Geez United, you’re gonna make me rethink my years-long effort to try to avoid flying with you. As I detailed after my great booking experience, someone must have blown a circuit at United’s customer service department and left a vastly improved flight experience in their wake.

I’m sitting in the Denver airport (happily using the internet for free on my Palm Pre via Mobile Hotspot), supremely impressed with my United flight experience thus far. As usual, I overbooked myself this morning with things to get done before my flight, and thus ended up leaving the house about 40 minutes later than I intended. However, time waits for no man; there was absolutely no way I was going to possibly make it to the airport 45 minutes before my flight. Luckily I had checked into my flight ahead of time, including paying for my bag (which, although I completely disagree with, at least had an 8% discount for paying online).

I pulled into the airport a full 20 minutes before my flight was scheduled to leave. I walked up to the check-in counter, fully expecting to be turned away. However, the United lady simply smiled at me when I told her I had previously checked in and simply needed to check a bag, asked me which bag was mine, and printed out the luggage tag! She promptly printed boarding passes for my flight and next connection, then wished me safe travels.

Astounded that she didn’t so much as mention the time, I took off towards the security-theatre section, which went off without a hitch. I walked up to the gate where the smiling United personnel greeted me by name and welcomed me on board. I climbed on, shocked at what I just experienced. United Airlines, you’ve climbed another notch in my book, and I very well may have to start strongly considering you as a valued travel partner. Thanks!

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Why did the pioneers take so long? Google says it should only take 16 days, 18 tops to walk from Nauvoo to SLC.

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The Boy Scouts left a flag in my yard at my new place! Happy Independence Day 2010!

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I successfully gave blood for the second time yesterday! This time it was with the American Red Cross at a blood drive my stake was having on the BYU campus.

The trick is not to watch.

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United Airlines, long the bane of my traveling existence, has just moved up a few notches in my book.

First of all, they finally had a flight that was competitively priced – I haven’t flown with them for several years for precisely this reason. A lot of it probably has to do with the fact that I used to live in Chicago, United’s main hub, and now live in Provo, Utah, flying out of Salt Lake City, where United’s presence is less than significant.

United had this big Alaska sale going on, which I found out about the other day in a long, interesting chain of events that involved looking at my cousin Sara’s amazing pictures of her trip up just a few weeks ago, then to Orbitz for a fare check, then on over to United to check out if I could book with miles, and then finally seeing the “Big Alaska Sale” banner ad on the United site.

The sale was scheduled to go through June 7, so I decided to talk to my family, check my calendar, and get back on tonight (June 7) if I decided to book it. Well, I did all those things, except when I got back on to book it, the United website was no longer showing me the discounted price!

I called United Customer Service, and explained to them that I wanted to book the flight at the reduced price, since the terms and conditions of the offer said the sale was valid through June 7, and it is still June 7! After being transferred around a few times, I finally ended up with a girl working for the United.com support lines. I explained the situation to her, and she responded by saying that the deal was actually only valid until June 7 Central Time. I informed her that the terms and conditions said no such thing, and browsed in my Firefox history to find the terms page of the Alaska sale to confirm what I was telling her on the phone.

From the Alaska sale terms:

It clearly states the date, but no time. (As a side note, out of curiosity, I looked at United’s other current deals, and found on their Hawaii deal the same thing: a date, but no time.)

I didn’t expect much, given my history with United, and the fact that this is still a difficult pitch to make over the phone to some customer service rep. She put me on hold to check with her supervisor, and came back to surprise me with the good news that since, in fact, the page doesn’t specify Central Time, they would honor the sale price and book my flight for me!

I was floored. We went ahead and booked the ticket, so I am officially going to Alaska this summer again! I love going up there, and always have a great time. I am especially pleased, however, that this year United hooked me up with an especially great deal on my ticket! That’s customer service!

As an afterword, if you notice that in the future United starts specifying time restrictions in the terms and conditions pages of their special deals, you’ll know why.

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