Airlines to avoid

The good Mr. Dr. went to Atlanta this past Wednesday for a conference. He got his ticket through Orbitz. He didn't notice that the return leg of his trip was on United Airlines, which we generally avoid because we have always (literally) had a bad experience with them. I am not kidding when I say that every single flight we have ever taken on United Airlines has involved delayed flights, flights missed because of their delays, bad attitudes, delayed luggage, etc. We can now add "canceled flights" and "lack of accommodation" to that list.

One leg of his return flight was cancelled almost 36 hours before the flight because of weather. Granted, we knew that there was going to be snow coming from the west that would blanket Boston, starting AFTER this flight was supposed to arrive in Boston. But that's just a meteorological technicality. The bigger problem was their solution: fly him to Dulles and then put him on a flight home the next morning. Except that he would be forced to spend the night at the airport because they would not guarantee him a hotel voucher. After a frustrating conversation with an unhelpful person, I got involved.

Well, that's when the adventure started. I was able to get a better "re-accommodation" routing through Chicago, which for some bizarre reason, still had flights coming and going despite being the recipient of worse weather than Boston would have received. Nevertheless, confirming the ticket required that I call the reissuing airline: Delta. I had no idea that it had gotten so complicated that one airline issues tickets for another airline. But I call because that's what it would take to make this happen. Then Delta tells me that they can't reissue the ticket because they needed the confirmation number and flight details. Or, actually they needed to receive that information from Orbitz. Never mind that I had that information. When I asked if they had a specific number for Orbitz to get directly to the people who he needed to speak with, he said no. And we wonder why Delta is going bankrupt.

So I call Orbitz. I am thoroughly impressed with Orbitz now. The young lady spent over 2.5 hours on the phone with me, United Airlines, and Delta to re-accommodate Mr. Dr. The reason that it took so long was because both United Airlines and Delta kept her on hold for ridiculous amounts of time. At one point she and I were waiting for someone at United for almost 40 minutes. Thank goodness that my cell phone has a speakerphone on it. But she made it happen and for that we are grateful. I still have to call Orbitz back on Monday so that Delta can finish processing the refund they owe us on the canceled leg of his itinerary.

Finally it all got settled, we got Mr. Dr. on United Airways which would get him back home at exactly the same time that the original flight would have. And then the fun began. The shuttle from the "hotel" near Emory University (separate note: avoid the Emory Inn) only comes once an hour and of course it had already left by the time he got out of the conference. By the way, taxis in Atlanta are really expensive.

He gets on the plane and then waits. The flight ended up being delayed by an hour and a half because of runway issues. No problem. Still enough time to make the connecting flight. Now here's the funny part: I was watching the flights from three different flight and airport tracking websites, as well as United Airways' own website. The airline reported that the flight was canceled. Apparently, the flight was canceled when it was already in the air. Someone must have forgotten to tell the pilot. And we are thankful for that.

He catches his connecting flight and makes it home. We lost our parking spot in front of the house because I just don't believe in saving parking spots and of course someone came and took it. That's o.k. I found a spot one block away. And Mr. Dr. was able to reclaim it this morning.

To recap our lessons learned:
1. Avoid United Airlines at all cost.
2. Avoid Delta if possible and know that they do not re-accommodate anyone on their own planes.
3. Orbitz's emergency customer care people are ABSOLUTELY fabulous. At least the young lady that I got.
4. Do not believe anything on US Airways flight tracker.