Monday, May 16, 2011

I hate you United!

I used to fly quite a bit.   I used to travel from Portland to Boston about once a month.  I did this for several years.   My frequent flyer status was what United Airlines called Premier Executive.  They were pretty nice to me then.   I usually got good seats.  I didn’t get a lot of nickel and diming me on things like baggage or seat upgrades.   I even got a special line at security.   I understand why they treated me so well.   I was worth a lot of money to them then.
I don’t travel as much now.   I also do much shorter trips when I do fly, so it’s hard to achieve any kind of frequent flyer status.   Now that that is the case, I really try to avoid United.   They really treat their regular passengers like crap.   The seats that you get as a regular passenger are really small.  I don’t  begrudge them this, since they’re just trying to make a profit and there are plenty of people that will sit in them to save money.   I just avoid flying them because of it.   I also avoid them for reasons like what happened today.   I arrived at the airport and discovered that my flight was delayed.   Luckily they have an earlier flight that I could stand by for since I arrived early enough.   I just need to pay them another $50 for that privilege.   Really United?  Really?  My flight is delayed and you could get me out on an earlier one, but only if I fork over another $50.  No.  I’m not going to do it, and furthermore I will more actively avoid you in the future for this particular insult.   I will fly Alaska.

Oh wait.   I flew Alaska last month and they told me that I couldn’t stand by for an earlier flight at all.   How long is the Amtrak ride from Portland to San Francisco again?

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