[ryoung]

I contacted United one week prior to and the day of my departure to ensure a wheelchair would be available for my flight from Santa Ana, Ca to Nashville, TN to attend a funeral of my Father. Upon my connecting flight in Ohare there was not a wheelchair available for my use. Fortunately with the assistance of a very nice couple I was able to get to my flight to Nashville. The day of the funeral (Saturday March 10th 2007) My aunt that was too weak to travel to my fathers funeral, passed away due to cancer. This service was to be held March 12th. I attempted to return home today per my previous flight reservations but due to the absense of a pilot, we were juggled to another plane. There was no offer for "a little extra time" or pre-boarding to those of special needs when boarding this alternate aircraft. Nor was there a wheelchair available to get to the aircraft from the gate. When I arrived in Denver this evening, there was again, no wheelchair and subsequently, I missed my connecting flight. I was rescheduled for another flight but again missed it due to the wheelchair I had previously confirmed would be available, was not. I have since been rescheduled to fly out tomorrow morning at 11:00 am which will be too late for me to attend my aunt's funeral. It seems the attendant in the "wheelchair room" decided to close early tonight, at least that is the communication that I received from the counter staff. 45 minutes after I had missed my flights an airport security staff was able to locate a wheelchair 10 terminals away and was kind enough to wheel me to the airport transportation bus to get to a hotel for the night. Of course this night will be spent without my blongings as they are already in Santa Ana, Ca in the baggage claim. All I have is my purse and my crutches. Two of three attempts to rectify my situation with the same reservations number I called to reserve the wheelchair resulted in two dropped calls while waiting on hold with a supervisor, both of which had ensured me they were going to resolve this inadequacy. The third call I was able to secure seat in plus economy, seat 10b versus the 33b they tried to reserve for me even though I had paid for an upgrade upon my check-in in Nashville. I am still not confident that I will have a wheelchair waiting for my when I arrive at the airport tomorrow. I cannot convey the amount of stress this situation has caused me in this time of tremendous grief. It seems United Air is certainly not in the business of customer service. It is apparent to me from all that I have come in contact with in this airline, that there is a sincere lack of compassion with respect to those that require any bit of assistance over that of a standard able-bodied patron. I would very much appreciate a response and method of resolution that will ensure future patrons will not have to endure similar situations.