...my shit list that is! I have decided that I am never going to fly United ever again. I had the trip from hell flying out to Venice from L.A. I got to the airport around 4:45am for my 7:50 flight; there was a huge queue to check-in (it was a Friday on a holiday weekend), but there was an empty check-in place, so I went over there just to weigh my luggage, I was afraid I was going to be overweight, but fortunately I wasn’t. Suddenly a United rep. shows up and asks me if I was there to check in, I said no and she asked me if I had an e-ticket, I said yeah and she said that she would check me in so I wouldn’t have to wait in such a long queue! I was so excited because I managed to skip about an hour wait ☺ I said bye to my mom (which was drama as always, the woman is going to see me in a month, but cries anyway) and went through security.
I made it through everything in about half an hour, if that. My flight is supposed to board at 7:15, so now all I have to do is wait. I found a little restaurant and had a breakfast bagel and juice, trying to pass the time. Well 7:15 comes and goes and we don’t start boarding the plane. They tell us there is a mechanical problem with the plane and that there is going to be a slight delay (words no one ever wants to hear). They finally board our 7:50 flight around 8:30. We get on the plane and are told that the mechanical problem light hasn’t gone off yet, but that it should be fixed soon and we should be leaving very soon. Well they kept us on the runway for over 2 hours, I managed to watch most of Spiderman 3 while sitting on the plane, and they tell us that they have tried to fix various things on the plane and the light still won’t go off, apparently the problem is the back-up fuel tank (say it with me people: That’s a big fucking problem!!!!!). So they have to fly a part in from Denver, so it will be at least 2 more hours. I only had a 4 hour layover in D.C. before my flight for Vienna left, so at this point I know my whole travel plan is shot to hell. They tell everyone to go to Customer Services to see what can be worked out.
They only had ONE Customer Services Rep. to help out the entire plane, now I knew it would be bad, so as soon as they told us to de-board the plane I grabbed my carry-ons and hauled ass! There were over 150 people waiting in line, fortunately I was around number 15, however it still took me 3 hours to get to the front of the line! By the time I got to the front they had 4 Customer Services Reps. helping people out. I tell the lady I had a connecting flight to Vienna, and that my final destination was Venice, and she goes, “Oh no, International flights are always the hardest to re-route” and I told her “Well I don’t care how you do it, but I have to be in Venice by Sunday afternoon the latest”. I had an exam on Monday morning, and if I didn’t show I would forfeit my right to the University. She spends over an hour trying to figure something out; apparently all the flights were booked. She tells me there is a flight out to D.C. that SHOULD leave at 2, so I look at her and go “should? “ she tells me it is the same plane I had been on earlier and it would leave at 2 id the problem was fixed by then, so I told her there was no way I was going to get on that plane again, I wouldn’t feel safe. So the next flight out to D.C. was at 11:30 pm, I would arrive in D.C. around 7am and she could re-route me via Frankfurt and I would arrive in Venice Sunday morning, a full 24 hours late!
She gave me vouchers for food in D.C. and she waitlisted me for business class for the flight from D.C. to Frankfurt. As I sat down I realized she didn’t give me any food vouchers for LAX, but refuse to wait in that line again, fortunately before I left home my mom made me 2 bologna sandwiches, packed me 2 peaches and a baggie of choc. Chip cookies and one of lemon cookies. By 11:30 pm it was all gone, except for the lemon cookies, which I still have. I passed the time by reading an entire book, listening to my ipod, and exploring the airport.
Finally the time comes to board my flight I get on and al of a sudden some girl says I am in her seat, well United had double booked the seat, so they make me grab my stuff and get off the plane. At this point I was beyond furious, so I go and talk to the guy outside, and chew him out… I was literally yelling at him at the gate telling him about how thanks to his incompetent airline I had been waiting at the airport for well over 16 hours and how it was ridiculous that they were doing this to me, and that I was not moving from the gate if it wasn’t on that flight, so that they better figure out some way to get me on that flight. Well fortunately there weren’t many people around that late at night, because I really caused a scene! Someone didn’t show up in time for the flight so there was 1 empty seat that they put me in.
The night before my flight I had only slept about 3 hours because I was busy finishing packing and I had figured I could sleep on the plane, so I was exhausted at this point. I was unable to sleep on the flight though because we got some pretty bad turbulence. I finally make it to D.C. and go straight to customer services to make sure that my ticket to Frankfurt, I explained what had happened on the other plane and told her I wouldn’t like to find myself in the same situation with this flight, she said I was registered for the flight, so there shouldn’t be a problem. I tell her I had a voucher to be waitlisted for business class and she goes, “well do you have points to trade in or something like that?” I told her no, so she asks why I was given the upgrade and I told her because thanks to United I was 24hours late arriving to my destination. She looks at me and goes, “We don’t do free upgrades, but you can always try” so I looked at her and responded, “It’s not free, I think I more than paid with my time!” and I walked away. At this point I was ridiculously tired, annoyed, dirty, and just plain grumpy. I got even grumpier when I found out that Antonio hadn’t been able to switch days with his co-worker so he wasn’t going to be able to get me at the airport, he had taken Saturday off planning on coming to get me, so basically I was going to have to be on my own on the train rides from Venice to Verona and Verona to Trento with 2 huge pieces of luggage and 2 carry-ons, and Europe in general is not very handicap friendly, so no ramps and no elevators, just lots of stairs. So this piece of info is making me even crankier!
I pass the time at the airport, and am delighted to find that they did bump me up to business class. I get on the plane and was amazed; as soon as I sat down I was offered champagne, which of course I took! The seats were so comfy, and I could kick out my legs and not hit the seat in front of me, the seat basically reclined to a full 180 degrees, so I was able to lay down while I slept. They gave out hot towels, had individual sized toothpastes and toothbrushes in the bathroom, along with facial moisturizers and a bunch of other creams. It was soooo nice, the best part had to be the meal! Normally in economy you get your food in a tin container, well in business class they come around and place a white tablecloth on your tray table and then bring you a white cloth napkin with real silverware (none of that plastic utensil shit in business class) and a Menu…. First they brought out a huge salad, with your choice of dressing and smoked salmon to everyone, then you could choose your main dish and whatever kind of wine you wanted from their wine list… I chose Roasted Chicken with Curry sauce which came with herbed basmati rice and creamed spinach, it was all delicious, it was surprisingly good … the other choices were Boursin Lasagna or Mustard-braised pork medallion! As dessert they bought out a cheese selection with port and Ice cream…. Yummy! As soon as I finished eating I took some sleeping pills (I was determined to sleep on this flight) and knocked out, I woke up a few times, but by the time I really came to we were crossing the English channel. They brought out our breakfast, which was fresh fruit, croissants, tea and coffee, yogurt, juice, etc.
I was ecstatic to have made it to Europe, I knew that in the worst of all situations I could catch a train and be home soon. I checked in to my flight with Lufthansa, and it seemed to be the shortest plain ride ever. We took off, I listened to 3 or 4 songs on my ipod, and it was time to land! The view from the flight was beautiful, we passed over the alps.
I won’t even go over the train rides, this post is too long as it is, but lets just say that I struggled a bit on my own, but I made it and I didn’t even miss a train, which amazed me, I was sure I was going to miss one of my trains and have to wait for the next one, but I didn’t! I finally made it home to Trento, Antonio met me at the train station, it was great to see him after 5 months ☺ and I got to see my new apartment, which is small but really cute and just right for us two!
Believe me when I say that I will never fly United again!
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