What a harrowing Experience, flight IAD-PWM-IAD, review about United Airlines

What a harrowing Experience!!!!

We flew from SFO to Washinbgton DC and had a connecting flight from Washington DC to Portland, Maine . I would like to make clear that my following complaints do not center on the equipment used nor the flight itself. I am describing the ugly experience I had at the airport waiting for a connecting flight. I am grateful that airlines do their best to keep the passengers safe, as was the case in this flight where the plane could not take off due to storms in the area. However, our flight kept on being delayed every hour on the hour for 4 1/2 hours. No one had the correct information as to what was going to happen to our flight.First it was going in 20 minutes and then it was not at all. One counter employee, after a long wait, told us that we were "lucky" since our plane was leaving from Charleston to pick us up. The bottom line is the plane that was on its way to DC never arrived and , after a long wait,the flight was delayed until the next morning . The explanation was that the pilot had exceeded his flying hours for the day. How come that could not be determined earlier or why couldn't they call in another pilot so that we did not have to go through the ugly experience we went through after this announcement? After this announcement, we were given vouchers for discounted rates at neighboring hotels . As they were distributing the vouchers , another employee came out and said that all the hotels on the vouchers no longer had any rooms available and that we had to find our own hotel or just spend the night sleeping on a chair at the airport. I am a senior and so is my husband and that was not a good option for us . Several passengers began to complain as we made our way back to the waiting area seats at the gate to spend the night. A half an hour later, someone announced that they were making reservations at the hotels and giving us a free room. That took another hour and a half to do that. Finally, after getting our hotel voucher and a couple of meal tickets , we were told there would be a shuttle waiting for us outside to take us to the hotel. Unfortunately, again they did not know that the hotel shuttle did not work that late . We contacted United and they told us we would have to find our own way to the hotel. you can imagine what a scramble there was for 70 passengers to get cabs all at the same time. We finally got to the hotel after being on this merry-go-round for hours. I am totally disappointed in United Airlines. What happened to the "friendly skies". There was no"friendly" in this whole experience. Please train your employees better. They are far from friendly , unorganized and experts on miscommunication. I am flying United round trip to Europe in another week and am already shuddering to think what could happen to us on this trip. If I could change my reservation to another carrier at this point , I would. I would urge United to return to its reputation of being the "friendly skies".