The players:
The Montrose, CO airport
United airlines
AZcentral.com travel
The Phoenix airport
My little family trying desperately to make it to and back from the BCS National Championship Game
The story starts off in Telluride, CO. We were on a week vacation there with my dad, mom, fiance, uncle and two cousins. We were flying out of Montrose (about 1.5 hours away) to Denver, and then on to Phoenix. We left on Sunday. Our flight from Montrose was suppossed to only be 35 minutes, and we had an hour layover in Denver.
At the Montrose airport, there is only one holding area after you get through security, so you have to wait until they call your flight to go through security. We hear our flight called, and we go through. Before they called our flight, another flight had been let through security, so the waiting area was pretty full. Then they called another. and another. Turns out that these flights were all leaving at the same time. We were all shoved into this little space together, so I was more that relieved when they called our plane to board. It was 1:00 when the plane was fully boarded and locked up, which was the time we were suppossed to have taken off. No big deal, we'll be a few minutes late.
We continue to sit in the plane for 45 minutes. No explanation as to why, just sitting. Turns out that they pilots had to wait for all the other planes to take off, and a few more to land. By the time the plane takes off, it is almost 2. Our plane from Denver to Phoenix takes off at 2:30.
Bad Service: Having an airport with only one runway schedule all flights for the exact same time. Not the airlines fault, though they could have told us why we were just sitting there.
So we arrive in Denver at 2:25. we are told by the flight attendants that we will be able to get on this flight, that they have not closed the gate yet. So we RUN. Sure enough, the gate is open and the plane is just still there. We ask if we can board, and lo-and-behold, United sold our seats. Now, I can imagine if we were on a different airline in a different terminal and they had no idea where we were, but we flew in on United and were checked in all the way to Phoenix. I don't know if they were aware that our plane was late or if they just didn't care, but either way, we were in time to make the flight, but apparently they didn't see it that way. My dad and fiance then BOTH got hung up on by United reservations people.
Bad Service: Selling our seats when they should have known we were coming, hanging up on people.
My mother had booked the hotel on AZcentral.com. The hotel had charged her credit card for the full amount and she had a confirmation number. After we found out we were stuck in Denver until the morning, she called to let them know so that they wouldn't cancel our reservation and give the room to some other desperate Florida or OSU fan. She calls to discover that we have no reservation! The website that we booked the hotel through had cancelled our reservation they said. HOWEVER, when we called the website, they informed us that they had simply changed our hotel. Still bad service for not INFORMING us of this change.
Bad Service: changing reservation without informing the traveller
So we get to the game and everything's fine, our hotel is nice and the game had the outcome we wanted. I had to be back in Tampa by 4 pm yesterday, so I flew out at 6:30 AM. There was almost noone at the airport at that time so I had no problems. HOWEVER, apparently the airport was unaware that there was a GIANT FOOTBALL GAME in the area the night before, and as such only had ONE securityline going for the rest of the day, as well as all of the airline check-in counters being severely understaffed. My parents and fiance left the hotel 2 hrs before their flight, and the hotel is 5 minutes from the airport. they return their car, which took 30 minutes (the rental place only had 1 person at each counter, and everyone was returning their cars) They check in, another 30 minutes. Then, they stand in the security line for ANOTHER HOUR. They, along with half of the people at the airport, missed their flight. All the flightes were oversold, so the airlines didn't really care if they got to the plane or not. My parents and fiance are still stuck in Phoenix, along with about 12 other families JUST AT THEIR HOTEL. Hopefully, however, they will be able to fly out today and make it home.
So, one or two of these things, and I'd think mistakes happen, tough shit. All of these things together? I'm pissed.
ETA: Update: my boyfriend was told he was confirmed on a 10 am flight out this morning. He gets to the airport and he's not on the flight list at all. NOt even standby. He put himself on the standby list, but no luck. He did, however, get confirmed for the next flight to Tampa, and will be arriving at 7.