A visit to Purgatory via Washington DC
Well, did you really expect a picture of flames, smoke, screaming people and a devil with horns? Sorry to disappoint you, but I am referring to the day I spent traveling from
my beloved, cool (in every way) San Diego to Jville. (Now that I think about it, there were plenty of people screaming
on the inside.) My day was about 12 hours long, and I'm still in the same country! If you end up in another country,
at least you feel like it was worth the torture. The first 5 hours on the flight were fine, except that I got to the airport
two hours ahead of time----and though security was slow, it didn't take that long.
The plane was full, and fortunately I was by the window but had a little kid in the middle seat. That gave us two
adults some extra room, except when he was flying his 5 inch, metal, United airplane around in every direction.
Generally he was well behaved (Mom sat in front & Dad across the aisle----and it's true, as you may have surmised,
I wasn't nice enough to exchange my window seat for one of their middle ones...) He was much nicer than
the ones crying fore & aft....
United charges $25 per bag & only gives you one beverage (non-alcoholic) during the entire 5 hours with
not even a peanut. You can buy a "meal" or snack pack---but only certain options during certain flights.
For instance my flight out was a "fresh breakfast" offering----which did not include eggs, bacon, sausage,
hash browns, grits or even cereal. What could possibly be called breakfast and not include some of the above?
Here's what they offered: yogurt, fruit smoothie or a ham sandwich. That's what I'm saying---WEAK!
Could I buy the cheese tray---not available on a flight that leaves before 11am. Guess they're trying to
irritate their customer base.
Arriving in Dulles (DC) airport it was sweltering & humid which I think is actually a part of being sweltering...
I have to rush to the shuttle to get to my connecting flight (much to the disapproving looks of people on the
plane I cut in front of to get out). Didn't get to take pix of the very cool colored glass blocks I had seen when
rushing through the previous trip :(
I got there in time at the farthest possible gate in the ghetto section of "express" (meaning very small, crowded,
probably recycled plane) only to hear that the Jax flight had no plane or crew yet. We are talking 5 minutes from
scheduled boarding time. Just a slight delay. HA! LIARS!
This was the gate where you walk out to the plane & can't take any luggage on it's so little. We watched
lots of people rushing to catch flights & many people missing them. What did they get---an insincere apology
and a point toward customer service. Hence the people screaming on the inside...
Definitely wouldn't want the job in customer service!
No actual signs as to which flight was boarding or when---just an announcement by someone hard to
understand because of an accent. Wouldn't surprise me if some passengers missed their flights because they
couldn't mentally translate the announcement into American English.
Finally ended up taking off 2 hours late. Arrival: 1:15AM. Fine, if that was unusual, but my husband went through
exactly the same thing a week ago. I would never choose to fly United again----especially if Dulles was involved.
That was Purgatory.
Hope your day was better than mine.
PHOTIP: Find some pretty glass, shoot, download and crop to create abstracts from the colors or shapes...
and try not to think about the cool colored glass blocks you didn't get to take pictures of....
Blessings!
See my artistic images
Find your visual vacation
Posted by Pamela at 6/29/2010 7:43 PM 
Categories: Personal
Tags: flights united airlines security customer service peanut middle seat dulles airport
Categories: Personal
Tags: flights united airlines security customer service peanut middle seat dulles airport
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