I gave it my best and I felt that wasn't enough. I took off work and travelled to the board meetings in Texas and Colorado which cost me thousands of dollars in airfare, rental cars, meals, transportation costs, and hotels. USHPA will only reimburse up to $500.
Well last night was the straw that broke my back. With all my stress lately building a house, running Hawaii's top 10 roofing companies full time as chief cook and bottle washer I decided to spoil myself on the long overnight red eye flight to Denver. Especially since my meetings start when I land and can't check in until 3:00 I bought a 1st class ticket on United Airlines.
I arrived at HNL 1 1/2 early with no bags and went straight to Premier security line to avoid the longer coach lines with my 1st class ticket. It was then I was informed sorry sir your in coach?
I went United's 1st class desk and was told that yes, since I changed my ticket from Salt Lake to Denver I lost my 1st class seat upgrade and was now booked into 18E, coach. I paid for 1st class - $1900...
While I was on the phone with United the reservation agent handed me a ticket that was in 16F, not only was it a middle seat, but I was also informed I was on standby. I Freaking paid for 1st class and had a confirmation number.. WTF?
Looks like United over sold the flight, there were no other seats available. I almost threw my phone at them but this is my 8th IPhone of the year.
I am a loyal United Gold card member and have been for years. Gold status is not easy to get, and I purchase a lot of materials using my United cc card.
I am more than pissed off this morning that I am not at Golden for my last USHPA meeting.
My hotel charged my cc card $615.00, Hertz charged me $417.00 and United $1900!
Expensive screw up, thanks United Airlines!
See ya all at the new Fort Gravity in November for the HPA party.
Peace out,
Reaper
3 comments:
Crazy story! Sorry to hear about that United SNAFU! We need to get JK and Yolie on the case!
Anyway thanks for stepping up in the first place to represent Hawaii and the rest of Region 3. We appreciate it. Exciting times for USHPA and you were there for a lot of it. Not to mention historic first Director elected from Hawaii. I'm sure there's more excitement in store for the next poor sucker who steps up! :-)
Thank you Reaper, for putting up with everything so far. Maybe make your retirement into a plea for telecommuting for the next rep. I retired from airline travel and paragliding after the rewards were edged out by personal challenges, and happily fell back to water sports.
P.S. Reaper, do you remember the first time we met when flying Mauna Kea? I later noticed an article about it by our guide Achim in Cross Country Magazine. Furthermore I noticed the big picture was of ME airborne. I don't think he mentioned either of us, but wrote about his flight when I suggested he take my place at launch. A hesitant launch potato does not necessarily block other launches at all! I obtained his written credit about it for my memory book, but this was just before XC mag started digitized archives.
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