The state of air travel

Today we were scheduled to go from DC to Winston Salem. Our original flight was from Chicago and then to Greensboro. But yesterday I got a call from United who said the flight had been cancelled and that we were now routed through Dulles to Greensboro - a more direct route.

We then took off at the appointed hour but turned around because the landing gear failed to retract. We sat on the plane for a while and then were told they would try to fix it. Ultimately they cancelled the flight.

We then went through the customer service line and were told our next flight (because the real next flight was full) would be seven hours later. In the end we took off on the 4:45 flight (actually took off about 5:30) and arrived about two hours later than our original flight.

What is the conclusion here? First, things happen, I am not angry - I've learned it does not do any good anyway in these situations. But second, as a person who is in United's top elite group of flyers we should have been a bit better protected. Third, the hub and spoke system produces some odd combinations (going to Chicago to get to a city south of your original starting point is silly - in this case thankfully a heavy storm in Chicago helped to make our trip shorter - except for the equipment failure).