A Dumb Move, Great Service, and an Ugly Rumor (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly)

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Ok gang, lets do some higher math.

If you live 20 minutes from the airport, have a 0610 flight, and wake up at
0625 what is wrong with this picture?  :)

Yea that was me on Monday for a business trip.  Power went off overnight
and I never woke up.  To make matters worse I was on a UA ticket that the
outward legs were on a US codeshare.  So I got dressed, headed out, and
called US on the phone on the way to IAD.  Nope can't help me, have to talk
to UA.  Fair enough.  Call UA, and the answer I got there was, either go
back to US at the airport and see if I can get on their standby list or buy
a walk up ticket from UA, have a nice day! Right. So I just went on the way
to IAD.

Got there and stood through the line to get to the counter.  I'm just
hoping they will stand by me or change without too much cost.  Well I get
to an agent and explained my story.  She said she thought I needed to goto
US (No one at UA seems to know what to do with the US legs) but said she's
look at the record.  Next thing I know she says I'm positive space on the
1300 flight and will get into MCO at 1512, BUT.  But, there is a flight out
at 0850 (It's now 0750) and while its overbooked your 12th on the list and
you have a good shot.  And she did not charge me a dime.

Of course I became a selectee but she put me on the list at 0755 according
to the boarding card, and I was at the gate (C4) by 0825.  So 1/2 hour to
have my checked bag bomb sniffed, get the extra stuff at the checkpoint and
took the shuttle out to C.  I get to the gate, and remember that the
schools in the DC area are on Spring Break soooooo this is a huge Rat
Shuttle Flight with lots of people who don't fly much.  I goto the counter
and ask if I'm still in the running and get told I'm still ok.  Not 5
minutes later the agent looks at me and says Mr Stokes?  Walk up and she
says, I'm sorry to do this but I have to give you a center seat, BUT (Lots
of Buts with this flight) its an exit row.  Go me!  And to top it off, they
were in mid boarding, there was no line as I went to walk away and they
called, rows 15 and higher for 1281.  And I'm in 15E.  Again, Go me, walked
right on the flight. Flight was good but full.  A little delay getting out
because of seat confusion but the crew did a great job.  Took off 15 late,
landed 10 early.  Which put me in MCO less then an hour later then I should
have gotten there. So I oversleep, get 3 hours more sleep, and still get
there basically on time at no extra cost on a non-stop flight as opposed to
a connection.  United just went up on my list that's for sure.

So that was the bad and the good, the ugly is someone just came in the
meeting I'm in and said he heard a rumor that UA was going chapter 7 on May
1st.  I'm sure it's just a rumor (You don't announce weeks ahead) but
anyone know where it came from?  Did someone at UA say if we don't do X by
May 1 we'll go 7?

Shawn
Currently in KMLB


You land a million planes safely
Then you have one little mid air
And you never hear the end of it

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