[shujeans]

I arrived at the Richmond, VA, airport at least an hour early and was checked in for my flight. The attendant announced at one point that the plane was, in his words, "broken". However, another plane was quickly found and brought to the same boarding gate. Boarding was called, and I was in line, ticket in hand, when I was called aside and told by the agent that I was being sent to Delta for a different flight. No one would answer my obvious question, "Why can't I board with the ticket I hold in my hand." The agent also did not inform me that, in order to get to the Delta gate for boarding, I had to back into the concourse and go through security again. The US Air agent did not give me a ticket, just a piece of cheap paper with the flight changes noted. By the time I went throug security again and got to the Delta gate, I was told that the flight was leaving in 15 minutes, and that there was no way that a pass could be processed and printed in time for the flight. Delta kicked me back to US Air, so I had to go into the concourse and through security for a third time. By then, my flight had taken off. The US Air agent told me that he could not help me, and that I would have go down to the the baggage/ticketing area to get help from a US Air agent. Please understand that all of this back and forth from one end of the airport to the other was very difficult for me, as I suffer from fibrromyalgia and arthritis. My dr. can verify this. I did fine going to the original gate, but, all of the back and forth and the emotional upset of missing not one but two flights was extremely upsetting. The US Air ticket agent told me that he could not get me to Denver until after 8 p.m. This was totally unacceptable to me, as I had people waiting to pick me up at my originally designated pickup time. So the US Air agent went down to the United agent, who got me on a United flight through Washington, D.C. to Denver. I asked for a very good seat, especially on the second leg of the flight, as I had paid extra (originally) for an upgrade to an economy plus seat due to my physical problems. I got a very good seat on the short jumper between Richmond and D.C.; however, the agent at the gate for the Denver flight was very rude and told me that I would just have to take what I could get, which was the very last row of the aircraft. AT NO TIME DID ANY US AIR OR UNITED AGENT APOLOGIZE, OFFER ME AN UPGRADE, OR GIVE ME VOUCHERS TO USE ON A FUTURE FLIGHT FOR ALL THAT I HAD GONE THROUGH. It was the worst flight experience of my 55 years. My family can vouch for the fact that, after all of the physical and emotional duress of the flight, I have had to spend 2 days in bed recovering from dragging myself from one end of the airport to the other, and through security FOUR times. Not to mention that I purposely planned my trip through Boston to meet up with friends at the airport. I FULLY EXPECT COMPENSATION FOR THIS HORRIBLE "CUSTOMER SERVICE" AND MY TERRIBLE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE. Yes, I did finally have to call for a wheelchair at one point. But as I felt that I should tip the attendant with my last cash, I was unable to purchase food before finally boarding.

[jimworcs]

You were "bumped" and ought to be provided with compensation. I suggest you write to the DOT with this complaint. There is a link to the complaints section of the DOT website in the quick links at the top of the page.

[Researcher]

Dear user: I am developing a Doctoral research on Mishandled baggage (see General Discussion- Mishandled Baggage Research ) Could you please, provide the airline complaint form (minus personal information) you filled with the airline or send me an email to mishandledbaggageresearch@yahoo.com and I will send a survey. The survey is very similar to the one you must file with the airline and does not contain personal information.
Thanks before hand