United Airlines, in yer face

I’ve heard about nightmare stories from different people traveling: flight delayed, being stuck in cities for 24 hours or more, sickness, sleeping on airport benches and so on. I guess it was now my turn to face the airport nightmare.

Starting in austin, from where i left the hotel at 9h30 am. As i am writing this it is 21h12 pm, yes, 12 hours later, and i am sitting in washington airport. My flight from austin to washington got delayed of an hour due to bad weather. Landed in Washington at 17h30, 20 minutes after my flight to montreal took off. Airport full, sore throat and a little fever, empty belly.

I was told at 20h30, yes, i waited in line for 3 hours, to have someone telling me that the flight to montreal which i could have taken at 21h30 was full, they so booked me for the first flight to montreal for tomorrow, 8h25. 12 hours still to go.

Belly status: still empty. Patience level = 0, please send me to the closest hotel so i can eat and sleep, this nightmare i want to exit. But no, the airline doesn’t offer me a paid hotel room. The supervisor i was directed to clearly saw that i was trying to hold my tears, and i guess feared that i was close to a nervous breakdown. She pulled me away from the crowd, asked me in a oh-so-kind way ‘c’mon, lets walk this way to talk’… to announce me that no, they wouldnt pay for a hotel room and that ehr, all hotels around where fully booked. When i asked her if she voluntarily took me away from the crowd to announce me this she denied.

Damn hell, i can now say that she was so right about the breakdown. I could have kicked something with my best kung fu assets. Instead, i went to the closest bathroom where i wept for 2 minutes thinking about the next 12 hours i would have to spend on the airport’s benches. ‘I highly recommend gate D-1, its safe at nite for girls’ she said. I wanna kick-you-in-the-face.

Hiding in the bathroom i started to think about how i could, once after making a on distress phone call to my mom, something i last did when i was 14, spend these next 12 hours in a creative way. I could try to take pictures of all corners of the bathrooms of the airport, get to meet the nite-airport-weirdos, make an all-you-can-eat alone with myself (belly status is still empty if you remember), dance my way around, write 35 entries on my blog, read all the 800 unread feeds in my RSS reader, fill out all pages of my drawing book of insults for United Airlines and sing them out loud afterwards, find fellow frustrated travelers and create the first unsatisfied customers demo in a US airport, rearrange the airport signalization in a emcee way. Wathever.

Still in these thoughts i got this flash that no, this cant be. This just cant be. There must be place for me on this plane. I then walked to the gate where the 9h30 flight was schedule and tempted my chance for a last time. In case someone didnt show up for this flight, i could even hide in the bathroom, better, in the captain cabin. ‘I wouldnt even mind flying first class you know…’

It is now 9h30. I feeded myself with some airport food. My head hurts, i am absolutely, totally, extremely exhausted. T-i-r-e-d is even hard to spell.

There was a place on the 9h30 flight, someone did not check-in. The flight is late since i am still siting here writing. But god knows i’ll sleep at home with my cats. God knows i now hate this airline, truly and from deep down inside me i keep these feeling for them. Not providing a hotel room or any kind of compensation to customers who have to stay overnite because of a flight delay is unacceptable.

Its pass 1 am, so happy to be back home.