United Nightmare
 

This complaint involves a round trip flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Boston.

The routes were: Ho Chi Minh - Hong Kong - Chicago - Boston and Boston - Chicago - Hong Kong - Ho Chi Minh.

My departure date was 18 November and my return date was 30 November.

After arriving at Tan Son Nhat airport at 4AM for my departure everything seemed to be going smoothly. No hassles from immigration, no delays, happy days. Unfortunately things quickly went bad.

In Hong Kong I went to my gate and waited to board for a 11:10 departure. First, we were notified of a one hour delay. Second, customers noticed that the ground crew were taking things off the plane. Third, the captain of the plane came out and notified us that the plane was broken (a torn landing gear door) and we would not be flying that day. Following the captain's announcement, we (400 people) had to wait until the official announcement came from United headquarters. The delay occurred right around lunch time and instead of offering us meal vouchers, they gave us soda and cookies from the plane. At approximately 1:30 we were informed that there were not more connections for the day and we would have to wait until the following day to fly. We were instructed to form a line for hotel vouchers. We formed up and had to wait for about 40 minutes before they started issuing vouchers. The vouchers gave limited instructions for how to find the bus terminal in the airport where a bus would take us to the hotel. No one from United guided us to this place. In addition, the voucher notified us that we would only receive one meal voucher (for a 26 hour delay encompassing four meal times - lunch, dinner, breakfast, lunch). All the passengers eventually found their way to the bus terminal where we forced to wait an additional 45 minutes for a bus to turn up. The bus took us to a hotel in the New Territories that while nice was very isolated from the CBD and about 40 minutes away from the airport. In the morning we were bused back to the airport at around 9:30 and had to wait in another long line to receive new boarding passes(couldn't this have been done the night before and delivered to our hotel rooms?). Finally we boarded at around 1:00pm and the remaining legs of this journey were uneventful.

Now for the return...Following my 26 delay in Hong Kong I joked with family and friends about hoping that I wouldn't be delayed on the way back. I guess I shouldn't have joked.

The flight from Boston to Chicago was fine. The flight from Chicago to Hong Kong was not. I booked an exit seat on the flight from Chicago to Hong Kong which, unbeknownst to me, meant that I would be sitting face to face with the flight crew when they weren't working. Flight prep seemed to be taking longer than normal so a couple of the flight attendants started chatting with the three of us seated in the exist row (to our left was food prep area bulkhead). One of the flight attendants was wearing a Santa Claus hat which I suppose is appropriate from the period directly after Thanksgiving through Christmas but struck me as being a bit loose for someone working in the airline industry. The other guy chatted with me about Ho Chi Minh City - he asked about bars, night clubs and girls. When we started talking about girls he was awfully considerate - he made an effete limp-wristed hand gesture and asked if I was gay. I let him know I wasn't but I can imagine that someone who was gay could find this pretty offensive. After my heterosexuality had been confirmed the discussion turned to prostitution in Vietnam and the like (again, really loose). Then, the power in the plane went off. After another 30 minutes of sitting, we were told to disembark and informed that the flight would be delayed until 8:30pm (an 8 hour delay) and that we would arrive in Hong Kong at around 2:00am (in other words, we would all miss our connections). After getting off the plane, we were each given a $10 food voucher for our troubles. A helpful United rep told me I should go to McDonalds as it offered the best value and that I should spend the remaining balance on cookies from McDonalds because the restaurants don't give change for vouchers. When we finally boarded, we were in the same seats as before but with a new flight crew. This time, there were two women sitting in the seats opposite us. They weren't particularly friendly (which is fine) but they discussed their personal lives with each other for much of the flight (which wasn't). Why do I know that one of the flight attendants in 27 years old, has a boyfriend in law enforcement and always calls when she arrives at a destination? Because I had to listen to her talk hour after hour. In any case, I was really surprised by how loose flight crews have become on United. When the plane landed in Hong Kong the 27 year old immediately got out her phone and started texting people. As we were leaving she half-heartedly (and I think somewhat sarcastically) wished us a safe journey.

After disembarking, passengers connecting the Ho Chi Minh City were informed that we had missed our connection (duh!) and would have to take a flight leaving in the morning at 8:00am on Cathay Pacific (another 6 hour delay). Instead of doing the right thing and giving us somewhere to sleep, they informed us that all they could do was give us vouchers for the VIP area ($30 value). So we were all sent to the VIP area to wait. There was limited food available and free wifi (which is so useful in an airport that already provides free wife to everyone). We were give written instructions to go to the Cathay Pacific desk at 5:00am to collect our boarding passes. So at 5:00am two of us went to down to get our passes but there was no one at the desk. To add insult to injury, we had to leave the security area to get to this ticketing desk and couldn't go back into the secure area without boarding passes. We had to wait until 6:30am for someone to show up and issue us boarding passes. Once we had our boarding passes everything went smoothly (despite the fact that we all had to go through security twice in Hong Kong). While I was waiting to board, I called United and asked to lodge a complaint. I was informed that this was impossible and that I would have to lodge a complaint through their website. I wrote a complaint (not as lengthy as this one) and sent it. On Friday (five days later), I called United again to follow-up on my complaint. The United rep informed me that it takes four weeks (yes, one month) for United to follow-up on a complaint.

Up to this point, United has offered me compensation via an email that directs me to their webpage and gives me a choice of three options 1) Award Miles, 2) $200 off a domestic flight, 3) 20% off an international flight. For both delays, I chose the 20% off an international flight. Quite frankly, I think I deserve something better.