[Helena Richards]

My sister and her husband are currently at the airport in Houston waiting for a red eye to Bogota. They purchase FIRST CLASS TICKETS round trip from Bogota to Houston. In addition their tickets included several segments within the United States. Their itinerary included San Francisco, Las Vegas, Chicago, Columbus back to Houston and Bogota. When they arrived in Chicago their plans changed and they wanted to move the trip to Columbus up a couple of days. They were told by United it would be $150.00 per person to change (by they there were three of them because my niece join them in San Francisco). This would be a total of $450.00 plus $25.00 per checked bag. They decided to rent a car and drive to Chicago (for less than $200.00).
Today they went to the airport in Columbus for their return trip to Houston and Bogota, only to find their reservation had been canceled without any notification. They were forced to forfeit their original tickets, buy new tickets AT A PREMIUM PRICE, miss their flight to Bogota, and now they are waiting for a "red eye" flight to take them home.
Of note, this couple and their children travel extensibly around the world, and this experience has made them think twice about visiting the US (pumping a lot of money into our economy in the process). They also will NEVER flight United Airlines (or their affiliates) and most likely avoid any American own airline.
How sad it is for the traveling public that airlines lost their "service industry" standards and now they spend all their time devising ways to rob the traveling public every step of the way.
My mission tomorrow is to talk to a couple of lawyer I know well who are always ready for a good fight.