First some numbers:
1,411,587 miles
almost 10 years of 100k status
premier 1k status (with lifetime gold)
a handful of global premier upgrade blips
4 days in the row flying on United planes (indy, newark, dulles, amsterdam)
Now, try to fly to Amsterdam and use one of the “global premier upgrades.” Did we think it was going to suck in advance? Yes we did. We know that United sucks and nobody is listening. UNITED SUCKS AND NOBODY IS LISTENING!
So, how could it be any worse? Well, pull up a stool and have a listen.
I went to the gate pretty early to discover that I had been dropped from the upgrade list AGAIN. This is the third time the computer has done that for no apparent reason. Nobody can tell me why. Anyway, I got on the upgrade list again way too late (as number one of course)…and lo and behold there was a seat.
30 minutes before takeoff I was upgraded and given a paper boarding pass for BusinessFirst. I boarded. 10 minutes later the gate agent came and asked me to move. “The computer made a mistake.” My economy seat was already occupied, but they made that poor guy move too.
Only later did I find out what really happened from the crew (who were all very nice and who also agree that Jeff Smisek is a crap CEO and he should resign so someone else can “clean up the mess” FWIW). A premier gold had been confirmed upgraded on an earlier flight that he missed when he fell asleep in the Denver red carpet club. That meant he was standby on my later flight. He should have had the last available seat. But he raised such a stink about being in business class (since he was previously confirmed) that the solution was to bump me…a guy with double his status…back to economy?! What an asshole. And what pathetic gate agents. I guess I am just not enough of a jerk to get my way even when I am right? And they were dead wrong about who should have been upgraded. Sadly, I found out too late to stand my ground.
So the awful (and I mean worst ever) gate agents AnaMaria Espimo and Asmara Samery are responsible for my current foul mood. Not to mention the asshole.
Just to pile it on, I was slated to join up with Privium in Amsterdam, but it turns out the that Dutch don’t understand McNames. My passport says “MC NAME” but the application said “MCNAME” so back to square one for that process. Ridiculous. Come to think of it, maybe that is the problem with the United computer?
United sucks enough that it needs a reboot. Start at the top.
