Dear Sir / Madam, I have already submitted an online feedback form but did not have sufficient characters

to detail my full complaint. My husband and I were due to fly home with United Airlines on Thursday, 2 nd January at 19.40 (flight 161 from Newark to Glasgow). This was the day that the snow storm was due to arrive and it did indeed begin to snow as we were sitting in the departure lounge. Despite the threat of this storm, there seemed to be no hurry on the part of the airline to get all passengers on board and have the flight take off on time. By the time we eventually boarded the aircraft, the flight was already delayed. The plane was de-iced twice (as it froze over again due to a long period of inactivity after we visited the de-icing bay the first time) and by the time we were preparing for take-off the flight was over 2 hours late. The plane did take-off but this was swiftly aborted and the aircraft was dumped back down onto the runway ( a terrifying experience) as the pilot had noticed a technical fault. All passengers were offloaded and we were told that a replacement aircraft would be provided. However by the time this replacement aircraft arrived, the cabin crew were deemed to be illegal and the flight was cancelled. We were advised to go to Customer Services where we would be booked on to a different flight. We stood in the queue at Customer Services all night (there were only 2 people working) and when we eventually got to the front of the queue we were told that the people were finishing their shift and that we should go and wait at the Ticket Office! However there was no one at the Ticket Office so this meant we had to wait for another hour or so until someone arrived. We were eventually re-booked on to a flight to Amsterdam for Friday, 3rd January (UA877) with a connecting flight to Glasgow. We waited in the airport all day and were at the departure gate promptly for our flight which was due to take-off at 17.40. After several messages informing us that the flight was delayed, we eventually boarded the aircraft only to sit outside the terminal for an hour and a half. The plane was eventually de-iced and then we received a message from the flight deck informing us of a technical fault (a problem with the hydraulics) and that we would be returning to the terminal. We were offloaded and when a group of us from the previous evenings cancelled Glasgow flight pressed the flight attendants for further information, they eventually admitted that the flight was cancelled. So this meant that in the space of 2 days, 2 flights had been cancelled due to technical faults. We were given a number to call to re-book flights and, when I eventually spoke to someone, I was informed that there were no flights available until the 9th January and that I should call back the next day! By this point, we had no baggage (as it had not been offloaded from the cancelled Amsterdam flight), we had not been offered a

hotel for any of the 2 nights and we had been given nothing in the way of help, support or information at all. We then spent a very uncomfortable night on the floor in front of the Customer Services desk in the hope that we would be able to be at the front of the queue the next day and that we would be able to speak to someone. I also tried again to call the number that we had been given but by this point it was out of service. When the staff came on to the Customer Services desk around 6am on Saturday, 4 th January, we managed to speak to an advisor who, after searching and calling for an hour, managed to book us on to a flight to London Heathrow (UA110) with a connecting flight to Glasgow. This advisor, Deborah, was the only person who was apologetic about the ordeal that we were going through and we feel that she really did her best to get us booked onto a flight out of Newark. After waiting in the airport all day Saturday and in the same clothes that we were wearing when we arrived in the airport on Thursday (our baggage was not offloaded from the Amsterdam flight as we were told it was too cold) we finally boarded the flight to Heathrow, albeit 2 hours late. This flight was not without its problems either (the luggage was not loaded on to the flight before we were so we had to wait for this to be done and we overheard the flight attendants talking about how there was not enough staff for the flight) but, unlike the other 2 flights, this one did eventually takeoff and we landed in London Heathrow on Sunday morning, 5 th January. Unfortunately our baggage did not come off the flight and when we filed a missing baggage report we were told that our bags had been traced to Amsterdam. This meant that we were without our bags for 2 days after we finally arrived home. This was truly an ordeal for us and I was unable to return to work on Monday, 6th January due to extreme tiredness caused by the lack of sleep that we had during our 3 days in the airport. My husband was due to return to work on Saturday, 4th January but this obviously did not happen either due to the fact that we were still in Newark airport! We have never experienced such terrible customer service. At no point were we informed of what was happening and we were left completely to our own devices. We were given absolutely no help or support and the fact that we had to spend 3 days in the airport is just awful. Our luggage finally arrived on the evening of Tuesday, 7th January and, to our dismay, both of the bags have been damaged. One bag has a tear in 2 places and the other is missing a wheel (see images below). These bags were in pristine condition when we checked them in on the 2nd January. Following this horrendous experience, we would like to be compensated for the money that we had to pay out to eat and drink in the airport for 3 days, for damage to our luggage, for loss of earnings due to being unable to return to work on time and

for the major inconvenience, upset and stress that we suffered due to lack of care on the part of United Airlines.

Yours sincerely, Louise and Stephen Hope