Not Impressed With United - Problems On Both Ends.

[OLT2004]

Not Impressed with United Airlines.
We had problems on both ends of the trip.
Give me Continental back...

Outbound/Downbound
We flew from AVP to EWR
EWR to MCO
Flights were on time...Good!
No gate changes...Good!
They lost one of checked bags....Not Good

Urgh... Travel happens...
The bag went from AVP to ORD to West Palm to MCO and was delivered 14 hours after filing the claim....1:45AM...By a Non English Speaking Messenger.
I must also note, that to United's credit, they did offer us a $100 voucher to replace essential clothing after 12 hours. We declined. We know to "Mix" our luggage and our carry on's - Just in case.

Homebound/Upbound
MCO to EWR to AVP
Weather delays rippled through their system...Urgh...Travel happens...
But - Mix in Crew Problems...along with Equipment(aircraft)problems...
We arrived home about 6 hours late...

If you have a smart phone I Highly reccomend the United App...
We knew more than the gate agents...

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

No different than any other airline.

I don't know why the language spoken by the baggage delivery person is relevant. How many languages do you speak?

 

[MAH4546]

You declined a free $100? Seriously?

 

[LilyWDW]

So.... everything that happened was something that could happen with ANY other airline and does daily. How is not flying with United going to help? It seems they attempted to assist you with the voucher which you turned down. They can not control the weather. No one can.

 

[Lewisc]

I'm impressed with United.

Your bags were misdirected. It happens. They not only got the bags to you in basically half a day but offered $100. The driver didn't speak English. Your point?

Coming home. Weather delays. Equipment delays. Crew issues. It happens. You arrived home only 6 hours late. Sounds good to me. Based on the issues I'd be happy to get home the same day.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

Nothing unique about United in any of your post; this could apply to SWA, Jet Blue, US Air, etc.

 

[Greysword]

Well, I think it is important to note that the gang on FlyerTalk have an unofficial name for the "new" United Airlines: Continental doing business as United (COdbaUA) . Plus, wasn't EWR a CO hub pre-merger?

Just sayin...

Oh, and as for the courier, the airlines contract that out, so it probably was not a United employee.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Well, I think it is important to note that the gang on FlyerTalk have an unofficial name for the "new" United Airlines: Continental doing business as United (COdbaUA) . Plus, wasn't EWR a CO hub pre-merger?

Just sayin...

Oh, and as for the courier, the airlines contract that out, so it probably was not a United employee.

You are absolutely correct. I fly UA more than any other airline and after the merger, UA (mostly) adopted Continental's policies; their customer service is at an all time low.

 

[NJRRK]

You are absolutely correct. I fly UA more than any other airline and after the merger, UA (mostly) adopted Continental's policies; their customer service is at an all time low.

I disagree, with the merger they adopted a combination of the worst policies of each airline. I never had any issues with CO pre-merger, in fact they seemed to go the extra mile, unlike AA or USAir. I guess everyone had their own experiences.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Ah United. I will never fly them again if I can avoid them.

We flew them into SNA with the Robotics team. What a mess. The airline was so disorganized. Printers at the airport not working so we couldn't print our tickets in advance. Customer service rep was a major grouch about it and we were being nice about it. You should have heard the complaining when the person saw the trunk with the Robot and tools. They didn't want to deal with it.

And then when it came time to leave, there wasn't anyone working at the customer service counter. We had bags that needed to get checked, tickets that had to be printed because their printers weren't working.

Finally one fellow shows up after we'd been waiting nearly an hour while the line got longer and longer behind us and it turned out he was working the front service counter AND the flight gate. We got all checked in finally and got our tickets.

Then he shows up at the flight gate and makes an announcement that they needed everyone with kids to go to the counter so they could make sure people with kids got on the same flight because it was oversold and they were going to be bumping people. And the flight had weight issues so if you checked your bags, they might not be on that flight.
It was a nerve wracking mess since only 2 of us were responsible for 8 boys and 1 girl. I was nervous until we actually made it on the plane and it took off.

The clubs trunk with the expensive Robot and tools was not on the plane when we landed in ATL. It did make the next flight though. The Robotics club teacher was sweating bullets until the trunk arrived. He was so worried it got lost in transit.

United sure didn't win my business based on that day.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

You could substitute any airline's name for United and you could be telling someone else's story. Happens every day on every airline. Not flying UA isn't going to stop you from having similar problems on another airline.

Just a small correction; you had problems printing boarding passes, not tickets.

 

[bear_mom]

We used them coming/going to Hawaii. 6 flights in total, 6 flights delayed. I'll give them 2 - they were weather related and I know there isn't anything they can do about that.

The other four though were equipment issues. We ended up arriving to Hawaii 4 hours late in which we were lucky that we had a 4 hour layover in San Fransisco or we would have missed our flight (okay, we would have missed it, if it had actually left on time......). On the way home we were about 12 hours late getting home and had to be re-booked twice. If we had left on time from Maui we would have missed the weather in Chicago and made it home on time.

We will try to avoid United in the future.

Emily

 

[OLT2004]

lost*in*cyberspace - Thanks for your reply.
Language was Important because the courier called to ask directions to our Villa.
We had a very frustrating language problem...
The courier was from Turkey...
I know survival Spanish, Italian and Polish...
I can say hello, good bye, yes, no and thank you in Arabic...

MAH4546 - Yes, we declined the $100 from United.
#1 - We are experienced travelers and "mixed" our clothes.
We did not NEED any essential clothing.We were good for@ least two days.
#2 - We had been up for almost 24 hours.
We were dead tired.
I suppose we could have done some post Midnight Shopping and gotten
some socks and underwear...And All the paperwork that would come with
it, plus waiting for reimbursement...We declined and enjoyed the warm
Orlando evening on the Veranda with a few adult beverages...

GaSleepingBeautyFan - Robotic's Team???
That sounds interesting...Please tell more!

My final word of advice on united.com
If you have a smart phone - Use The United App!!!
As I posted - We knew more than the Gate Agent - And caught her in numerous LIES or @ least BS and slush off answers...

It is what it is...Amen

 

[mom2brooke76]

I'm not impressed with UA either, at least not for unaccompanied minors. My daughter's dad recently started flying her up to Chicago on United because he had a bunch of points or something and each and EVERY time we've gone to the airport to check her in or pick her up, they always have the wrong person down to pick her up or drop her off. Most of the agents aren't familiar with the UM procedure, so this easily adds another half hour or more to getting her checked in. That is ridiculous since the correct information is given to the agent over the phone. I realize that it's not the agent's fault that's checking us in, but most of them have an "I don't give a crap" attitude about the entire situation. They've never apologized. I have always worked in customer service and you never are supposed to treat someone that way (and for the record, I never get angry at them or am rude to them).

We never had this issue with Southwest, which I personally prefer to use when we can. Southwest CSR's seem better trained in this area and actually act like they care. Plus, their UM fee is less, so hopefully he'll decide to start using them.

I guess maybe the UA CSR's need more training in the UM procedure.

 

[dudspizza]

I will say I have absolutely no problem with UA. Every airline can have issues at some time or another and in the end, if they get you from point A to point B, they are ok..

I have absolutely no worries about my UA flights for June....