Long Glutenous Weekend & I HATE UNITED

217.6 (good considering...)

TUESDAY

I had a great weekend. For the most part. Once we got there. Ok, so traveling sucked. I HATE United now, and will never, by choice, fly them again. We flew out on Friday afternoon. Even though we live in Atlanta, the hub of Delta, where we can always get direct flights, we choose to fly United and do a layover in Chicago. Mostly because we waited too long and the United flight was significantly cheaper than the Delta direct. When you're flying 3 people, you need to find the cheapest flights you can.

So, we're already spoiled in that we never usually have to deal with a layover. But this time we did. Ok, no big deal, right? Our flight to Chicago left almost on time. Then we had a 2 1/2 hour layover, which wouldn't be so bad if you weren't traveling with a 5 year old. So we had dinner, and tried to entertain him as best we could. Then we took our short flight to Lansing, MI - about 30 mins away from Erik's parents house. This was a small flight in a small plane. Probably only about 50 people on the entire plane and it wasn't full. Of course, when we landed in Lansing, about 8:00, we only got one of the bags. And not the one with our clothes, just the little one that we put our toilettries in. The worst part about it - besides the fact that we had a 2 1/2 HOUR LAYOVER so there was no excuse - was that about 15% of the passengers on the plane didn't get their luggage. So it wasn't a mere oversight - it was a pervasive problem. According to the United rep in lansing, this is typical out of Chicago. Typical? To lose 15% of the bags?

So, we went home to promises that it would be on the next flight (11:30 pm) and be delivered to our house within 4 hours. Which sucks because we'd be waiting by the phone for the courier to call up to 4:00 am, but at least we'd have our bags. Oh no - we don't get a call, or a delivery. By 8:00 am, Erik's pissed and calls the airline's 800 number. Which of course is directed to INDIA. And that person says our bags are still in Lansing, but will be delivered by 12:30. Unhappy, but at least having obtained a promise as to a delivery time, Erik hangs up. 12:30 comes and goes - no bags, no call. Lie #1. Erik calls back and this time is told, "we've already delivered" them. Excuse me? We have been here the whole time, never got the promised call, never got the promised bags. Lie #2. Finally, after about 4 more phone calls to India and a very rude courier, our luggage arrives about 1:30. For our trouble? We are offered a $25 gift certificate to ride United. Um...don't bother.

So time in MI is wonderful - see family, sleep, read, and eat eat eat. We're set to fly out yesterday. Our flight out of Lansing goes fine - to Chicago, where we're supposed to have a 1 hour layover. We get off the flight and see that we're delayed but 1 1/2 hours. Grrrr. And they can't even tell us what gate we'll be at. So we can't take our stuff, and 5 year old and plop down somewhere because we don't know where we need to be. So we go to their "customer service counter," which consists of a large counter with 6-10 phones and computer screens - completely UNMANNED. Not a single united agent in site at the "custemer service desk". So we get on the phone and are told that our plane is coming from Singapore and was late taking off. When Erik gets irritated, the lady on the phone (probably in India) tells him he can go to any united agent and get issued a meal voucher for our trouble. He asks for a confirmation number or something to ensure we get such a voucher, and she says we don't need one, just ask any agent. So we do. And 2 different agents tell us, hell no - they can't issue vouchers for a 1 1/2 hour delay on a flight that doesn't even serve food. Ok. That's lie number 3.

We're done at this point. There's no convincing us that United gives a SHIT about customer service. Their M.O. appears to be "get you off the phone as soon as possible" and "pawn you off on someone else" and "hope you get tired of asking for what you're promised." Done. Ridiculous.

So we didn't end up getting home till almost midnight last night. Very frustrating. Thank goodness the visit with family was good, but we will never fly United, and hopefully will never deal with a layover again.

This morning was back to boot camp. I was really looking forward to it, in fact, since I had such a horrible weekend food-wise. And this morning ROCKED. We ran about 4-5 miles. About 50 mintues straight. I only walked for maybe 3 minutes total, near the end. I felt so good, and I definitely needed it after this weekend. This is the last week of the original boot camp month and we have our graduation party on Friday night. Then I start fresh with a new month on Monday. I'm glad I committed. It's actually getting easier to get up at 5:00 am now that I've done it for a month - of couse it helps when I can go back to bed for a 90 minute power nap before heading into work, like this morning.