Not first time United Airlines under fire

So it takes a video of a middle-aged doctor being dragged off a plane with a bloody face to expose United Airlines’ poor customer service?

Three years ago, we booked a trip to Bangkok. Because it was winter we paid $1,400 extra for the three of us to fly from State College to Dulles for the international flight. Nine hours before we were set to take off, United Express sent us an email that our State College flight was canceled, and not due to bad weather. We were eventually told that we could fly out three days later. We would miss all our connections and the first stage of our tour of Thailand. We booked a hotel near Dulles, and started out at midnight on the four-hour drive. We made our flight, but now with a car parked at the hotel for three weeks we had to forfeit our flight home.

We complained to United immediately. At first they claimed they were not responsible for United Express! After some months they agreed to pay $140 toward our hotel — though they never did — and gave us three $100 vouchers for air travel, which expired after a year.

In this most recent case of passenger abuse, there was an easy way for United to deal with their crew issues: drive them to their destination in a car. That’s what they made us do.

This story was originally published April 13, 2017 at 10:13 PM with the headline "Not first time United Airlines under fire."