Experiences on United airlines?

[tigercat]

I am looking at booking a trip to England from Canada and one of the prices that keeps coming up is United airlines. What experiences have you had on United? Good and Bad.
tigercat

 

[rigs32]

Y'know, an airline is an airline. They all have good employees and bad. Good ways of handling delays and bad. The only ones in the US that seem to be different in any way are Southwest (free bags and open seating) and Spirit (crazy fees for everything).

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

In general I've had good experiences with United and they are my primary airline. But they all have their off days and bad employees.

 

[crashbb]

Going United (or any US based airline) most likely means a connection in the US. A Canada- or UK-based airline would be able to avoid said connection.

That said, I've flown United quite a bit and find them, in general, to be a good airline.

 

[DopeyDame]

My mom worked for United for 30+ years until she retired, so I have flown them litterally all over the world, including to and from London. Like others have said, there are good employees and bad employees, but overall, it should be just fine. Do you have any specific questions or concerns? They are one of the US 'legacy' airlines and one of the oldest airlines in the world, so they certainly aren't a shoddy-fly-by-night company or anything.

 

[tigercat]

We have flown British air, air Canada as well as Air Transit, and Southwest. British Air was really nice and gave us a bit of room, Air Canada is tight but I don't know about their planes that go to Europe. Air Transit is not one I really would like to take as I don't like their planes. There is a flight that leaves from Toronto to London on United and it is a little cheaper. However, I would rather pay a little more money to get better seats than just do it really cheap. Also, I will have to look and see if United is a non stop as BA is a non stop and non stops are better. When we went to France last year we flew Air France and it was nice but we did have a layover in New York on the way there. We just made the flight to France but our luggage did not. This trip we will be on a cruise and cannot have lost luggage. We won't just be at a hotel.
The seats matter to me as I need to move my legs but I am kind of short (4' 9") and am partially disabled.
tigercat

 

[Sam81]

Took off, got a drink, landed, bag arrived. Pretty standard.

 

[abdmom]

If it's a nonstop between Toronto and London, it will be an Air Canada plane, even if you book through united.com and have a United flight number. US airlines can't transport passengers between two non-U.S. countries, just like Canadian airlines can't transport passengers between the US and another country or within the U.S.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

If it's a nonstop between Toronto and London, it will be an Air Canada plane, even if you book through united.com and have a United flight number. US airlines can't transport passengers between two non-U.S. countries, just like Canadian airlines can't transport passengers between the US and another country or within the U.S.

This is probably right. We were looking at flights from Houston to London, and their were "United" flights that stopped in Toronto. The fine print showed the leg between Toronto and London was Air Canada.

 

[crashbb]

If it's a nonstop between Toronto and London, it will be an Air Canada plane, even if you book through united.com and have a United flight number. US airlines can't transport passengers between two non-U.S. countries, just like Canadian airlines can't transport passengers between the US and another country or within the U.S.

Not totally true (United, for example, has a flight between Bangkok and Tokyo - United Flight Number and United metal), but true in this case. OP, your UA flight either has a stop in the US (and isn't one flight) or is a codeshare on an AC plane.

 

[LBIJim]

If it's a nonstop between Toronto and London, it will be an Air Canada plane, even if you book through united.com and have a United flight number. US airlines can't transport passengers between two non-U.S. countries, just like Canadian airlines can't transport passengers between the US and another country or within the U.S.

Yes, it will be an Air Canada plane using a United codeshare flight number. But technically United CAN fly non-stop between Toronto and London. There's something called the "Fifth Freedom" of air travel that would allow United to do this. But they don't because it wouldn't be economically feasible to do so.

United could NOT fly non-stop between Toronto and Montreal, or between London and Manchester, UK. Air Canada CAN fly between London and New York, but not between New York and Chicago or between London and Manchester.

OP, if you do get to actually fly on United some day, you'll find it no better or worse than any other US legacy carrier.

Some interesting current or former Fifth Freedom routes:
Los Angeles to London on Air New Zealand
Toronto to New York on LAN Chilean Airlines
New York to Frankfurt, Germany on Singapore Airlines
Vancouver to Las Vegas on Philippine Airlines
New York to Vancouver on Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong) Airlines
Bangkok to Hanoi, Vietnam on Kenya Airways
Mexico City to Vancouver on Japan Airlines


Jim

 

[sookie]

I am looking at booking a trip to England from Canada and one of the prices that keeps coming up is United airlines. What experiences have you had on United? Good and Bad.
tigercat

I love United! They are the best. I try to fly with them whenever I can. Seriously.

This past week I had to fly with them and started to get sick - the girl asked me what was wrong and I told her it was my fault and that I hadn't eaten. She brought me over one of their meal packs and when I tried to pay her for it, she refused. I'm not going to say that was typical (I've never gotten sick before on a flight), but she didn't have to do that.

I just find that every time I fly that their staff is just - very nice. I have never run late on a United flight. Things just happen really smoothly for me from check in to arrival at my destination.

On the other hand - do not fly with Delta. They have lost my bags at every turn. I have been stuck on the tarmac with no air conditioning in 100+ degree heat for several hours at a time. I have had my gates changed in rapid succession (one time 3 times for one flight) where almost an entire flight of people missed the check in. I have seen entire flights just get cancelled with Delta. One guy had a drink spilled in his laptop during drink service and instead of being helpful, the stewardess just acted clueless and sent him on his way with his fried laptop. Other people on the flight had to walk him to Delta reps to help him file a claim for assistance. I'm not sure why I see so many bad stuff on Delta - I'm just a Delta bad news magnet.

I will tell you what happened to me this week. This week I had to fly out with Delta on my way out to my destination (I flew back United). They charged me for my carry on bag. The rep told me it was because we were on a small plane and that it was because I was one of the last people to board.

I told the rep the bag could easily be valet checked. She literally ignored me. Her reasoning was that it "could not fit into the overhead bin" because this was a smaller plane, the bins are smaller than the standard bin, and I was one of the last people to board the aircraft. I told her that it was not my fault that they would not have room to put it up top due to the number of people on the aircraft (it was a small bag and should have fit). I only had my small suitcase and my purse, so I had the number of allowed carry on items. I again asked to valet check it.

And, I pointed out that there were many people walking on with bags bigger than mine. I was still charged to check the bag. Also, I had been waiting at the gait for an hour - I was not boarding as one of the last people because I was late to the gate. I ended up boarding very last because she pulled me out of line to ask me about my bag. I asked for time to go ahead and get my medication out of my suitcase and she was rude to me about that and discouraged me from doing so. So I had to risk getting my medication lost because it was checked. I was not a happy camper. I know I should not have had to be charged for the bag - it could have easily been gate (valet) checked if they were worried about bin space or small bins. I travel a lot and when we are on small planes, they valet check everything that is bigger than a briefcase. I actually gave it to the same people who valet check bags - with a destination ticket on it. I think the only reason she decided to charge me was because I had gone up to the reps about 20 minutes prior to boarding and asked for a valet check ticket and they had told me they would provide one when I was in line.

What a mess. The only good thing I have to say about Delta is that they didn't lose my bag this time. Sadly for me Delta is our biggest airline here and it goes to the places I need most frequently - so I get stuck with them the most.

 

[tar heel]

We booked a flight from Washington to Mumbai, India, on Lufthansa. It turned out the first leg, Washington to Munich, was a United flight. I was disappointed, but you know what, I was so wrong. Not only was United fine, but the seats were bigger and the TV screen selection was better and included games. The only real advantage Lufthansa had was free alcohol in coach.

 

[DebbieB]

I flew United Washington-Dulles to Frankfurt in business class on the way to India, it was the best flight ever! On the other hand, on the way home I connected in Washington to Pittsburgh, their gates area for regional jets was like a bus terminal, I missed my boarding announcement. I was in the first row but had to take my carryon all the way to the back. I wasn't going to check it because it had my breakable souveniers from India.

 

[wilkeliza]

Personally I can't stand United. We only saved a few bucks (maybe 10) and booked them this trip because we like the extra hour of sleep we got compared to our preferred airline Jetblue. I never realized how spoiled I was always flying Jetblue or Southwest. We paid extra for the more leg room seats (kind of mad that exit row was even more than just extra room) because the DBF is a big guy. First off on many United flights the DBF can barely squeeze into the seats and seat belts. He does not have this problem on any other airline just United and on particular United planes. Also no snacks was also a shocker. I didn't realized most airlines have gotten rid of even peanuts/pretzels for free. The other thing we didn't really understand was we paid extra for the space but felt like we didn't get much. When you pay extra on Jetblue you get to board first (even with "premier" boarders) and the same goes for Southwest. Also even though DBF chose our seats for our returning flight United changed our seats with out telling us and split us up by 4 rows. We were forced to upgrade so we could sit together even though we were just going to grin and bear it on the way back home from vacation originally. I can't imagine how not giving any warning or alternatives is good customer service.

The final nail in the coffin was the awful flight attendent on our last trip. The woman was so rude and when I asked for Sprite she can back and said sorry we have Sprite Zero and I said oh I don't drink diet what do you have and her response was "oh diet well coke zero, diet coke, and sprite zero" when I said no just regular I don't drink diet her response was coke and sprite so I said just a plain coke. Well she brings me a sprite which is what I wanted in the first place and I just simply said I thought you didn't have any left she very rudely said well i found one it must have been the last and kind of slammed (as much as you can on a tray table) the ice and can down. The person sitting next to us even asked what was so hard for her to understand.

Long story short we are never flying United again unless they are the only direct flight we can find and I won't be happy about it.