United Airlines–Are You Listening?

The service industry ain’t what it used to be…

This morning, my friend John sent me the link to a story about poor customer service on United Airlines:


Not-So-Happy Flying

Last week, I wasn’t so happy with United Airlines myself. After two phone calls trying to get them to load a subtitled movie into the plane, I learned that I was going to have to create a new law to get the airlines to comply:

Dreaming of Accessible Airline Movies

Closed Captioning on the Airlines–We’ll Need a New Law

But let’s talk about service.

On the flight to Oahu, we were surprised to discover that there wasn’t going to be any meal on the flight. We just assumed that on long flights, something would be served. We settled for five dollar boxes of assorted snacks.

Did I mention how crowded the plane was? Not only were we packed together like sardines, but there literally was no room for me to work on my sister’s laptop–I couldn’t open it all the way and had to squint to see the angled screen. They built that plane to squeeze in the most people they could.

The service on the way to Oahu was a heck of a lot better than on the way back. On the way back, we were served… one drink. The entire eight hours. This was in contrast to our arrival flight, where the staff came around several times to offer water and directed us to the back to get other drinks. (How about running that service cart twice on long trips?)

When I walked in the back to inquire about water, three of the staff were talking and I stood there for a minute before they acknowledged me and I asked for water. The staff person scooped up half-melted ice and poured in warm water.

Lovely. Just lovely.

I couldn’t wait to touch down.

Have you had similar flight experiences? Share your story in the comments.

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Wicked–And some wickedly bad seats

On July 22nd, Lauren and I went to see the play, “Wicked” along with two other friends. It was an interpreted performance. When we arrived, we discovered that the so-called accessible seats were more than halfway down the theatre. After calling the house manager and requesting seats closer to the interpreters, we ended up in seats right in front, but off to the side. There was no time to change it, as the play began and we had to settle in.

For the first half, I had a great view of the interpreters, but couldn’t see a thing on stage unless the actors came forward. The kids fared a little better as they were able to take in more of the view. What a disappointment.

Needless to say, we ended up with a full refund…

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