Flying United

[jsmith]

we fly ALOT and i usually choose united first for domestic flights if possible-generally the experience has been good although once i had luggage left in denver when flying from el paso to colorado springs-the irony being that the flights were on gates literally right next to one another-Really? My personal experience is that united and frontier are generally the best for domestic travel-one notable bad experience on frontier but that actually falls on one gate agent who refused to rebook us when we were delayed in colorado springs and it impacted the whole day. American on the other hand-ugh dont get me going and i HAVE to fly them fairly often .

 

[akcire]

We have allowed extra time for our layover due to it being the christmas season and weather delays so hoping that will prevent missing a flight but i guess theres not much we can do if something like that was to happen.

Guess we will just hope for the best. All legs of our journey are on 737-700 planes so hoping for the best i guess and will just remind myself that is what you get for saving a few grand

We usually fly Canadian airlines, other than once to Mexico we flew Continental and it was okay but the aircraft was old and no entertainment but other than that all was good.

I'm sure there is somebody somewhere that has a horror story for every airline, just trying to see what the norm is.

Is your layover in Chicago at Ohare? If it is be prepared with extra stuff, sometimes Chicago has the worst weather. The upside is that in the United Terminal 1 Concourse C there is a resturant called the Bergoff, where you can get a very nice sandwich. I frequently will purchase the roast turkey or roast beef on a nice wheat. Also if you crossover to Concourse B there is a gift shop for the Field Museum of History which has a small scale dinosaur replica and some really neat gift shop items. Beyond that I find the airport as a whole to be without note.

US carriers as a rule are worse than Canadian or European carriers. You will survive United, but you will not love them. Use the money you are saving to bring on some nice snacks/lunches as you will be given little or no food on your journey. My husband flies United all the time. If you are larger people you may wish to look at Economy Plus, I belive it gives a few extra inches of leg room; I am not particularly tall so it is of no consequense to me.

Best of luck for a happy flight crew, they really can easily make the flight wonderful or unbearable.

 

[DOREEN1779]

Our last 4 flights were with United. One had an hour flight delay but no complaints as far as customer service. Sometimes it is the crazy little things that leave a positive or negative impression on the airline. For example, my four year old kept watching an episode of bubble guppies where they gave them wing pins. Well she asked me about them but I told her they did not do that anymore. Right before we landed, an attendant came around and started passing out wing pins to the children. I can still remember the look on her face.

 

[MomToOne]

I used to fly United all the time on business, since I live close to SFO, one of their hubs. They were fine "back in the day". But these days I refuse to fly them unless there is absolutely no other reasonable option. The main problem I have with United is when there is a problem, their customer service is AWFUL - not just airline awful, they take it to a whole new level. I've sat on hold waiting for an agent for 2+ hours, just to be disconnected - two or three times in a row. I've had agents refuse to rebook me on another airline when a missed connection was caused by them (not weather or something), but then discovered that other flyers WERE rebooked onto other airlines - apparently it was all up to the whim of the agent you got. (The agent I got apparently thought it was a perfectly acceptable situation for my then 9 year old child and I to sleep on the floor of the airport for 2 days waiting for another United flight because they were all oversold.) They didn't properly request ticketing on a flight on one of their partner airlines, purchased through them, leaving 6 of us stuck in the Beijing airport for hours while we and the other airline struggled to get someone at United on the phone that could correct the situation. And my stories can go on and on and on......

I was actually awarded a free ticket from United awhile back after they messed up, their feable attempt at an apology after a particularly screwed up situation that ended with a threat of a small claims lawsuit over it after a year of attempting a resolution through "normal" procedures (my sister is a lawyer - we were serious, it wasn't an idol threat and BOY did we have a case; they finally dealt with things when they received the legal letter demanding they maintain all phone call recordings and email communication regarding the reservation for the lawsuit). I refused to use it because I won't give them the opportunity to leave me stranded yet again - I gave it to a random stranger on a flyer message board.

Oh - and if you are flying them over Christmas, don't book anything that connects in Denver. If there is a snowstorm and they cancel flights - which happens a lot at that time of year, I've lived through it year after year - you will NOT be able to get another flight for weeks because they will have no space available on any United flights. And they won't really give a flip about it when you finally manage to get through to the call center after days of trying.