United Airlines is total junk

As I'm no longer a road warrior, my flight status is long gone. BUT, it sure sounds like the carriers have all fallen off.

And, while I can use private for shorter hops, the longer routes simply are out of the question ($30K round trip East Coast to Vail...come on!).

So, let's change this up a little. While I'm sure we all have gripes, what is the best carrier these days? I gave up on United LONG ago. No one seems to be much better. And, the ones that were, I have seemed to go sour on, too.

CW

 

I vote for Southwest. You know what you're getting so expectations are low. Only problem is having to fly multiple stops to get from here to there.

 

I confess to being a direct-non-stop kind of traveller. Honestly, though, the service you get on the so-called "discount" carriers (like Frontier or Southwest) is about on par with the bigger "full-price" carriers. You do get nickeled-and-dimed, but if you travel smartly, you can save a few hundy a trip. Often, they're the ones flying into better airports for me, anyway.

CW

 

I like flying Frontier and Alaska Airlines for cross country trips. They are hard to beat for non-stop west coast trips out of Orlando (Orlando to San Diego non-stop roundtrip less than $300). Southwest makes way too many stops on the way there. For staying east of the Mississippi out of Orlando, I prefer Southwest.

 

Amenasce, sorry to hear about your experience, but I find that all U.S. carriers are poor, particularly AA. They can't begin to compete with the Gulf carriers like Emirates, Qatar Air, or Etihad. The fleets are aging, the flight attendants disagreeable, the food mediocre, and the entertainment systems and GPS relics from the mid-90s. On my last American flight from DFW-LHR, the entertainment system was down for the duration of the 9.5 hr flight and they ran out of wine before completing the first meal service. (How does one get something like that wrong?) Really laughable.

 

My LAST flight on American, the Toilets started going out of order right after we left LA and all were out an hour and a half before we arrived in NY. We were in the forth row of Business and they were out of food! I asked what the Pilot was eating.
As I said, my LAST Flight!

Joe

 

Lots of ftustrations with most US based airliners. Coporate folks dont really care. They know we all need to fly so their mission will always be to maximize profits. Period.
Our only solution is (1) avoid flying if possible, and (2) use the system to fly same route at odd times when prices dropp. If we are getting crappy service, lets at least pay low prices
Forget loyalty programs. They were otiginally designed to reward frequent flyers. Currently they have been modified to reward frequent spenders. Fly whomever takes you there safely.

 

My last flight was Thanksgiving year ago. It was so awful that I just decided to not fly now.

We drive now and that changes what we do, a lot. That's not all bad. We're not wealthy enough to afford 1st class. My wife used to be 1K in the 90's and we flew a lot of places then. Air travel was OK back then even in coach. Even bus travel is more comfortable than an airplane now. There is no middle ground and frankly, looking at most first class seats that I see it's a rip off but still much better than steerage.

It all began with 9/11 IMHO. That's when waterboarding for airline passengers began in the USA.

TSA is the icing on the cake.

 

one of the incentives to become truly wealthy is to own a private jet and avoid commercial flying, imo

 

I just flew United's new "Polaris" class (business) from SFO to Hong Kong this weekend

It's -- basically the same as before. Now, I guess eventually in 10 years they will switch out the seating but there's very little change to the service.

There is one more meal choice (now 4 instead of 3). I ordered the beef and to my astonishment I could actually cut it with the knife. I'm not sure if that's an just a circumstance or not. Honestly I liked the meal less (too spicy for a long trip) and the garlic bread (although very tasty) left us all with horrible breath.

Everything else about the meal was the same but they did have blue table mats to replace the older white ones.

They did bring back champagne, but I don't drink. I don't think they served champagne in business for a long time. Oh, and Pelligino instead of flat bottled water. But mine was so flat it had no sparkle left.

You get 2 pillows now. You get 2 blankets now. The top blanket is pretty nice like a comforter. The other is the same woven stuff.

At the end of the flight they brought back something I haven't seen in over 10 years -- a box with 2 chocolate pieces of candy in it. Whoo HOO! Go Polaris! (satire here)

Everything else is exactly the same.

 

Qatar Airways flight 15 and 16 were all-business class flights from Doha to Heathrow using an A319.

 

I booked two tickets to San Jose CA from Denver for last Feb. and had to cancel due to illness. I just did a refund request with a short note from my Doc. United just gave me full credit for both tickets. Nice surprise.

 

Last week I rode an American 777-200 from HNL to DFW. It was the new flagship cabin. I liked the space and lay flat seat. The food wasn't bad, though my wife did not like anything but the veggies . . . and ice cream!

It was a quick flight at 6h15m, but I relaxed enough to fall asleep.

Unfortunately, I think the 767 is coming back to this route. The 777 is probably overkill for AA8, but it sure was nice while it lasted.

My criticism of American is that the fleet overall is aging and it shows. Picture tube tvs hanging down from the ceiling. PanAm era super80s still around. I haven't been in coach class but once in the last ten years because the seats are terrible and the seat storage is a joke. A bag that fits in the bag size checker doesn't necessarily fit into the overhead. Wth?

The stewards and stewardesses are hit and miss. I've had some really pleasant, attentive people that I enjoyed interacting with. I have also had some unhappy, stone-faced battle axes that didn't seem to care whether I came back or stayed home. Money sure as hell doesn't buy happiness.

My favorite airline is Hawaiian. My bags fit inside the cabin and the crew are so nice that I feel like they care. They actually treat everyone like they care about their comfort and happiness. It's revolutionary!

The stewardess are especially pleasant.

I have also enjoyed Island Air when traveling inter island. I have only flown them twice between Oahu and Lanai.

 

So I crossed over 3 million miles on United.

And I got....nothing. Not even an email.

So, I emailed them asking if anything changes. They gave me link to go to -- which was dead. So I emailed back and they said there's a problem with the link and it will be up soon.

Typical.

 

I'm a big fan of Southwest. As I only spring for First Class when I travel out of the country, it's the best domestic carrier for me. It helps that Denver is a hub, so a lot of direct flights.

Staff has always been friendly and helpful, and they are usually the best price as well. In fact, they will allow you to effectively re-book a flight at a lower price at any time prior to departure (if fares go down). They also apply sale fares retroactively if you do that.

All in all the best experience for domestic.

 

1M on United and I refuse to fly them. I have lifetime some status now but don't even care as I refuse to fly them anymore.

Southwest for domestic and biz or first for Asia and Europe (Sing Air, Emirates, Cathay or some airline that knows how to actually treat you like a human being).

I have so many United (and previous Continental) stories, I could write a book. Bottom line they suck. All domestic US airlines pretty much suck.

 

Now that's bad.

I've never had status on an airline until this year. I made it to Gold on American and they emailed me a few days after congratulating me and a month or so later I got a packet in the mail with a plastic card and info about my new perks.

Gold is the lowest level and they still showed their appreciation even though I'm nothing compared to A LOT of their customers.