Wild Goose Chase, Then Premature Closing Left This Weary Traveler Unimpressed

United Club

O’Hare International Airport – Concourse F

Chicago, IL 60666

Web: United.com

My experiences with United Airlines are hit-and-miss, occasionally brilliant, but more often than not disappointing.

 

After being told by the agent at the United luggage transfer desk in Terminal 5 that my connecting flight would leave from “Terminal 1, Concourse C”, I made the mistake of believing him, finding out once there that it was actually leaving from Terminal 2, Concourse F, a 30-minute walk away. By the time I finally found my gate, I was not a happy camper, so I decided to waste one of my two United Club passes I get each year on their Chicago O’Hare (Concourse F) facility. 

 

With two hours before my departure just a few gates away, I asked the woman at reception what time they closed and was told “10pm, giving me a little less than two hours before I had to board my plane. Tired after nearly 20 hours of travel and 30 minutes of unnecessary walking, I decided to use my last pass and what a mistake that was!

 

What little food there was available (olives, hummus, pita chips, cheese cubes and Skittles) was mostly depleted at 8:15 when I arrived. An hour after I arrived and 45 minutes before their scheduled closing they started putting food and alcohol away as I was told “last call” by the bartender. Seeing little reason to stick around during the commotion and chaos of employees eagerly preparing to flea work, I decided to leave.

 

I asked the women at the front desk why the employees were shutting everything down well before closing time and with several customers still in the club, but was told “they want to go home”. I said, “yes, but you told me they were open until 10pm and it is only 9:15”. One of the women said, “you can make a complaint on the website if you aren’t happy”.

 

The only reason they get two stars is because of the free booze (well drinks, bottled beer, and wine), the place was clean, and the employees relatively friendly (a rarity in Chicago O’Hare).

 

CombatCritic Gives United Club (O’Hare – Concourse F) 3 Bombs Out Of 10 … More Bombs Are Better!

Read This Review And More On Yelp!

Title: Wild Goose Chase, Then Premature Closing Left This Weary Traveler Unimpressed

Key Words: United Airlines, United, airlines, airline, fly, airplane, United Club, club, Chicago, O’Hare, airport, terminal, CombatCritic, TravelValue, travel, value, food, definitive, review, guide

Flying Swiss? Do Not Forget Your Swiss Army Knife!

Swiss Airlines

P O Box 8302 

Zürich, Switzerland

I have enjoyed flights on Swiss in the past, but this was the first time I have flown with them in several years. The online check-in was easy enough and I received a pdf of my boarding pass, but it was not available for download in Passbook unfortunately. I had to take a screenshot of the email on my crappy iPhone to make sure that it would be available come boarding time.

 

Check-in and boarding were easy enough at the Florence (Italy) Airport, but things went downhill quickly after that. We were delayed by an hour because of winds, so they say, and delays at Zurich Airport. Only having about an hour and a half from my original departure time until my connection departed, I scurried through the unfamiliar airport looking for my gate until I found it just as the plane was about to depart.

 

I had similar problems on the way back from Malaga to Zurich with my aircraft being delayed nearly an hour and a half. Fortunately, I had two and a half hours before my next departure this time. By the time I found the gate, they were announcing that the aircraft had been changed because of a maintenance issue and they needed six people to stay behind because the new plane was smaller than the first.

 

After being bumped from my Swiss Air flight to Florence and put up in a hotel far from everything with terrible food, the €10 olive tapenade I bought in Duty Free in Spain was seized during security screening the next morning. The woman in front of me, however, was allowed to keep her Swiss Army Knife (that exceeded maximum length and had 10 blades) and take it in the plane with her. 9/11 terrorists used box cutters to hijack four aircraft, but Zurich Airport security thinks it is OK to take knives onboard while seizing olive spread. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous as we finally took off knowing that anybody or everybody in the plane could be carrying an actual weapon … scary!

 

The positives of my experiences were the friendly staff, the free quiche, wine and chocolates in-flight, the relatively new aircraft, and the €250 I received for voluntarily interrupting my trip on the way home, upgrading their rating from 1 Bomb to 3 …

 

CombatCritic Gives Swiss Air 3 Bombs Out Of 10 … More Bombs Are Better

Read More Reviews By CombatCritic On Yelp And TripAdvisor … And Don’t Forget To Subscribe To TravelValue TV on YouTube

 

Title: Flying Swiss? Do Not Forget Your Swiss Army Knife!

 

Key Words: Swiss, Air, Airlines, airline, Zurich, Switzerland, Malaga, airport, plane, knife, security, delay, CombatCritic, TravelValue, travel, value, food, definitive, review, guide

CombatCritic Q&A: Should I be concerned about the ticket I purchased on JustFly.com?

1. I received a great question on my post JustFly.com Offers A Good Price, But Little Else and thought I should share it will all of my readers:
2. john gMay 25, 2015 at 7:20 PM

   Hello, have you had the opportunity to use this ticket yet? Many negative posts making me most concerned about my ticket.
3. 
   C.T. Sorrentino, aka “CombatCritic”June 9, 2015 at 2:04 AM

   Sorry for the delay in getting back to you John, but Blogger does not notify me when I have new comments.

   There are no problems with the tickets. You get what you pay for, but my concerns were strictly with the website interface and lack of options available. In this case, we saved a couple hundred dollars by using Justfly.com, so it was worth the inconvenience of having to visit two airline websites (Brussels Airlines to and Lufthansa from Europe) to enter frequent flyer information, choose seats, and otherwise manage the reservations. I recommend comparing the lowest fares on JustFly to those found on Kayak.com and other consolidator websites (where you can store your frequent flyer numbers and preferences) before making a decision.

   I would not be concerned about your ticket.

   Thanks for the great question!

4. Read More Reviews By CombatCritic On Yelp And TripAdvisor … And Don’t Forget To Subscribe To TravelValue TV on YouTube
5. Title: CombatCritic Q&A: Should I be concerned about the ticket I purchased on JustFly.com?
6. Key Words: question and answer, question, answer, CombatCritic, TravelValue, JustFly.com, JustFly, airline, ticket, reservation, consolidator, website, online, review

“CombatCritic” and “TravelValue” Are Trademarks of 3rd Wave Media Group, LLC

Copyright 2011-2015 – CombatCritic and 3rd Wave Media Group, LLC – All Rights Reserved

JustFly.com Offers A Good Price, But Little Else

JustFly.com

I was taken to JustFly.com’s website after searching Kayak, United, Delta, and Lufthansa extensively for fares on an upcoming overseas trip. I was hesitant at first being a unfamiliar website, but I decided to give them a try with the following reservations, pun intended …

First, people need more information before paying for a reservation, like applicable baggage fees (not just a disclaimer saying “the airline MAY require baggage fees”), to make an informed decision. JustFly does not provide actual fees, only the disclaimer. Fortunately, having flown Lufthansa many times in the past, the carrier for the trip, I knew that the first bag (up to 50 pounds) was free, making the decision a bit easier.

Second, JustFly does not provide a way to enter frequent flyer account information either before or after purchase.  I assumed that once registered with their site, I would be able to update my profile with the data, but that was not the case. The only information available for editing on their website are name and email address, no seat or meal preferences, home airport, passport information, or anything else for that matter. The ability to enter frequent flyer and other pertinent personal information once would save customers a lot of time later and help ensure they return to make future purchases.

The only plus was that their price and itinerary were better than I could find even on Lufthansa.com, therefore …

CombatCritic Gives JustFly.com 4 Bombs Out Of 10 … More Bombs Are Better!

Read More Reviews By CombatCritic On Yelp And TripAdvisor … And Don’t Forget To Subscribe To TravelValue TV on YouTube

Title: JustFly.com Offers A Good Price, But Little Else

Key Words: JustFly, just, fly, airfare, airline, travel, fare, reservation, trip, website, frequent, flyer, miles, value, TravelValue, CombatCritic, critic

“CombatCritic” and “TravelValue” Are Trademarks of 3rd Wave Media Group, LLC

Copyright 2011-2015 – CombatCritic and 3rd Wave Media Group, LLC – All Rights Reserved