Dear United Airlines,

I don't often complain publicly about bad customer service, but when it is so bad it borders on traumatic, I feel compelled to do so. Where are your Customer Service people?  Do you care at all what your customers have to endure when they choose to travel with you, or do you figure you're the only game in town?

We've all experienced the United Airlines delay: we arrive at the airport and once our boarding time has passed, the board gets updated with the vague "operational difficulties." The flight departure time is delayed by an hour. The flight may or may not actually depart. It's usually delayed a couple of more times. We passengers get our hopes up, then they are dashed. The attendants don't give out real information. Eventually, they might get so harangued by angry customers, they'll tell a few of us the real reason - the captain didn't show up, the air conditioning isn't working- but they never announce it to the waiting area. Some more experienced travellers know to get rebooked on the next flight, or on the standby list, but by the time the rest of us figure out our flight will be cancelled, it's too late. The flights are all oversold, all the time.

For us passengers, all we know is this: we are being lied to. We don't know what the lie is, we just know it's a lie.

We call customer service, and talk to Rajeev in the Philippines, who doesn't actually work for United. He's nice, but has absolutely no helpful information. He can get us on a flight to Dulles tomorrow afternoon, though - for a $200 change fee. Never mind that we're trying to get to Syracuse.

It happens once, that's modern travel.

It happens twice, leaving us stuck on the plane with a 1 year old and a 5 year old, for eight hours, while the flight attendants are sneaking us juice and crackers, and it becomes a matter of real concern.

It happens to Grandma, who travels from Syracuse to Denver once a year to see her grandkids. She gets stuck in Chicago. Her flight is delayed, twice, before it's just plain cancelled. They cannot get her on a flight until the next afternoon -- 28 hours later than her original flight.

United offers her a $75 hotel voucher. All the nearby hotels are sold out. No taxi fare, no bus passes, no shuttles. She is on standby for the first flight out the next morning, so decides not to go to a hotel.

United offers her a $15 food voucher to last her the next 18 hours. There's a catch: you have to spend the entire voucher at once.

United does not provide her access to their Red Carpet area. They don't offer cots (she wouldn't take one, anyway).  She doesn't have a coat, and she's freezing. They don't offer blankets.

United, let me spell out for you the real life results of this kind of traumatic event: we, like a lot of Americans, live far from family. We have cut out fun travel. Our vacations are spent flying to see family.

It just takes one horrible experience- like being stuck on a plane with two kids, no food and dwindling beverage supplies- to convince us that travel is not something we are going to do often. Unfortunately, our family lives in a part of the country where United is pretty much the only game in town, so our choice in airlines is limited.

When the same thing happens to Grandma - and this is the second time she got stuck overnight in Chicago - it means Grandma will likely not travel to see us as often.

We're not the only ones- at least this ZDNet blogger found some good lessons in his bad experience. The same day Grandma got stranded in Chicago, our neighbors were stuck in Las Vegas an extra 9 hours due to the mysterious "operational difficulties."

The emotional price of flying United is high. High enough that we do not fly United unless we absolutely have to. Is this really the kind of branding you want?

Sincerely,
Liz