How to Fly Internationally (or, why United/Continental Airlines most certainly hates you)

So I intended to start this blog when I was actually in Japan, but I recently had a little adventure with United/Continental Airlines, the American airline flying me out of Boston, and I just had to share it.  If you're planning on studying abroad or travelling internationally at all, you might want to read this.
   I was actually flying with two airlines--United/Continental, who are merging and were flying me from Boston Logan Airport to San Francisco International, and All Nippon Airways, who were flying me from San Francisco to Kansai International Airport in Japan.  My flight was scheduled for 6am on Sunday the 28th.  As you're probably aware, the East Coast was recently hit by Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene.  Some places were hit harder than others, and I was very fortunate to be in a place that received little to no damage.  However, Irene was scheduled to pass through Boston on the 28th, so as I expected, my flight was cancelled.  I was informed of my cancellation via a recorded message on my phone that spit out a confirmation number and a phone number to call for rebooking very fast and gave me no option to repeat the message.  I was able to scribble down the numbers shortly after from memory.  I was pretty eager to rebook as soon as possible, and luckily had flight insurance, so there was no extra cost to worry about.  (This is definitely something to fork out the extra cash for.  In cases of natural disasters like this one, the airlines will typically waive the fees for rebooking, but you never know what might come up.)
   So my first step was to call the phone number that was given to me.  This was the number for Continental Airlines, but fifty percent of the times that I called it I was given a recorded message saying, "Due to high call volumes we cannot take your call at this time.  Goodbye."  No option to hold, no instructions for other methods of rebooking.  The other fifty percent of the times I called I heard an advertisement for what I'm pretty sure was a singles chat line. 
  I later (a couple of hours later) received another recorded message telling me that my flight was cancelled, this time from United Airlines.  That message recommended that I do my rebooking online and gave me an address.  I had already tried to do this without success, but I went to the address I was given, logged in using my confirmation number etc., and brought up a screen telling me that my flight was cancelled.  There was a link at the bottom of the page that said "rebooking" or something like that, so I clicked it hopefully.  This brought me to another page saying something along the lines of "rebooking not available".  At this point, I was starting to panic.  Exchange student orientation at my Japanese school started on August 31st, and I didn't want to miss registering for classes.  However, I tried to swallow it down since my family had planned a "Bon Voyage" dinner for me.  Anyway, I figured it would be much easier to get through to someone later at night.  When I returned from dinner, I tried Continental Airlines once again but got the same recorded message (the "high call volume" one, not the singles chat line ad).  So this time, I looked up the number for United Airlines.  I was at least given the option to hold, but the estimated wait time was sixty minutes, so I put my cell phone on speaker so I'd be able to hear if a representative picked up and went about my life.  By the way, the entire time my phone was on hold I was treated to incredibly annoying distorted music which was occasionally interrupted by recorded voices saying that my call was important to them and I should try to arrive at airports at least an hour before my scheduled flight.  And this went on for literally three hours. I think it was a strategy of United's to get people to give up.  Occasionally someone would pick up, say they couldn't help, and transfer us to someone else (my mom and I ended up taking shifts by the phone).  Eventually, someone picked up and said "This is an All Nippon Airways ticket, so you'll have to call them.  We can't help you." 
   The next morning, defeated and exhausted, we called All Nippon Airways.  A woman picked up right away.  She was a little surprised to hear of our problems and said, "Oh, well we're actually partnered with United/Continental, so there's no reason that they couldn't have rebooked your flight, but we're happy to do it for you."  It was done in about fifteen minutes and I'm now scheduled to leave tomorrow, Tuesday, at 6am and arrive Wednesday the 31st around 3:30pm.  I was pissed off and shocked that United/Continental could be so callous and unhelpful to someone who had forked over around $1500 for a plane ticket, but more than anything I was relieved that the whole ordeal was over.  I might miss the beginning of orientation, but Go Suzuki, an official at the school who has been incredibly helpful and always kept in contact with me, said I should have no problem signing up for classes or anything. 
   So the lesson is: If you're flying internationally and you hit a proverbial bump in the road, chances are that the american airline you're flying with doesn't care (especially if it's United/Continental).  I understand that they must have been swamped with calls and everyone working there must have been really stressed out, but they straight up lied to me because they just didn't want to help.  If you have an issue, I'd call the airline of whichever country you're going to.  I know that's what I'll be doing in the future.  Anyway, I'm off to finish up some last minute packing.  Later tater.