We were traveling with our eleven month old daughter, Sofia, to Cancun, Mexico. We were clear that she was coming and that she would be riding on our lap. There was no charge for her ticket. Then my wife called United Airlines a week before the flight to make sure that Sofia was booked to go with us on the itinerary and if we needed to do anything besides have her passport ready. The United representative said that we were all set and nothing else needed to be done. We printed out the itinerary and it said in clear, bold type at the top of the first page;

“Note: All infants traveling internationally are required to have a ticket. Some itineraries can be eTicketed. If your itinerary is not eTicketable, the infant’s paper ticket will be mailed to your billing address before your travel date. There is no additional charge for this ticket. Other passengers will be issued eTickets.”

We bought our tickets two months in advance, and no paper tickets were ever mailed to us, telling us that our itinerary was eTicketable. Dora, at the United airlines desk, refused to allow us on the plane without a printed ticket for Sofia. She insisted that we pay $150 for her to print our daughter a ticket even though we had the printed confirmation that there would be no additional charge for her ticked. We agreed to pay because The plane was already boarding and we hadn’t even checked our bags. No other passengers were in line before us and no one was in line at security. The United representative in Helena forced us to miss our flight and would not allow the baggage person to take our bags when she asked for them even though it was clear we could have boarded in time. Instead, she told us we had 3 choices. First, to cancel our vacation that was already paid for with flights and and an all-inclusive hotel. Second, to return the following day and catch another flight at the same time, costing us a night and a day of our vacation. That would mean sacrificing about $1400 resort charges we already paid for. The third choice was to drive 2 hours to Bozeman airport to try to catch another flight leaving at 10:00 am. This option would get us to our hotel at around 1:00 am. We originally booked the flights TWO MONTHS IN ADVANCE just so we could find the shortest possible flight duration for the welfare of our baby. Our original trip would have been 7 hours long, putting us at our destination at 3:00 pm the same day. Instead, because of the incompetence of the United representatives in Helena, we were forced to accept a 18 hour trip with way more hassle and stress that originated 2 hours driving from our home town. Sofia’s was so exhausted that by the end of the trip she was vomiting and screaming with frustration. When we arrived in Cancun at such a late hour, we had to purchase a shuttle to the resort that would have been provided free if we hadn’t missed our first plane. There were no restaurants or stores open where we could get food because no food or snacks were provided on our flights. The worst part of it all was that our checked luggage did not make it to Cancun. It consisted of all of our clothes, baby food, diapers, sunscreen, swimsuits, toiletries, etc. We left a cold climate and arrived in a very hot, humid climate. We had no comfortable or clean clothes to change our baby or ourselves into for the entire next day. We couldn’t even use the beautiful pools outside our room that we paid dearly for. We only had a six day vacation and 2 of those days were completely ruined. We had reserved excursions for the next day that had to be cancelled and we lost our deposit. After receiving our luggage the following evening, we were stressed out and aggravated so much that it was impossible to relax and enjoy our surroundings. We fly internationally a couple of times each year and we have never had such a negative experience. We had to change our whole vacation plan on the spot and miss out on many of our planned activities. 

The trip back was even worse. With the layovers and all the additional costs involved with having to buy expensive food on the way home, we got back to Bozeman nearly broke and completely wiped out with exhaustion at midnight. We had to pay for a week’s worth of parking fees and get a hotel in Bozeman. And guess what else happened… United had somehow lost another piece of our luggage on the return trip. It happened to be $1000.00 of fishing gear (that I never got the chance to use because of United Airlines). I filed a missing luggage report immediately upon arrival but the airline couldn’t even find where the luggage could have been. No tracking information was ever given to me online and it took 3 days and the threat of filing a police report to get it back. 

We had a bad feeling before getting on the plane to Cancun in Bozeman that United was going to deny us a refund for our flight debacle so my wife called United during our 2 hour drive to Bozeman. The nice representative on the phone whose name was either Erin or Karen, told her that we were eligible for a refund. She said that we should first complete the flights and then call and file a complaint as soon as we arrived home. That’s exactly what we did. The United Airlines phone support is pitifully slow and aggravating. After multiple calls, hours of waiting and wasting time trying to speak to a live person, we were transferred by the ‘refunds’ department to other non-related departments over and over. We have suffered enormous amounts of stress, aggravation and loss of time and money due to United Airlines. We demand a full refund for all our tickets and the additional charge for the infant ticket. We also demand to be refunded for the additional expenses we had due to 4 hours of driving, fuel, parking, dining, hotel and necessities like diapers, sunscreen and personal items we were forced to buy. These expenses came to $1000 that we were not prepared to spend. We also expect that the combined 4 and a half days of missing luggage will be made up to us somehow by the airline. 

That comes to $2,250 in tickets, $1000 in expenses,  and credit for the missing luggage. We demand to be refunded and will not let this issue rest. We are prepared take further legal actions if need be because our vacation is worth much more than money. Please do the right thing and give us back our money immediately.