Compensated with a Cookie for Delays

September 8, 2011

in Delay/Cancellation Stories

Not so long ago I was flying with my family nonstop from Dulles to Beijing on United. Not as if that was very bad, I mean, it’s just a flight, not your junior year in college. Any other option would have cost more anyway. This was the first time I flew United, and my second time flying (first one was D.C. to Paris).

Anyways, we got to the airport on time, made it through everything and got to the gate. We then decided to buy something to eat. We made our way through that and started to wait. I pulled out my laptop and checked the time till departure. An hour, which seemed to be enough time to edit Wikipedia (yeah, I’m a nerd). Half an hour later, I checked the boarding time. Still an hour left. “Huh?” I thought. We were then notified about some “lightning storms” that, according to my computer, were far, far away, like in the middle of West Virginia. OK, fine. More time to teach the world about Russian battleships.

Soon I heard a message: “Abdul Amnar Hagid” (or something like that, it started with “Abdul”), please come to gate D12 (our gate) to claim your lost baggage. During the course of three hours this was repeated several times, along with a reminder of the fact that lightning storms were delaying our plane. I got kind of freaked out. Arab guy losing baggage that was scheduled to be on our plane? Not a good sign.

Fast forward an hour. We were allowed to board the plane after being told that “gate difficulties” had delayed our plane for another hour. We got on and waited. And waited. We were then told that an “important document” was being waited for and that the flight would be delayed. “Superb,” I thought. We were shepherded off the plane after another two hours of waiting and given: cookies. Or, more specifically, a cookie. Our 12:37 departure time had been delayed by 6.5 hours, and we were being compensated with cookies. I got pissed.

Finally we got onto the lane, and fourteen and a half hours later (half hour holding due to the amount of traffic over Beijing), we landed. Not a word from United. Not a word. I’m not flying them again.

{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }

Belle September 8, 2011 at 9:34 pm

Nice assumption of a person's nationality based purely on their name. Prejudiced much?

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Nigel Theakston September 9, 2011 at 7:17 am

Sorry, Belle, but nice try. It's time to get off that high horse you're trying to ride. Abdul anything IS an Arab name. Just like Xhia Liu would be Chinese and Basil Wimplethorpe would be English.

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Belle September 9, 2011 at 8:23 pm

So, by your reasoning, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is Arab? He was born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr., but changed his name when he converted to Islam.

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Nigel Theakston September 9, 2011 at 8:30 pm

Well done for finding one example where this is not the case. However, exceptions do not prove the rule wrong.

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david September 10, 2011 at 1:14 pm

how do you know that its not the same case? cant always assume

i have a bunch of friends that have names that you would say make them from an arab, or other areas background, and that is far from the case

and now your saying oh he is arabic and lost luggage he could be a terrorist, well nice to stereotype, as the majority of arabs are great people, just a very small extreme group who are the ones that have destroyed their identity, but thats the same case about all races, religions and ethnicities

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Howie Feltersnatch September 16, 2011 at 5:59 pm

Those darn stereotypes ! Everyone knows that whenever there is a cowardly and senseless attack or bombing there is almost always a group of elderly women from Indiana behind the dastardly scheme. Yep, those darn stereotypes.

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guest October 1, 2011 at 3:35 am

Or a midwest pure-american militia type! (remember Oklahoma?? Pure homegrown American terrorist).

paul September 9, 2011 at 10:13 am

Uggh…..What kind of cookie did you get?

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Buggie September 9, 2011 at 2:13 pm

Oatmeal…….Ick.

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rp September 13, 2011 at 5:26 pm

Just a note…central West Virginia is not far far away from Dulles airport which is located in Virginia west of DC not far from the VA and WV border.

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Robert September 14, 2011 at 2:09 pm

Yer one Huffy Bitch ….. welcome to the real world.

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TheBrit September 19, 2011 at 11:09 am

OH GOD, ARABS ON PLANES!??!?!?! I forgot that EVERY SINGLE ARAB PERSON EVER is a terrorist!

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jonathan September 20, 2011 at 5:02 pm

knew this would be a bitch about a nice gesture how about saying thank you you ungrateful racist bastard

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Robert September 21, 2011 at 12:55 pm

Well, you prissy little bitch ….. I wouldn't wanna fly with you, either…

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muhammad muhammad July 25, 2013 at 8:36 pm

leave the stereotyping to homeland security, they are already good at it

Reply

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