[sgrady]

I take groups into the Philippines on missions trips from Springfield Missouri. We had a group of 5 that was supposed to leave May 30 on a 5:59 pm flight from Springfield Mo to Chicago and then connect to Vancouver to connect with Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong and then to Manila. At 12:30PM I decided to check the flights only to find out they had cancelled our flight and not bothered to let us know. I immediately called them and they said they had a 3PM flight they cud get us on so I rushed the group to the airport only to find out they had delayed that flight to the same time as our original. The flight attendant on that flight was awful spending most of the flight reading a book. Upon arrival in Chicago our 8:24PM flight to Vancouver was delayed 3 hours causing us to miss our Cathay flight to Hong Kong by 20 minutes. The United rep at Vancouver said tough luck not our problem it was a control problem so spend the night in the Vancouver airport. When we rebooked the cathay portion it caused us to miss the connection in Manila having to spend another night in the Hong Kong Airport. This caused us to miss our connecting flight from Manila to Davao with Cebu Pacific who promptly charged me almost $600 to rebook. All because of United. Do you think I will give them another chance to screw up a group trip?

[Butch Cassidy Slept Here]

Northwest ("NW") is, probably, about as bad as United. However, I've noticed NW flies Springfield-Minneapolis-Vancouver.

Nowdays it's best to assume any US-based airline will be operating late, and/or will cancel flights. Accordingly, in the interest of avoiding aggravation in a foreign country, and high penalty charges, I would have planned for two nights "on the road." One night in Vancouver, and the second in Manila.

You could have avoided the aggravation of US-based airlines altogether. Amtrak, Sedalia, Mo.-Kansas City-Los Angeles would have allowed you to depart (from LAX) on Cathay. The Amtrak fare, with a bed between Kansas City and LAX, is $740 one-way, with a travel time of just under two days.

[sgrady]

I fly this trip 3 times per year so am very familiar with the routine. Northwest does it the fastest but it was considerably more expensive. Most of the times I have flown this, there is no problem. One of the killers was having to go thru Canadian immigration and customs instead of doing a transit pass like most major airports do.

The bottom line is that most airlines say they appreciate you flying them and then treat you like a second class citizen. This time it was too much.

Who has the time to take a train?