Travel Horror Stories

[haybierman]

Ok, this is what happened....

My wife and I were traveling from Denver to Traverse City, MI for one of her law school friend's wedding. So, we get up at 3am to make our 6am flight out of Denver. Everything goes well with the first leg of our flight into Chicago O'Hare (did anyone else just hear the Twilight Zone theme?).

Anyway, We get into Chicago around 10am and our next flight doesn't leave until 1pm so we just hang out. About an hour before our next flight leaves, we hear over the loudspeaker that the flight is overbooked and they are looking for two volunteers to go on a later flight. We volunteer, get our vouchers (WOOHOO!) and chill a while longer.

So then, about an hour later, our 3:00 flight turns into an 8:00 flight. Naturally we are a little perturbed but these things happen while traveling.

About an hour before our 8:00 flight is supposed to leave, we get a message over the loudspeaker - 8:00 flight to Traverse City has been canceled. Go see customer service to make accommodations. Great.

So we make our way to the Customer Service desk where we are told that they can get us out on a flight at 6:30 PM the next day, but we'll be on standby for the 9:00 flight (if it leaves). My wife and I say screw it, let's drive. It's only 7 hours. So we ask the lady to call baggage and have our luggage brought out. She replies "Oh, we don't do that". Super. So, after tracking down someone who DOES do that, we find out our bags went out on the first flight anyway so they're already there! So we suck it up and head over to the Avis Rental building to get a car to drive the rest of the way anyway.

So we get to the Avis building and are told that a one-day, one-way rental to Traverse City would cost us $500! Are you kidding me? Then the lady tells us that it is usually cheaper if we have a reservation and to call the 800 number too make a res. So we call, and the person on the phone tells us that there aren't any available cars here. We tell the person on the phone that we are staring at a lot full of cars and the teller told us there were plenty. We got nowhere with that and didn't want to pay $500 for a one-day car rental so we headed back to the airport to cross our fingers and get on the 9:00 standby....

So we get back, look at the standby screen for the 9:00 flight and see that the plane holds 90 passengers and only 45 are checked in. Wow! What a great sign! We might actually get on this flight after all. So, about 30 minutes before boarding the dreaded loudspeaker voice comes on again saying that even though the plane can fit 90, the captain is only comfortable taking 45 passengers due to poor weather. I have never heard of that in my life.

So we go back to the Customer Service desk and tell the lady that since we voluntarily gave up our seats that they should pay for our hotel overnight since that is what they do when people volunteer to get bumped off later flights. Well, she gave us a coupon for 20% off a Motel 6. So then we tried to get her to put us on the standby list for the 9:00 am flight. She said she couldn't and we'd have to check in tomorrow morning. After a few choice words from the wife she finally put us on the list for the 9am flight but we still didn't have a place to sleep for the night....

So we sucked it up and paid $350 for a room at the airport Hilton, that surprisingly couldn't provide us with a complementary toothbrush. I had to go downstairs to the gift shop to buy one for $10.

So the next morning we get to the airport bright and early and perch by where the 9am flight will be departing. As soon as someone appears behind the counter I make a flying leap towards the line and ask her what our chances are of getting on the flight. She asks my name, and hands me two freakin tickets! Easy as that! So I proceed to tell her my story from the night before and all the United staff are gathering around me like I'm telling a ghost story or something. They all agreed that the staff the night before should have done whatever it took to get us on that 9pm flight.

Enraged, we got on the plane and finally made it to our destination 24 hours later than scheduled. Our bags were waiting.

**the wife has since called United and gotten most of our frequent flyer miles reimbursed.

The moral of the story: Whatever you do, wherever you are traveling, stay the &%$# away from O'Hare

After having a ridiculous travel weekend I am interested to hear some of your stories.

[11chaos]

Whoa, that would have suxed. Was it united because it sounds like something they would do.

[haybierman]

Was it united because it sounds like something they would do.

ding! ding! ding! We have a winnah!

[11chaos]

Yeah, I have similiar stories. They don't seem to care and especially if there is problems. All they said to me was, "Sorry Sir, that is something I can't control maybe you should fly with another airline next time." I about flipped out on them, it took all of my self-control not to rush over to the fat out of shape rent a cop and steal his night stick and beat myself senseless so I could actually understand what she meant. Which was go get $@&*#%.

Aargh, they make me ornery.

[haybierman]

Well, luckily my wife is a premium club member with them so they treat us with some civility but man I saw some people flipping out that day.

[angel0430]

I only used American Airlines, Delta or Spirit depending on the destination.

[JeRmZ]

hahahahaha I work in the Travel Industry ... book reservations for people alllllll day long, luckily it's not your average Joe! I book high profiled VIP's and CEO's for several major company's.

I could tell you story after story after story but the site would need more bandwidth for sure!

[Star_Cards]

Here's mine.

Last summer my GF and I went to NYC the trip there went off without a hitch but on the way back is where it all went wrong. We get to LaGuardia a few hours early and there is another flight to Indy that is before ours. That flight is delayed from storms heading across the midwest. Eventually they board our flight a few hours later all the while the first flight to Indy is still waiting. After we board the plane and are on it about 5 minutes the pilot comes on and has us get back off as they are delaying it some more, but the crew still had a little bit of time on their day and could still fly if they left in about an hour. Meanwhile they cancel the first indy flight but not ours. Finally they cancel our flight about an hour before the concourses close for the night and the next flight to indy is sunday morning and this is friday night.

We end up just staying up all night as the ticket windows open at 4:00 am and we were calling trying to get other options. Long story somewhat short, we get someone at the ticket window that morning and they get us on a 9:00 flight to chicago. We rent a car in chicago for $50 and head to Indy.

I was half expecting car trouble of a flat or something but the trip was smooth.

[UGAdawg]

Wow. that sucks but it is a great story though

[TheTGB]

The only problem I have ever had was American and that's because they were 2 hours late picking me up from Hartford. Flew into Chicago that night and missed my flight and the last flight going to Portland. They gave me a free first class upgrade (because I asked for it) to Portland on the next flight in the morning and a free hotel room with a food voucher.