When Flying Convenience Stops Being Convenient

I recently wrote about a very surprisingly pleasant flight I had on Southwest. I am on an altogether other type of flight today, and also quite literally flying into a fire(There’s a huge fire about 20 minutes south of Santa Barbara right now, if you didn’t know). There’s some pretty bad airlines out there, but I have to say, hands down, the absolute worst of the bunch has got to be United. United is terrible. And I should know, I flew them almost exclusively for many years thinking that it was worth it to keep all my air miles with the same carrier. Nope, I was wrong.

The only reason I find myself on this crap flight is because I’m flying to my home away from home, Santa Barbara. If any of you have ever flown into Santa Barbara, you know it’s a tiny little airport, so not only do they not tale planes over a certain size, only like 2 or 3 airlines even fly into there. So, your choices are very limited, especially if you want a direct flight. So, hence, I find myself flying United.

I spent a year of my life working primarily in Mexico, and at that time, there were only 2 airlines that flew direct from Los Angeles to Mexico City, and of course, one of them was United. They generally had better time options, so I flew them, a lot. I flew in and out of Mexico City 2 or 3 times a month, so those miles added up. Now, flying international on any airline is generally always better. The seats are bigger, roomier, more amenities, etc. But domestic, well, don’t get me started on domestic.

The problem was that I had accumulated so many miles from that stint in my career that I figured I was stuck with United and might as well keep using them. I would force myself to book flights on United because, well, why not, right? I had to convince myself every time that it was worth it. But as the years passed, and more and more budget airlines came out, I found myself being pulled to another airline here and there based on price. But the problem with those is that price gets you nothing but a butt in a seat. If you have luggage or are thirsty, forget about it, you’re paying the same. And honestly, who flies without luggage?

So I was at a cross roads, I still had a good amount of miles with United, but hated flying their tiny, uncomfortable seats, with constant delays, and terrible service. Or, I could fly a budget airline, and be maybe a tiny bit more comfortable, but at least the service was better. There of course is the third option of flying nice airlines, and paying for comfort, but I’m too much of a bargain shopper to ever go past the first page of flight offers. So I went over the next few years flying United only when I had to and basically just booking on price alone from then on out.

Then, the ultimate irony. All these years of flying this terrible airline to accumulate my miles, and I got a notice, they had expired! I literally saved my miles for god knows how long without even thinking about it, and got an email one day that “the remainder of my miles were about to expire”. First of all, where was the notice when the rest had expired? Secondly, I was left with a measly joke of 11,000 miles. You can’t do anything with 11,000 miles, nothing! You know what you can do, subscribe to 11 magazines for 1 year. So, here I am, flying the belly of the beast again, thinking about how in the world did I not remember to grab a magazine on the way out, god knows I have enough! Thanks for nothing United!