December 20, 2012

To Whom It May Concern at United Airlines:

Saturday, December 15 was a terrible day in which United staff treated me like cattle, were rude and unapologetic (insulting), and had no concern for the well being of their customers. This is not limited to just one flight—this is a system-wide issue that includes multiple personnel in many airports.

My original itinerary was as follows:
12/15/2012 MSY-IAH UA 1189 09:23 AM/10:48 AM
12/15/2012 IAH-LAX UA 1425 11:31 AM/01:20 PM
12/15/2012 LAX-SBP UA 5387 03:54 PM/04:54 PM

Flight 1189 from New Orleans to Houston was delayed due to an electrical malfunction. We were told it was going to take hours to fix, and there would be another flight in an hour and a half that we could take instead. We were instructed to exit the plane, exit through the security check point and go to the customer service desk to be reticketed. We did as we were told, and after only getting 10 feet past the security check point we were told the plane was fixed and that we had to go back through security and get back on the plane. Needless to say, we were pissed. The flight crew consistently made announcements instructing us to stop being angry and frustrated. To my knowledge of the people around me, people were upset but no one was causing problems. To be told be instructed how to feel about the situation is reprehensible. Telling someone to calm down is insulting, especially when we just wanted to feel heard.

We landed in Houston and were reticketed—now I was on flight 1281 from Houston to San Francisco and flight 5418 from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo. We were delayed for a reason completely unknown to me, which made me miss my flight to San Luis Obispo by 5 minutes. I was automatically reticketed to flight 368 to Los Angeles and 5375 from LA to San Luis Obispo, arriving 7 hours after I was supposed to get there.

Keep in mind that it is only a 3 hour drive from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo and that an extra leg on my journey was added to my trip. I was livid. I went to the customer service desk and pleaded my case to get on an earlier flight. The agent was ridiculously uncaring. He never apologized for my troubles. He put me on standby for flight 256 from San Francisco to LA, and booked me on flight 5336 from LA to San Luis Obispo, so I could (if I was lucky) arrive by 9 p.m. instead of midnight.

He did hand me $20 in meal vouchers for the airport, which he basically shoved in my hand to get me through the line. Again, never indicated they were for an apology of any kind. Regardless, I had 20 minutes until I would know about the standby flight, so I tried to use the vouchers to buy a sandwich. The clerk knew they accepted them and knew how to enter the codes into his register BUT THEY WERE DECLINED. Some apology….

I ended up getting on the standby flight; however, when I boarded I found out that up to 5 of us had been booked for the same exact seats!! I’m not saying someone was sitting in the wrong seat, I am saying that United staff assigned duplicates to the same seats. Ridiculous.

As we were taking off I realized that in all the mess, the agent at the customer service desk didn’t print my tickets from LA to San Luis Obispo. I got off the plane in LA and found out that my flight was already boarding in another wing, and they were leaving in 15 minutes. So I ran through the airport to catch the flight and have the clerk print my ticket for me.

Upon arriving in San Luis Obispo, I knew my bag would not arrive at the same time as me. I went to the desk to have them look it up. She was adamant that my bag was scanned onto the flight I was on, but it wasn’t there. So then she told me it must have gotten rebooked onto the later flight that evening and that they can deliver it to my house when it arrived. I asked her to call me and let me know if it was in town just so I could have some peace of mind that night. She did call me at midnight to tell me that it had not arrived, and that in fact it had been sent back to San Francisco…! WHAT?! It was in San Luis Obispo, and then it was sent away for no reason?! It arrived the next morning and was delivered to my house.

I cannot even believe how ridiculous this experience was. I have no idea why I would ever want to fly United again after this. I used to be pretty loyal to United, but I have no reason to anymore. Every opportunity to make this right was squandered by UA staff. I have at least 3 more trips in the next year that I will be taking, and I will be looking for other airlines.

Sincerely,

Jason Mockford
mockford@gmail.com

Ultimate Chocolate Martini

Vanilla Vodka, Crème de Cocoa, Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur, Chocolate Syrup & Cream ($12)

We braced ourselves to be disgusted by the Ultimate Chocolate Martini, yet we were pleasantly surprised. It turns out the martini is much lighter than expected. It was creamy and delightful, but the ultimate part of the Ultimate Chocolate Martini was the sugary hooks that got its barbs under our tongue and pulled us through. Clearly this is liquid dessert in and of itself, but I’d bet it would go very well with a bread pudding.

Score: 1 Like It, 1 Love It

This is the result of a great experiment to try and evaluate all of the specialty drinks at Koberl at Blue in San Luis Obispo, California. While all of these reviews are based on the experiences of myself and my friend who requires anonymity for her job (how’s that for intrigue?), we definitely consult with a rotating assortment of other special guests and friends to come up with our recommendations. Rating options include: Like It, Love It, and No Thank You.

Ginger Spice

Canton Ginger, Bärenjäger, Orange Juice & Sparkling Lemon ($12)

The Ginger spice is nice. It had to be said. In all truthfulness, I was scared, and it kind of rocked my world. The combination of ginger and orange was satisfying and refreshing. We tasted a hint of honey, which puzzled us. We learned that Bärenjäger is a honey liqueur. It was sweet but not too sweet—definitely balanced and not overpowering. My partner wished it was a bit more gingery. I preferred it just the way it is. The final verdict: we loved it, and we regularly recommend it to our friends.

Score: 2 Love Its

This is the result of a great experiment to try and evaluate all of the specialty drinks at Koberl at Blue in San Luis Obispo, California. While all of these reviews are based on the experiences of myself and my friend who requires anonymity for her job (how’s that for intrigue?), we definitely consult with a rotating assortment of other special guests and friends to come up with our recommendations. Rating options include: Like It, Love It, and No Thank You.

This is the result of a great experiment to try and evaluate all of the specialty drinks at Koberl at Blue in San Luis Obispo, California. While all of these reviews are based on the experiences of myself and my friend who requires anonymity for her job (how’s that for intrigue?), we definitely consult with a rotating assortment of other special guests and friends to come up with our recommendations. Rating options include: Like It, Love It, and No Thank You.

Paris in Spring

Orange Vodka, Lillet Blanc, Lime & Sparkling Lemon ($11)

The Paris in Spring is a light martini with a refreshing citrus flavor. Because of this martini, I now keep Lillet Blanc stocked in my home. It is a very versatile white wine aperitif, and I’ve now found many delightful uses for it. This martini is very basic.

I don’t want to reveal too many trade secrets, but we did ask what exactly sparkling lemon was. As it turns out, it is…wait for it…Sprite. I’m not sure we would be thrilled to see Sprite on the ingredients list for a classy martini like this, so we support their decision to omit the real name. Quite frankly, it is a subtle, relatively-unnoticeable flavor in the martini, and is rightfully placed as the last on the contents list. Way to keep it classy, Blue. Overall we enjoyed the martini. Not our favorite, but it is one that we would order (and have ordered) again.

Score: 2 Like Its