United We Fall

Open letter to United, sent to their refund department via website, fax and mail. We have not heard back. This happened in June, 2015. We were given the choice between continuing to Paris for a 24 hr stay before we had to return home, or a full refund. We choose the refund and they still have not sent it.

Our choice was between Paris & flying to see Blur, our favorite band, live. We choose Paris & are now forever screwed out of both.

Maya in the hospital 

"My husband and I planned a trip to Paris on United Airlines Flight 5111 ATL to IAD transferring to flight 140 IAP to CDG on June 25^th, 2015. However, United flight 140 departed late due to a sick employee of United and even though we were assured we would make our connecting flight, we did not and got stuck in DC.

There were also storms in DC delaying 2 other flights along with our already delayed flight. Most of these passengers were transferring to Paris with us or London. We were told when we landed to run to our gates and we would make our flights. When we arrived at the gate, we were told we missed the flight by 5 minutes and were directed to customer service.

We waited over 45 min at customer service. After 3 flights of passengers got stranded, your employees all left customer service leaving only 2 employees to deal with your customers. We explained to our customer service agent that we have 2 severely disabled and terminally ill children we were paying childcare for, and we were only going to Paris for the weekend. At that point, he understood our problem and gave us the option of a flight to Paris that would only give us 24 hrs in Paris or send us back to Atlanta and United would refund our money. We took the refund option. We are still waiting for it.

I feel that United could have held international flights by 5 minutes in order to accommodate 3 flights of passengers. This time is often made up in the air.

You’ve no idea what it cost us in time & money to plan a weekend away. It’s been 6 years since we could arrange a vacation. We had to coordinate 6 people’s schedules to cover care for our children, including paying to have 2 family members fly in from Pennsylvania. We are extremely and deeply disappointed we didn’t get to Paris after all that. We have no idea when or if we will ever have the opportunity for a vacation again.

Please make this right and honor your offer to refund our tickets.

Gina Gareau-Clark and Joseph Clark"

Julia and Maya at the zoo with Gina & their nurse

I would also like to add that I was also diagnosed with mitochondrial disease on Sept. 2013 and struggle with fatigue, muscle weakness and muscle pain. All the running through the airport was tough on my muscles and cause a lot of pain. I can't relay enough how much this experience has devastated my family on many levels. The hotel and transport immediately refunded our money. We can not recuperate the costs of child care and the plane tickets to get our family here.

Thanks to all who have supported us & tried to give us some respite,

Gina Gareau-Clark