United in abusing customers: yet another airline travel anecdote

Last week I made three trips in the American northeast, all via United Airlines.  United fouled up each trip, which is an impressive average.
Trip 2: a four hour delay, from Allentown to Providence.  That set me down at the airport around 2 am, about 6 hours prior to that day's seminar.
Trip 3: a mere two hour delay, sans explanation.

Trip 1 was the corker.  First, flying from Burlington to Allentown, we connected at Dulles.  We were assured a quick trip from gate to gate.  But the shuttle was mysteriously late, so late that the boarding area overflowed with confused travelers (and three remarkably silent, unresponsive staffers).  The slow machine eventually arrived and deposited us, after apparently getting lost, at the barn of terminal G.  Whereupon gate clerk informed me, 12 minute before my flight was to leave, that "your plane is gone."   (Which leads me to a linguistic tic I despise, the way airlines blame travelers for their errors: "you missed your connection."  The quick response is "no, you blew my connection, now make up for it")

So I was stashed in a DC airport for the night.

Second error, the promised "early morning flight" was delayed in multiple increments until nearly 1:30 in the afternoon.  Had I know they were simply going to miss the entire morning, I'd have run to a bus, train, or rental car.  But no, I got to enjoy the G-barn for another half day.

The best thing about this, as every traveler knows, is that United clearly doesn't give a damn. We could be drifting off into polar darkness on a disintegrating ice floe, for all they care. The staff are chilly, or silent, or actively hostile. No explanation comes from any source in the hierarchy. Feedback is clearly not desire. How long before airlines with a human face, like Southwest or JetBlue, take over the entire market?

Bonus points: I wonder if anyone from United checks the blogosphere for feedback? I know my detailed email was met with thunderous silence.

Comments

[Jesse Walker]

Try sending a physical letter instead of an email. We did that to Continental after they screwed us royally last year -- and we got a reply, albeit one that boiled down to, "You say we eventually paid for your hotel room? Funny, that's not actually our policy. You should be grateful."

[Glen]

Next time you're stuck in DC, give me a call. We're the only Engel-Cox in the phone book (we live in the District proper).

[Tammy Snyder]

United is notorious for their uncaring attitude. Written letters are met with silence, face to face encounters are as sterile as they can make them. Alas, US Air, which used to be a semi-decent carrier, is sliding down the slippery slope with United as they merge to forestall the inevitable crash of their corporate entities.