United Airlines

Heidi Carter: Confirmation No. C868TK Meagan Smith : Confirmation No. CN47YN Taylor Gray: Confirmation No. 2BGM9L This email serves as a request for a refund for the above individuals. My name is Heidi Carter. My daughter is Taylor Gray and my best friend is Meagan Smith. I am 46 years old and have been flying on a very regular basis since I was a kid. My dad works for American Airlines for the last 35 years. I have flown A LOT! Including oversees. And I have dealt with a lot of hiccups in my travels. Delays. Disappointments. Chaos. But never in my 46 years of life have I had to send a complaint and a request for a refund. Same goes for Meagan and Taylor. The three of us purchased tickets to fly together from DFW to Stockholm Sweden. With a 2 hour layover in Newark airport. This nightmare story will take me 5 hours to explain over the phone. And this story truly will turn into a novel if I include the WHOLE story. I am leaving out some points and emotions to the story. This is what I call, the Readers Digest Version. And the only plus side to this whole experience is that all 3 of us were smart enough to not check on any luggage. We only did carry-on. We arrived at DFW on June 13th for our flight from DFW to Newark to leave at 10:22 am. About the time we are suppose to board, our plane still hasnt arrived at our gate. A United employee at the counter made an announcement that the flight has been delayed for about an hour. And told us that for some reason our plane decided to go land in Oklahoma City instead of DFW. They have no reason why that happened. And explained that all the other airlines are landing and taking off with no problems or delays. I then panic a little because of our connection in Newark being just a two hour layover. I made my fear known to the United employee at the ticket desk and the gentleman reassured me that we will make our flight. And there were 14 of us on this flight that are making that connection in Newwark to Stockholm. Close to the hour mark of the flight delay, the United employee came over the intercom and said the plane was about to land and they will quickly deplane, clean and get us in our seats. About 10-15 min later the United employee told us our flight has been delayed again because the pilot came in for a landing and aborted the landing and circled back around. But hey, the United employee once again reassured us we would make our connecting flight. When we land in Newark, we land at the exact time our flight from Newark to Stockholm is boarding. Nothing is smooth about trying to get us off the plane. So many delays in getting us off the plane. THEN, a United employee made an announcement to all of us on the plane who are making the connecting flights that our Stockholm plane is waiting for us. We still are panicking and rush to the next terminal and gate to catch the Stockholm flight. All 14 of us running. Just to get to the gate and the United employee said sorry. Gates closed. Plane is still sitting there. Although we were told REPEADEDLY that we will make our connection and they are holding the plane for us. They would not let us on that plane. We have missed our connection. All 14 of us. And the United employee sent us to customer service. As we are waiting in a long line for help, I call United customer service. See who can help us faster. Someone in CS answered the phone first while we were still in line. Im trying to quickly tell the person on the phone what happened. She then tells me that if I can get to Pennsylvania, there is a flight leaving from there at 5:00pm directly to Sweden. I told the United employee that its 4:45pm and Im in Newark. Even though Ive already explained all of this to her. By that time we made it to the in-person CS United employee. And I let the CS employee go over the phone. The in-person CS United employee that helped us had us at her desk for 2 ½ hours trying to help us get another flight. Myself, Megan and Taylor had to do all the work trying to find what flight we wanted to be on. The united employee was zero help in helping us navigate our options. We had to do all the research on our phones to find a flight. Here it is Tuesday and we were told the next direct flight to Sweden from Newark isnt till Thursday. I told them that wont work because we have hotel reservations. And we dont want to lose 2 days in Sweden. We spent a lot of money on this trip. And we were only going to be there for 6 days. If we wait 2 days for another flight, we will only have 4 days there. And I pay for 2 nights at a hotel Im not even there for. So after A lot of research, we asked to be booked on a flight leaving that evening from Newark to Edinburgh. And then catching a flight in Edinburgh to Frankfurt. Then Frankfurt to Stockholm. Wasnt happy about it. Still losing a full day and 1 night in Sweden. But guess that was better than 2 days. So the United employee prints off our tickets for our flight from Newark to Edinburgh and hands us each of our tickets. All 3 of us. Then the United employee hands Meagan and I our tickets for our flight from Edinburgh to Frankfurt. And Frankfurt to Stockholm. But doesnt give Taylor hers. The United employee said for some reason Taylors tickets for those last two flights are not printing out. But reassured us that the tickets have been confirmed and gave us the confirmation page. And told us when we land in Edinburgh to go to the Lufthansa ticket desk and have them print out her tickets. When we finally get in our seats for the Newark to Edinburgh flighta united employee came over the intercom and announced a flight delay to allow some connecting passengers to make that flight. How lucky for those passengers. We were not extended the same courtesy. When we arrive in Edinburgh we immediately go to the Lufthansa ticket counter to get Taylors boarding passes printed. Lufthansa lets us know that there is NO confirmation for Taylor Gray. The United employee never booked her tickets to Frankfurt and Stockholm. And now both of those flights Meagan and I are on are booked. And no seats available for my daughter, Taylor. Now Im sensing a pattern with United. The employees constantly are telling us what we want to hear and then passing the buck to the next employee to deal with the lies we were told. Knowing damn well that we wont be able to confront them again. Thank goodness we had about a 6 hour layover in Edinburgh because it almost took that long to figure out the mess that United put us in. Taylor was passed back and forth between the United desk and the Lufthansa desks for about 3 hours. Lufthansa would tell Taylor she needed such and such information from United. So she would go get in line with United. Tell them what is needed. They would do it and then tell her to go back to Lufthansa. She then waited in line again Lufthansa and told once again that it wasnt done. And needed to get back in line at United. She went back and forth like this for about 3 hours. Tears are starting to fall. We are exhausted. And nothing is going our way. They finally get Taylor on a flight from Edinburgh to Brussels. With a one hour layover in Brussels to Sweden. The Edinburgh flight to Brussels got delayed and Taylor was unable to make the connection from Brussels to Sweden. The Brussels airport put Taylor on another flight leaving for Sweden the next morning. And put her up in a hotel for the night, 45 MINUTES AWAY FROM THE AIRPORT. My daughter, all by herself in Brussles. This wasnt supposed to happen. When she arrived at the hotel she had 5% left of her battery. The hotel had no converter chargers. Nothing. She had to turn her phone off and pray the hotel gets her up in time and she makes it back to the airport with no hiccups. She did make the flight and made it to Sweden over 24 hours later than expected. Meagan and I did make it on our flight from Edinburgh to Frankfurt. But since we have never been to Edinburgh before and never flown with Lufthansa beforewe didnt know all of their rules when it comes to liquid and carryons. In the US, the airports dont have as strict of rules about your liquids as much. Still need to make sure its all in the small containers. I still keep them in a clear plastic bag. They just dont frown anymore on the size of the clear plastic bag. So to make sure I followed all the rules, I purchased all my expensive hair stuff and face washes and creams in travel sizes. Cost me a fortune. But I didnt want to bring my full sizes and have to check in my luggage. You know who got mad at Meagan and I for our liquidsEdinburgh. An airport we were never supposed to be at. Never part of our almost $1700 tickets we purchased with United to get to Stockholm Sweden. They made Meagan and I throw away so many of our liquids. And got mad at us and treated us like we were stupid for bringing that many liquids into their airport. I tried to explain we had no idea and we werent even supposed to be at that airport. When we get on both of our Lufthansa flights, we didnt know that they only allow ONE carry on. We have two. A backpack and a small rolling suitcase. Again, we werent ever suppose to be on those flights. We didnt know. The Lufthansa employees were nice about it. But the passengers on the flights got mad at us several times about our luggage. I did have to get a hold of my hotel to let them know we are coming and to please not give our room away. And that I understand I still have to pay for the night we missed. The repeated lies we were told by United made this the WORSE flight experience ever. This was my first experience flying United. And I will never ever fly with you again. No one has tried to make this right. I put in a request over the phone with a United employee for a refund. The United employee told me that I was due a refund and told me it will be processed and charged back to my credit card with in 7-14 days. And about 4 days later I received and email from United saying they would not do a refund because the tickets were used. Once again, another lie from a United employee. All 3 of us paid about $1700 per ticket for a flight from DFW to Newark. And then Newark to Sweden. We didnt get that. We lost a lot of money and time dealing with the drama of getting to Sweden. And yes, all 3 of us deserve our money back. And probably a little more than that for what we went through. But all we are asking for is the money back for the tickets we paid for. We look forward to hearing back from United. Heidi Carter 214-924-**** hidcarter@***.com Taylor Gray 903-466-**** Meagan Smith 903-380-**** msmith5751@***.com