This took place in October of 2011, as always with United and purchased through Expedia.
I had a flight from Montreal to Costa Rica. I had checked prices and they were around $900 round trip. The day I come to make my purchase, the price has jumped to $1300. Fearing that it will only go higher, I purchase the ticket using some $900 in credit which means I also have to pay a change fee. The worst part is that the return flight available has a 6 hour layover in Newark.
About a week later, the price is back down to $900 or even less, and there is a return flight available with a one hour layover. So I pay another change fee, and purchase this ticket to save myself some time.
I go on my vacation as scheduled, and when it’s time to come back home, I go to checking online, only to realize that my flight has switched back to the one with the 6 hour layover. I spend the night on the phone with United and Expedia, but no one can tell me why I got bumped to another flight. The only thing I get is that the flight must have been cancelled. This was a very frustrating experience, since I had to use Skype to call and it would cut off just as I had finished explaining my story. I must have talked to at least 4 or 5 different agents at Expedia and United.
Due to lack of choice, I take my flight, get to Newark, and find that the flight I was supposed to take is still there, on time, with seating available. Great, I don’t have any bags checked in; I am at the gate as they start boarding.
After talking to the agent, she says that she cannot switch me over since there is not enough time and she cannot delay the plane. When I ask why I was switched from the flight, I get no response. To be fair, I don’t know if it was the airline or Expedia, but I have an email from Expedia showing that my flight was supposed to be the earlier connection.
So over $300 in change fees and taxes and I still get screwed. How are the airlines getting away with this?
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Flier is Frustrated by Bags in Bins
October 24, 2010
in Flying Hell Commentary
This isn’t so much one specific flight from hell, but more of EVERY flight that I’m on ever since airlines found a way to gouge even more money out of fliers by charging for checked baggage. I’m a frequent flier and also have one of those airline-partnered credit cards, so I don’t pay for checked bags to begin with. But I’m so tired of being the last “zone” to board because I am seated near the front of the coach cabin, only to find that the overhead bins above my seats are full of carry-on luggage by first class passengers! I’ve already checked my bags to cut down on the demand, but I often have a laptop which must go in the overhead bin because I’m seated against the bulkhead where there is no other option than the overheads.
Then when everyone is scrambling to retrieve their bags upon landing, it infuriates me when a passenger that has stored their bag nowhere near their seat insists that everyone pass their bags forward (all the while bumping people’s heads, etc.) so that they can deplane!
If you’re in first class, you should either store your bags in the first class cabin or check them like everyone else. Do not take the overhead space in economy and expect everyone to help you collect your bags upon landing. You can just sit in your comfy first class seat and wait on the rest of us to deplane and then retrieve your bags!
Remember when the cost of jet fuel (and oil in general) skyrocketed in 2008 and airlines just HAD to do something to cover the higher cost of fuel, so they started charging for checked bags? Well now that oil/fuel prices have come back down to the pre-sky high days, the airlines will NEVER stop this revenue source. But they now need to solve the problem that THEY created and monitor the use of overhead bins.
P.S. The same goes for people who are seated at the rear of the plane that fill up the space at the front of the coach cabin as they’re boarding because they’re “not sure if there will be space when they get back to their seat!”
Tagged as: baggage, fees, overhead bin
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