The last two times I’ve flown with my family (both round trip, one direct, one with layover), we have experienced:
-Car seat lost three times
-Two overnight delays in non-destination cities
-Sitting on a hot runway with broken AC and people nearly passing out
-A return flight where our reservation (not the flight) was canceled without notice (still awaiting explanation)
-Had to book a new flight with different airline, rent a car and drive 3 hours to another airport because reservation was canceled
-Wife and I missed a days worth of work due to one delay
-Had to book hotels twice so our 9 month didn’t have to sleep in airport
-Had to book a limo service for 30 min drive to and from hotel because all hotels near the airport were full and it was the only way to transport baby in a car seat
All told, the airline miscues have easily cost me $2k. It’s probably well north of $4k if I factor in wages, but I guess we both burned a day of PTO. So far, the airlines have waived baggage fees for a single flight and have given us a $700 flight voucher that expires in February 2023.
Customer service seems to be mostly new or inept employees that flat out don’t give a shit. Customer service lines are up to an hour long. Call back times on customer service phone line, as of yesterday, were over 24 hours. They seem to be pushing a text chat, where wait times to chat is 2-3 hours and there is a 5-10 minute delay between each message exchanged.
It’s a complete mess and there are many, many people at the airports with stories just as bad as mine. I’m done flying for the foreseeable future.