United rant

[Anonymous]

I know these rants don't do any good, but I just need to get this off my chest.

We booked our spring break flights months ago. Flight down is on United, flight home on Jet Blue (thank goodness I booked 2 one-ways!!)

Our original United flight was at 8:30am, nonstop. A few weeks ago we got an email saying that flight had been "change" to 12:30pm. (In reality they just eliminated the 8:30am flight and moved everyone onto the 12:30pm existing flight.) We were annoyed at losing a half day of vacation, but we looked at our other options and everything is expensive now (back when we bought we could have flown another airline easily, but the times were slightly later, like 9-10amish.) So we decided to just roll with it.

NOW, we get another email saying that 12:30pm flight is now moved to a 5pm flight. The took their 3 nonstop flights that day (8:30, 12:30, and 5) and combined them all into the 5pm flight. We are losing an entire day of vacation now - I NEVER book evening flights for this very reason! We will basically land in time to pay for a night in a hotel. I would have rather just left the next morning.

We have spoken to United, and the only thing they will do is refund us our money, which does nothing because the refund won't even come close to paying for a replacement flight at this later date.

We are still looking into our options, but I will NEVER fly United again. I know, first world problems.

Then end.

[Anonymous]

Can you ask to be put on the 5:00 the day before? And then just get an extra night in a hotel at your destination?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you ask to be put on the 5:00 the day before? And then just get an extra night in a hotel at your destination?

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you ask to be put on the 5:00 the day before? And then just get an extra night in a hotel at your destination?

This.

[Anonymous]

Our United flight went the opposite way, they moved us from a 9:30am flight to a 6am flight. That was not fun getting up super early with a 3 year old.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Yes, we could do that, and we may do that.

But the point is, that is not the product I paid for. And although they will refund me or move me, it doesn't make me whole because I either have to pay more to fly another airline and/or pay for a hotel I wasn't planning to pay for.

Obviously doable but, NOT COOL United. Not. Cool.

[Anonymous]

I've never had a good experience with united, I don't fly them anymore. Frankly, they don't give a shit about their flyers.

[Anonymous]

This happens on all the carriers. This happened to my inlaws when they were flying in for a wedding. Instead of flying in Saturday morning for the wedding, their new times were Saturday evening after the wedding had already started.

[Anonymous]

Happens to me 1/3 of the time when I book more than 6 months out, and very often on United. Are you flying on Saturday? THat's the slowest travel day of the week and most prone to having flights "cancelled".

Unfortunately you're stuck. They'll refund you so you can buy a new ticket, or reschedule you. Look on their site to see if you can find a better routing to meet your timing (connection may be involved). ALso, it can be on another carrier as long as they code-share, like on Lufthansa. Where are you flying to?

I've had this nonsense work in my favor a few times. I spent $1k on a first class ticket and United reschedules it so that I'd miss half of the business meeting. Meanwhile, prices on Delta went down so I had United refund me and booked on Delta and saved $100. However, it took 2-3 hours on the phone so I paid for it in time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This happens on all the carriers. This happened to my inlaws when they were flying in for a wedding. Instead of flying in Saturday morning for the wedding, their new times were Saturday evening after the wedding had already started.

+1 This even happened me with Jet Blue. We had paid a 300$ premium for an infrequent flight to an uncommon destination, and the night before, they cancelled that flight and moved us to the next day due to "weather." Not a cloud in the sky in either the arrival or departure cities.

[Anonymous]

I've had this happen several times on a range of carriers. I actually don't like booking more than 3 months out for this reason. Just got a notification from Delta that our return from our post Christmas trip is now scheduled about 1.5 hours later. In theory NBD except we now get back close to midnight, which is not ideal. Other times I've been able to rebook on better options. Had booked a flight out of BWI because it was cheaper, was able to rebook the one we really wanted out of DCA after the airline changed the flight time.

[Anonymous]

Yup, our flight has been changed for Christmas break. We need a law that consumers must get some money back if they change your flight, even for weather.

Airlines get away with so much BS and we just except this as normal. They have us hostage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've never had a good experience with united, I don't fly them anymore. Frankly, they don't give a shit about their flyers.

x10000. The treat customers like ATMs. Anything you want to change or add has a price attached.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yup, our flight has been changed for Christmas break. We need a law that consumers must get some money back if they change your flight, even for weather.

Airlines get away with so much BS and we just except this as normal. They have us hostage.

Seriously! And I think they are still subsidized by our tax dollars, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know these rants don't do any good, but I just need to get this off my chest.

We booked our spring break flights months ago. Flight down is on United, flight home on Jet Blue (thank goodness I booked 2 one-ways!!)

Our original United flight was at 8:30am, nonstop. A few weeks ago we got an email saying that flight had been "change" to 12:30pm. (In reality they just eliminated the 8:30am flight and moved everyone onto the 12:30pm existing flight.) We were annoyed at losing a half day of vacation, but we looked at our other options and everything is expensive now (back when we bought we could have flown another airline easily, but the times were slightly later, like 9-10amish.) So we decided to just roll with it.

NOW, we get another email saying that 12:30pm flight is now moved to a 5pm flight. The took their 3 nonstop flights that day (8:30, 12:30, and 5) and combined them all into the 5pm flight. We are losing an entire day of vacation now - I NEVER book evening flights for this very reason! We will basically land in time to pay for a night in a hotel. I would have rather just left the next morning.

We have spoken to United, and the only thing they will do is refund us our money, which does nothing because the refund won't even come close to paying for a replacement flight at this later date.

We are still looking into our options, but I will NEVER fly United again. I know, first world problems.

Then end.

Like others have said, this is not a United thing. We're going to Key West over winter break, and American changed our flight times both ways. We now leave 3 hours later on the departure day, but come home about 3 hours later, too. We booked back in April so I am not surprised the times changed.