United, from whom we bought this code-shared flight, mid-flight canceled our tickets for the rest of our itinerary, without explanation. After long delay they tried to re-issue the tickets, but Air Canada could not find the re-issue. It finally resolved after escalation to several layers of supervisors.
We sat on the hot plane for ours with very conflicting messages. Some (most?) of this may be due to the flight control staff, but we were also repeatedly getting "we are leaving"/"we are not" messages. It was very uncomfortable
Read the fine print. This was my flight home. I booked my flight for the quickest way home. Had a carry-on and a personal item. Same as my outbound flight. Apparently I needed to pre-pay extra for my carry-on. When I checked in, I was told that I had to check it. I said I’ll pay for it, and was told that this wasn’t an option anymore. They said I still had to pay $50 to check my carry-on. I told them I’ll pay whatever to just carry it in as intended. I was not allowed, so eventually I paid $50 to check my carry-on under a plane that was half full, with overhead compartments that were even less full. My white carry-on suitcase was practically destroyed getting from Idaho falls to Denver to Orange County. The low price air fair was a bait and switch. Got me to the gate, made me pay extra, then didn’t even allow me to pay for a carry on. Not to mention that I paid the $8 for WiFi that didn’t work. All to get my suitcase destroyed. I don’t think I’m going to even keep my Untied mileage plus membership and card. Apparently, membership does not have its privileges for this one.
WiFi didn’t exist , seats were super cramped, lights stayed on near my seat for a long time while others were dimmed, the food/trash/drink cart hit my shoulder at least a couple of times while moving, food options were down to just one option by the time it got to my row, the utensils were garbage (knife bent at a couple of places by the time I was done eating) the spoon was very flimsy plastic
I had enough leg room. The check in was smooth. Good food
Delayed - weather wasn't bad at either end. Also sat on tarmac in ORD.
The boarding timing needs to be improved. The flight was delayed again because it took way too long to board. I was already exhausted from sleeping at the airport and spending all day there due to delay from my previous flight that connected in Chicago.
During landing. 2 crew members passed 3 times by my lane and didn't notice that people in front of us had their site to the furthermore reclined... That was uncomfortable and could have been dangerous.
United Airlines was fantastic, however, UnderPricer was a nightmare. I got to the airport 4 hours before my flight. We are moving to New Zealand so had quite a bit of baggage (16 checked items) and so wanted to have plenty of time to get everything taken care of properly. When I went to check in they (United) could only find a ticket for me. The 5 tickets for my children were never officially ticketed. I called Underpricer and they told me it was United's fault and United told me that Underpricer just needs to reissue the tickets, but they refused to. I asked the Underpricer agent to transfer me to his supervisor as I was not getting the help I needed. He told me the supervisor was busy but that he would call me back in 30 minutes. 30 minutes came and went with no phone call. After an hour I called Underpricer back but they would not let me talk to the person I had talked to before, just told me that he was talking with the supervisor and technical support. I called again an hour later, was told the same thing. I tried again later, with only about 30 minutes until my flight was scheduled to leave (meaning I had been at the airport for more than 3 hours with my 5 children trying to get ticketed and board the flight). Also, my husband had moved to New Zealand 3 months prior, I haven't seen him in 3 months, my children hadn't seen their dad in 3 months, we were all extremely eager to get on that flight and get to New Zealand. The situation with the tickets did not get resolved until after it was too late to check our luggage and board our flight. We were devastated. My 11 year old son was in tears at not being able to be on his way to see his dad. Thankfully we were rebooked for the next evening, but that night it felt devastating. We'd been at the airport for 4 hours waiting. My in-laws waited with me and then helped me reload all our baggage and took us home to stay with them for the night. On the newly booked flights we could not sit together - my children were spread throughout the plane. So, even though I had paid extra to select our seats after buying my seats from Underpricer only two of us were able to sit together (thankful that my 11 year old wasn't all by himself, but not happy that my 14 & 16 year old daughters were seated by strangers). I really feel that Underpricer should refund me what I paid for the seating ($120 USD). It was a very frustrating situation and I plan on never using Kayak or Underpricer ever again.
Kayak, the site I went through to book our flight, sent very unclear emails about flight changes. Kayak was incredibly unhelpful in their communications with me about this, promising to work on resolving the issue, and failing to do so. As a result, I needed to get a hotel in Brussels and am now in the process of trying to get reimbursed. On the other hand, the flight personnel in Brussels were very helpful, taking time to look into the issue and determine if they could help. I am very grateful for them and have no problems with the airline. For Kayak, however, I will never use it again and will never recommend it to anyone, and will even discourage people who consider going through that site. My worst experience ever....
