Post by Joan D on Jun 9, 2008 20:25:51 GMT -5
We just returned from a wonderful vacation in Europe only to be greeted by the wonderful Dulles Airport in Washington DC. It took us 9 hours to go from Munich, Germany to Washington DC and then another 13.5 hours to get from Washington DC to Pittsburgh. That just isn't right. You would think that immigration & customs would be prepared for international flight arrivals. And all the signs are in English only, so non-English speaking visitors are at a serious disadvantage in terms of figuring out which line they are supposed to take.
And on top of the airport inadequacies, I realize that United Airlines has financial problems & the employees aren't happy, but taking it out on the customer (who just wants to get home) isn't OK. I am convinced that they knew at the start that our scheduled flight was going to end up canceled, but they continued with this charade of half hour delays which kept the passengers hanging at the gate. After several of these with the reasons for the delay changing from plane maintenance to plane servicing to lack of crew with multiple gate changes, we knew we were being played. And this wasn't just our flight, someone counted 38 flights with similar issues. By 9:00pm we finally got them to admit that our 5:00pm flight was actually going to be canceled. By 10:00pm they were offering to put us up in a hotel & fit us onto fights on the next day. Most of us weren't willing to go to the airport the next day & risk playing the same game. So, they agreed to get a bus to drive us the 4 hours to Pittsburgh. Of course, they made us wait to retrieve our checked luggage & then, when the bus got there at midnight, said that our luggage had been flown to Pittsburgh, so we arrived home a 4 in the morning with no luggage.
I got to work at 6:00 am, Bob had to drive back to the Pittsburgh airport around Noon to retrieve our bags (since they wouldn't deliver them to the house). We had left Innsburck, Austria at 6:00 am their time to make the flight in Munich - going more than 30 hours without more sleep than 1-2 hour naps sitting on planes/buses doesn't leave a person very happy. Not the right way to end a trip. So, I think I better try to get to bed now & sleep for real.
The Alps were beautiful though & we got a little taste of the Euro2008 football excitement since Switzerland & Austria are hosting. Made me wonder if John plans on attending any of the games seeing as they have a concert scheduled in Austria for this friday. See - there is a connection to John in all.
Hope you have all been well while I've been away.
Joan
And on top of the airport inadequacies, I realize that United Airlines has financial problems & the employees aren't happy, but taking it out on the customer (who just wants to get home) isn't OK. I am convinced that they knew at the start that our scheduled flight was going to end up canceled, but they continued with this charade of half hour delays which kept the passengers hanging at the gate. After several of these with the reasons for the delay changing from plane maintenance to plane servicing to lack of crew with multiple gate changes, we knew we were being played. And this wasn't just our flight, someone counted 38 flights with similar issues. By 9:00pm we finally got them to admit that our 5:00pm flight was actually going to be canceled. By 10:00pm they were offering to put us up in a hotel & fit us onto fights on the next day. Most of us weren't willing to go to the airport the next day & risk playing the same game. So, they agreed to get a bus to drive us the 4 hours to Pittsburgh. Of course, they made us wait to retrieve our checked luggage & then, when the bus got there at midnight, said that our luggage had been flown to Pittsburgh, so we arrived home a 4 in the morning with no luggage.
I got to work at 6:00 am, Bob had to drive back to the Pittsburgh airport around Noon to retrieve our bags (since they wouldn't deliver them to the house). We had left Innsburck, Austria at 6:00 am their time to make the flight in Munich - going more than 30 hours without more sleep than 1-2 hour naps sitting on planes/buses doesn't leave a person very happy. Not the right way to end a trip. So, I think I better try to get to bed now & sleep for real.
The Alps were beautiful though & we got a little taste of the Euro2008 football excitement since Switzerland & Austria are hosting. Made me wonder if John plans on attending any of the games seeing as they have a concert scheduled in Austria for this friday. See - there is a connection to John in all.
Hope you have all been well while I've been away.
Joan
....changing planes there 