United Airlines Flight Disaster

This flight left us and many other families feeling, well... not united.

I was very frustrated with United Airlines during a recent flight I had. I was determined to never ride United again, but that could not be a possibility with it being the only airline that flies to Wyoming to visit my boyfriend, Vince's family. So, instead I am turning to this blog to point out the flaws in their airline and to let you know the possibilities you can face if you fly United.

Vince and I were booking our flight to Hawaii and we knew it was going to be a long flight, so we decided it was worth it to pay a little more for more leg room. When we booked we picked our seats right away to secure ones next to each other. A couple weeks before the flight, Vince went on to check on the flight and noticed our seats were switched and we were a) not sitting together and b) in the area with normal seats with less leg room. Vince made a call to customer service at United, and overall it was a bad experience all around. They informed him they had to switch planes and for some reason didn't inform us, so we were not able to new seats. With much complaining, they finally arranged things so that we were able to sit in the upgraded section (which should have happened since we paid for it), but we were not by each other. Strike one for Untied.

We planned to talk to the desk once we arrived at our gate to maybe find a way to sit by each other. When we approached, we saw many groups of people looking stressed. Families were experiencing the same thing we went through. They were getting upset their kids were going to have to sit by themselves. When it was our turn to talk to the lady working, she was very rude and told us the families were a priority over us. And that was that. I understand these families are a priority, but shouldn't we have been a priority to them too? We spent $360 more to get the seats with more leg room and they respond to us in that way? It made me furious and we were sad to think we were going to have to sit apart from each other on the eight-hour flight. Luckily, we had two window seats on the plane and had collateral to switch with someone. Strike two for United.

We thought we could now relax and enjoy the flight by each other, but then we had to deal with a rude flight attendant. We sat next to a young boy, maybe 14 years old, who visually had problems communicating. He was fidgety and the flight attendant only seemed to make it worse. She did not have any patience for him, and I just felt so bad he had to deal with it. Later, she asked if we wanted anything to drink and he was intrigued by his phone, and she rolled her eyes. I gently asked him again if he needed anything and he asked for water and it just seemed like such an inconvenience for her. Strike three for United.

I will forever be hesitant to fly United, and if I have the option between it and another airline, I will gladly choose the other. I feel customer service should be a priority to an airline, but United does not seem to do this. I was and am still very disappointed in United Airlines.

Have you had issues with United? Or positive experiences that might persuade me to come back? Please let me know, I would love to hear about your experience!