[RichardLowenthal]

My wife and I flew business class on United to Tokyo with our three sons. We fly there often as my wife is from Tokyo and we maintain an apartment.
Aside from the normal rude and unacceptable customer service that is now common with United employees, we experience two amazingly negative events in the same flight. First we flew to San Francisco from San Diego to connect to the flight to Tokyo. The flight up was late, but departing flight was also delays. The original departure time was 1:30, but since we were late arriving we only go to the plane at 1:30. The Tokyo flight did not take off until 3:30, but United gave away our seats and bumped two 1K passengers with four business tickets off the flight without compensation. Then it got worse. We got to the flight the next day and had four seats in different parts of the plane with three boys age 6, 3 and 0 (infant). We asked the check-in counter, gate personnel and flight attendant for help to switch seats, but no one cared to help. So we started ask passengers to change seats. At that point, the purser came. Rather than help discuss with passengers to change seats she threatened me and my wife that if we ask another passenger to change seats she would have us removed from the plane and call the police. We were stunned. One man was nice enough to change seats so my wife could sit by our 3 year old son. But the purser made my 6 year old son sit alone all the way to Tokyo with a stranger and he was very upset. I have complained to the airlines and sent letters to Smisek himself and did not get any response, apology or any other effort on the part of the airlines to address the issue. UNITED SUCKS and I am now doing my best to avoid flying them.

[Jaykris]

Well now Richard, it looks like your connection was booked quite tight. The reason you were not allowed on that flight, was for TSA security rules! You MUST be there 2 hours before the SCHEDULED departure to allow the TSA to verify who you SAY you are. Positive passenger match just might save your life in the future.

[jimworcs]

Funny, that's not what Spirit says...

Due to additional Transportation Safety Administration screening requirements, customers wanting to check baggage are required to do so at the ticket counter at least 30 minutes before departure (45 minutes for Atlanta, Ft. Lauderdale, Las Vegas and Los Angeles; 60 minutes for international flights).

If you are not at the boarding gate more than 15 minutes prior to departure (30 minutes for international flights), you may lose your reservation and become ineligible for denied boarding compensation.

AA doesn't say that either on it's website. Perhaps the TSA has "special" rules for United...

Putting a 6 year old unaccompanied next to a total stranger is unacceptable and unsafe. United doesn't know if that stranger is a paedophile or what. Furthermore, in an emergency decompression, is the stranger responsible for taking care of the child? What if they don't? In an emergency evacuation, ypthe evacuation could be impeded by parents trying to locate their child. The purser on this flight was thoroughly irresponsible and clearly too stupid to think through the implications of their very poor decision making.