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I’ve been stranded at O’Hare a few times. You don’t need to sleep in the terminal. United will book a hotel room for you at the dirt cheap United negotiated rate. You can sleep in a real bed in a local hotel room for around $100. The last time it happened, I just walked to the Hilton in the terminal. I think the room was about $120.00.
I don’t understand why the sheep don’t take some personal initiative. NFW I’m sleeping in the terminal. Same thing with missed connections and cancelled flights. I’m on the phone to reservations sorting it out while the sheep are queued up in some 2 hour customer service line.
This is exactly the reason passengers were mad. It's not on them. The airline doesn't have to do this if the flight is leaving the same day it was cancelled. So United waited until midnight to cancel a 7:30 p.m. flight, so the new flight was now a same-day flight, no reimbursement required.
Lots of United bashing going on here. You guys should try Spirit or Frontier some time if you really want some perspective on how unpleasant flying can be.
Is that the new standard? As long as you're just semi-awful it's okay because the other guys are worse?
Small potatoes. In December 2010, Third World citizens were trapped in European airports for 3+ days and nights because of snowstorms. Hotel rooms were available, but they weren't allowed out of the airports or given emergency visas because of their countries of birth. However, Americans, Canadians, Australians and others deemed to be from "good countries" were allowed out of the airports. So I really don't feel sorry for a bunch of Americans stuck in an airport overnight. They weren't truly trapped. They had the right to leave the airport, and then rent a car to some other city with available hotels or find other accommodation options, etc. Visa rules are the racism of the modern world. If you really want to see how bad "stuck in an airport" can get, just get yourself a developing nation's passport and fly through Europe.
If it is, you have misinterpreted the article. Otherwise, could you provide a source for your claim, because I would be interested in learning more about it.
Lots of United bashing going on here. You guys should try Spirit or Frontier some time if you really want some perspective on how unpleasant flying can be.
Or you could try Hawaiian to find out how pleasant flying can be.
Lots of United bashing going on here. You guys should try Spirit or Frontier some time if you really want some perspective on how unpleasant flying can be.
And Frontiers prices reflect that. People fly those airlines knowing that its not going to be great. I was able to fly round trip from Los Vegas to Raleigh, NC for 105 dollars. For that cheap of a price I will take an uncomfortable flight.
I don't see how United repeatedly treating its passengers terribly as a matter of policy is "catching bad breaks." That's not bad luck, it's bad management.
This.
I'm getting a little tired of stories where people get outraged and blame the wrong parties for stuff. Yeah, bad situation to be in, but pointing fingers at united for the 4 AM rousting? People should get their facts straight before posting blame all over the internet. I sometimes wonder if these companies couldn't counter sue for libel in such instances? And did you see how much miss thing wants to be compensated? Talk about milking a situation!
This isn't the first time an airline has had passengers stranded overnight at an airport - especially O'Hare, which has been United's primary hub since the airport was opened. United should have very well known that the airport resumes operations at 4 AM and the cots would by policy be removed at that time, and advocated for its customers to either get special permission to keep the cots in place where they were, or put the passengers somewhere else where they would not be disturbed at 4 AM. Scorn at United's lack of planning and lack of consideration for its customers (which this is not an isolated incident of) is entirely appropriate here. What are you, a member of United's public relations department trying to astroturf sympathy for them.
And you really shouldn't throw around legal terms you obviously don't understand. Libel requires someone spreading information they know to be false with intent to injure someone else. You've already provided a positive defense to the defendants in your hypothetical lawsuit when you have said they are "outrageds" and posted before getting "their facts straight" - an error of fact, rather than malicious misinformation. Not actionable as libel. And in Gertz v Robert Welch, Inc., SCOTUS found there must be mens rea, there is no such thing as strict liability in defamation, which would violate the First Amendment.
Yes but the gate agent doesn't have the authority to open up the lounge, which was probably already locked and the manager had gone home.
But does have the authority to call a supervisor who can make a judgement call to prevent a public relations headache in an airline already beleagured with them.
Small potatoes. In December 2010, Third World citizens were trapped in European airports for 3+ days and nights because of snowstorms. Hotel rooms were available, but they weren't allowed out of the airports or given emergency visas because of their countries of birth. However, Americans, Canadians, Australians and others deemed to be from "good countries" were allowed out of the airports. So I really don't feel sorry for a bunch of Americans stuck in an airport overnight. They weren't truly trapped. They had the right to leave the airport, and then rent a car to some other city with available hotels or find other accommodation options, etc. Visa rules are the racism of the modern world. If you really want to see how bad "stuck in an airport" can get, just get yourself a developing nation's passport and fly through Europe.
Resorting to committing the Logical Fallacy of Relative Depravation is a really weak way to go, Arctic Gardener.
The original article stated that each passenger would be reimbursed at a maximum rate of $200 for a night in a hotel when the flight was cancelled.
They were offered to be "put up".
Honestly, this topic is so disappointing. America used to be the tough "can do" country. Now it just seems like we're a bunch of limp biscuits, who whine and can't even be bothered to go to a hotel for reimbursement if their choice is not to stay in the airport. HELLO. GET A CAB. GO TO A HOTEL. Pay them, and then secure your reimbursement if you really don't want to spend a short night in an airport. Which actually, can be a really interesting adventure meeting interesting people.
You're talking out of your...best side. Their flight was canceled at 12 AM, likely with the uncertain assurance that they would be put on the first flight out, which could be as early as 5:00. If the airline arranged the hotel stays and had courtesy vehicles pick the passengers up in the morning, it would work. But an entire plane full of passengers who aren't from Chicago and don't know it at all trying to find vacancies at hotels close enough to O'Hare to be able to get back to the airport in enough time to catch an early morning redeye, it's all but impossible. By the time all those passengers found hotels, found enough cabs at that hour to take them to said hotels, and then got to said hotels, it would pretty much be time to turn around and head back to the airport. When the airline waited until 12 AM to cancel a 7 PM flight, they eliminated their passengers finding hotel rooms on their own as a realistic choice. It's not being a "limp biscuit" (Jeezuz, do you really talk like that?) to expect an airline you've paid hundreds of dollars to to get you to a contracted place at a contracted time to manage things when they are unable to fulfill their end of the contract due to their own equipment failures to either provide you reasonably comfortable accomodations or give you enough advance notice so that you can find your own accomodations.
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