying Divi-Divi to Aruba (I'll have time to clear customs & easily get to my next flight) - Delta through Atlanta (2+ hour layover). Total travel time is about 14 hours but I won't have to clear customs in Atlanta and I won't be on a plane all over the US nor will I be in any airport/city overnight.

I can't book with Divi yet because they only take reservations about a month out. I'm looking into other options to get to Aruba as well (Winair looks good too).

One other thing I'm looking at. I could fly Winair from Bonaire to Dominica and stay there for 5 days and take American back - about 11½ hours with 2X - 2 hour layovers.

EDIT: Guess that's out. Just looked for places to book and Castle Comfort/Dive Dominica are still closed indefinitely. Buddy dive closed permanently so no dive shop at Fort Young Hotel.

Guess I'll look at some of the other places that Winair flies and see if extending my vacation at any of those would work.

So you do not want to hear that last week we just booked Toronto Houston Bonaire and back for our Xmas trip to diving flamingo...

We use generally use United for these trips since they are significantly cheaper than air Canada and we still get star alliance miles.

 

[Kharon]

So you do not want to hear that last week we just booked Toronto Houston Bonaire and back for our Xmas trip to diving flamingo...

We use generally use United for these trips since they are significantly cheaper than air Canada and we still get star alliance miles.

Flying from Albany to Huston to DC to Bonaire is nearly crossing the country twice. Sorry, but I'm not going to sit in a tiny airplane seat for that long just because United wants to send me through their hub. Especially when I booked Albany to Newark to Bonaire.

 

[scubadada]

I fly Philadelphia to Miami to Bonaire on American in two weeks, first time I've been able to fly to Bonaire without stopping in Aruba and taking a chance on one of the local airlines. I will report back

 

[Kharon]

United may have done me an unintended, left handed favor. I'm trying to get my wife to meet me in Aruba for a week together there on my way back from Bonaire.

I'd fly over from Bon on the 15th and dive Sat & Sun. She'd get there Sun afternoon. That would likely end my diving but I'd get enough to see what it's like, and we'd probably snorkel a time or two.

There seems like enough interesting, non-touristy stuff to do that we would have a good time. And I'd get another tropical week. The flights back from Aruba on the 22nd are even better than on the 15th.

 

[bethie]

We are changing our approach somewhat and are investigating flying from one dive destination to the next. Maybe we can find better flights from Cozumel or Puerto Vallarta than we can from California. Unfortunately that might mean being gone for a month or more. In that case I'll have to hire someone to mow my lawn and the airport parking is going to be a killer.

We have rented a car one way from our home city to our departure airport. Usually not more that $40.

 

[bethie]

I was amazed last year when Insel AIr cancelled our early flight to Aruba from Curacao, making it impossible to catch our United flight to Newark. United agreed to book us on a flight the next day at no charge! We spent the night and next morning in Aruba driving around and sightseeing. But the Aruba airport is a zoo-leave lots of time.

Kharon, I feel your pain. United has eliminated the Ithaca /Newark connection, now flying to DC. Connections to Bonaire are through Newark, so we now have to fly from Syracuse or Elmira if using United. We're going in Nov, on Delta from Syracuse, returning to Elmira on United. Hope there are no ridiculous schedule changes!

 

[JamesBon92007]

We have rented a car one way from our home city to our departure airport. Usually not more that $40.

Thanks for the tip, but I looked into that too and I don't remember the exact amount but it was even more than airport parking for 2 weeks. Perhaps they have a mileage limit for dropping off at a different destination and we exceeded it or something. One time we used Uber to and from our closest airport, but we seldom use it because the flights always cost more plus there are no direct flights to hardly anywhere and they can turn a 3 hour trip into a 9 hour trip. I can't remember now but for some reason we aren't using Uber to get to LAX so either they wouldn't do it or it was too expensive. We tried to hire someone like a friend or neighbor to drive us and pick us up but never settled on anything. One wacko shuttle driver we hired was driving 100 mph at 4 am headed toward a closed section of the freeway. He was supposed to be a professional and should have known it was closed. The GPS that came with my phone knew that.

Call me stubborn, but for some reason it irks me to pay so much just to have a car sit there. I could understand if they have a minimum but after covering the office staff and the airport shuttle it just seems like an unfair profit. I don't mind paying for airfare, hotels, taxis, restaurants, dive ops, or just about anything else because I feel like I'm getting something for my money. But the parking lots have you by the huevos and they have your credit card number.

Sooner or later we'll figure out a solution. I looked up the taxi rate and it's a good thing I don't have a weak heart. I guess the real problem is that we enjoy ourselves so much, particularly in Mexico, that my girlfriend starts booking the next trip while we are still there! Meanwhile I dream what it would be like to just cancel our return flight and go somewhere else instead of home and not be worrying about our car. That reminds me--I need to book airport parking for our trip in October

San Diego is only a few more miles for us than LAX but we never seem to find the good flights from there, except for Hawai'i. In that case we find some really good direct flights. SouthWest is supposed to start flying to Hawai'i but with my luck it will only be from LAX. The good thing about Hawai'i is that we can't afford to stay very long so the airport parking doesn't amount to as much