In case you’re wondering where I’ve been all day, the answer is a plane. Based on that statement, and the title of this post, the logical conclusion might be that I’ve been delayed. That conclusion, however, would be false. I actually arrived in Boston well ahead of schedule (by my standards, anyhow, as we were only a couple of minutes behind).
My problem with United is instead its propensity to nickel and dime customers. Southwest is currently running ads that mock this tendency, sarcastically describing an airline that charges its customers to use the restroom. In United’s case, I’m actually inclined to believe it’s just a matter of time until this occurs.
The food, I could care less about: it tastes just as bad when you pay for it as it did when it was free. But today’s flight from Denver to Boston was rather undersold – not unusual for a Tuesday flight – and in particular had a grand total of zero people occupying the exit row seats, which frequent travellers know are the best seats in the house in terms of legroom (with the exception of First Class). Checking in at the gate, I was told that I could upgrade to these seats for a fee of $41.
The fee itself may seem relatively insignificant, until you consider that a.) the passengers in those seats are required to assist in the case of an emergency (however unlikely), and b.) precisely zero of the airlines I travel impose similar fees. Not American, not Frontier, not JetBlue, not Southwest, no one. Just United.
To make matters worse, United orders planes configured for populations that match medieval demograpics in terms of height. At six two, I’m not exactly NBA material, but you wouldn’t know it from the way I have to shoehorn myself into United’s standard seat. They have so little space, in fact, that I’ve been forced to develop a new seating strategy: select only those seats that have no passenger sitting in front of you – even if they are middle seats.
As a result, I really hate United. Some of you are probably wondering how I’m not a premium passenger on United given the amount I fly, but I’d simply answer that with a question of my own: given how poorly they treat non-premium customers, how exactly am I incented to earn that status?
Jim Grisanzio says:
November 14, 2006 at 11:04 pm
I’ve had bad experiences with United, too, so I can relate. 🙂 But I just flew from Tokyo to Seoul on Asiana Airlines. It was my first experience with them. First rate all around. ANA, JAL, and Asiana are so significantly superior to United it’s amazing.
Murray Cumming says:
November 15, 2006 at 9:48 am
On my United flight from San Francisco to Munich at the weekend, the leg room was so narrow that it was hard to even get into the seat. Meanwhile, the video system ran regular ads showing cartoon people lounging about in clouds with the text “more legroom”. I think it was mocking us.
Also, I think they were using VHS videos, judging by the awful quality. Very retro.
Greg Whitescarver says:
November 15, 2006 at 10:27 am
My trip to and from the Zend Conference (thanks again, by the way, for a great presentation) was probably the worst round trip I’ve ever taken. It seems that not only has United made their leg room even shorter, but that they find some perverse pleasure in seating very tall guys three-in-a-row. My anonymous comrades and I got a lot cosier than we’d normally be comfortable getting with good friends, and it happened to me on three of four flight legs. Smaller folks in nearby rows, stretching themselves out and enjoying the view (the window also seemed too low for me to even look out) seemed to be mocking me in my only slightly oversized misery. I definitely had a stiff back after those flights.
You’re also dead on about the absurdity of paying extra for the privilege of operating the exits in case of emergency. They should give us oafs some kind of break. I’m going to avoid them like the plague from now on.
Chris Adams says:
November 15, 2006 at 10:58 am
I’ve boycotted United – the last straw for me was being repeatedly lied to by their airport staff, costing me an extra day’s layover because they refused to tell the truth about a flight being delayed and refused to let me transfer to a flight which actually left that day (my luggage was sent on that flight, however…). Alaska does the same thing – last year they actually falsified the departure time records by ~20 minutes (the first customer service rep to load the status got the correct time; 5 minutes later everyone was getting the false ones) so they could claim not to have blown our connection – so I think there’s some well-earned guilt-by-association for airlines which partner with United, too.
Danese Cooper says:
November 15, 2006 at 5:08 pm
Okay, okay…Compared to Asian carriers, all US-based airlines suck. Let’s just agree on that. But…
In defense of United. I’ve been a 1K flyer with them for years (due to restrictions placed by both my current and previous employer in limiting business travel purchase options. At least my current employer allows me to purchase upgradeable fares :-). Personally I think any company that allows some class of employees to book Business Class should allow all employees who fly long-haul or very frequently to book Business Class as well. There’s nothing like flying 1/2 way around the world (or in some cases more than 1/2 way around) only to have to attend meetings soon after deplaning. I try to always schedule in a couple of days to acclimatize, but that costs money too. Why don’t companies just negotiate decent fares for Business Class and allocate the seats to their frequent travelers?
Anyway, I was happy to get off American, which generally has more legroom but also horribly maintained equipment, beat up seats, non-operative restrooms and surly flight attendants IMHO. They also cancel their flights too friggin’ often and they make you fly through Texas or Chicago a lot of the time.
Stephen, since you’re not a United 1K flyer you don’t get to sit in the “more legroom” seats, but I usually do. I also don’t pay for upgrades to exit rows. I also get to board the plane with the 1st Class passengers (which insures I get to stash my luggage overhead) and I get upgrades most of the time anyway.
What I would *love* to have is a universal loyalty program that allows miles-based upgrades on all affiliated carriers. StarAlliance used to work this way but now, not so much. Being able to carry additional pieces luggage on would also be a nice perk for some…especially woman travelers.
My $.02 :-).
-Danese
Mike Dolan says:
November 16, 2006 at 6:53 am
I refuse to fly United unless I have no other options. I can’t stand their ‘pay for exit row policy’ – not to mention that they have other seats now that are “almost exit row” legroom and they charge more for them – I refuse to book those out of principle. They could do something ‘nice for the repeat customer’ and put taller people over a certain height (that they track in their preferred customer system) in those seats. That would get me interested.
stephen o'grady says:
November 16, 2006 at 3:48 pm
Jim: haven’t done the Asian airlines yet, but i’ll take your word for it. the sad thing is that even the discount carriers in the US are significantly better than United.
Murray: amen. plus their selection is usually terrible. it’s not like Frontier or JetBlue are flying NetFlix libraries, but at least you can pick from two.
Greg: really psyched you got something out of the Zend deck, and glad that i was lucky enough to be flying Frontier out of SJC. tiny little plane, but more legroom.
glad to see you boycotting them.
Chris: ugh, that’s brutal. i’ve been screwed by United before, but never that badly. that’s awful.
Danese: that’s what i consistently hear from United travellers, but i’m disincented from trying to get there so i’m basically out of luck.
also, on the American front, i actually have much nicer things to say about them. there equipment is often, as you note, rather dilapidated, but no more so than the United flights i take. plus their More Room Through Coach thing was awesome. and there’s the fact that many of their seats feature DC power, and i’ll take American over United every time.
Mike: that’s the problem – whenever i fly with someone working with American Express travel, they inevitably make me fly them. that is the only time i do. for personal and business travel these days, i’m almost exclusively Frontier/JetBlue, and i’m quite happy to keep giving them business, because they recognize that i wasn’t born in the mid-fifteenth century.
Chris Connolly says:
November 27, 2006 at 8:02 pm
I love United. I do agree that flying any airline isn’t what it used to be. United’s First class is the only one comparative to European/Asian Airlines. I’ve had horrible experiences with American, Continental, and even Jet Blue. United has been loyal to me so I will continue to be loyal to them.
Robert Sayre says:
December 1, 2006 at 2:59 am
1k isn’t really necessary. That’s living your whole life on a plane!
I’ll fly a paltry 36-40k UA/StarAlliance this year, and United never messes with me.
But, I will say that the “Premium Service” flights from JFK to LAX and SFO really scare me. Those planes are so old it looks like the wings are going to fall off.
John Cowan says:
December 1, 2006 at 6:45 am
As someone who is not only tall but wide, I avoid the exit row; the arm-rests don’t go up. More leg-room is not compensated for by less hip-room, trust me.
David Comay says:
December 1, 2006 at 1:01 pm
Glad to hear you got back home safely at the start of December, Stephen.
The last trip our family took back East (almost a year ago) was on United and we had to sit through an 8+ hour delay in Oakland and arrived into D.C. in the wee hours of the morning. After that, we decided to send our airline business elsewhere although we still like those United telelvision commericals of recent years. 😛
Cheri says:
December 8, 2006 at 1:10 pm
United is the absolute worst for customer service. They have a reservation center that not only can’t help with any problems that arise from travelling, but then they will literally tell you that management doesn’t take calls. The customer complaint area admits that you’ll never hear from them, nor will they do anything for you. They will, “file a report”. I couldn’t believe my ears when I was told, “I am the supervisor, there is no one above me”. I will never travel with them again. Ever.
Mahesh says:
December 28, 2006 at 9:42 am
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Mahesh says:
December 28, 2006 at 9:40 pm
United Airlines stole nearly $3000 from my parents at time when they were most helpless, and stranded in Los Angeles airport, weary from having undergone surgery and nearly 1500 away miles from the nearest child. What United Airlines did amounts to extortion, breach of contract and abuse of the elderly, not to mention stealing! They have steadfastly refused to refund the money that was unduly charged, despite my best efforts to resolve this matter fairly. I have started a blog to broadcast the full story for the whole world to see the inner workings of United Air Lines.
Read my full story at
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John M says:
January 18, 2007 at 12:15 pm
First I must state I am a frequent flier. I have a little under 1mm miles with United… however, in their effort to move back toward insolvency or get sold in the industry consolidation…let me share the story.
I too can no longer stand this airline. My most recent experience that has placed this in the “I am taking my business elsewhere mode” I flew Denver to NY, NY to Dulles, Dulles to Heathrow in order to save some money on a ticket (United’s strategy, if we can maximize our load and get people to kill themselves in that process, sure we’ll let them save a couple of bucks…still around a $1000.00 bucks…. when I tried to come back one day early as a premier exec I was told without a Saturday night stay there would be two additional components…A $200 change fee AND a fare change of “something a little over $2000.00 however, we cannot tell you until we reissue… net net. I’ll stay in the UK one more day… have a little more time to think about it… away from my family… and then fly anyone else I possibly can whenever I can…. I only thank my lucky stars I’m one of their better customers…I’d hate to see a worse customer experience.
Frankie Vigil says:
April 11, 2007 at 4:27 pm
sitting in san fran airport during a four hour delay waiting for the pilots to show up. not thinking I will try them again.
Rennee D. says:
April 19, 2007 at 3:59 pm
I hate United too. I was stuck in NYC due to a cancelled flight because of a storm and was on standby for over 36 hours. United did not give s*** about me during that time. They prioritize their stand-by list according to paid the most $. I was on standby for over a dozen flights and during that time United was completely unhelpful in helping me get home. I had already bought and paid for my ticket and they treated me like dirt.
Don’t ever fly United and if you do, I hope you’re flight doesn’t get cancelled because of “weather” because you will see that all they care about is $
Neil N says:
April 21, 2007 at 8:06 am
Hmm. Interesting thread. I’m 1K on United and Platinum on US Airways. My experience has been as follows:
United: middle-of-the road service (some great crews, some surly), clean planes, on-time departures, lots of good information (including automatic rebooking if connection is missed — just look at my SMS and go to gate), free audio (*love* channel 9!), not-so-bad snack boxes, economy plus at no extra $ if you fly 25k mi/year (agree — everyone should have this option if available), decent first class (not fantastic, but not bad), including the ability to upgrade a low fare with a systemwide cert to Asia — very nice perk for the 1Ks — we get 6 per year. Overall, it’s not been as bad an experience for me over the past several years as it seems others have encoutered.
US Airways: same inconsistent in-flight service (some great crews — usually the old AWA — but some nasty ones), and the rest is worse… consistently dirty planes, laughably incompetent ground staff, sub-standard first class (plastic cups!), all departure/arrival times end with “-ish” as in “we’ll take off around 8-ish”, pay for headsets, lousy entertainment, terrible food, very cheap FF program (impossible to redeem or upgrade, even as platinum, despite “unlimited upgrade” propoganda, 120 segment threshold to Chairmans (this is prohibitive), no drink coupons, no extra “perks”)
I admit that no domestic carrier is giving service that I would consider good, but given that the public is demanding low price above all, at least United is making an attempt to keep it’s FFs happy. For all of the complaints above (and, I’m not arguing — I believe your complaints are totally legitimate — United needs to treat its non-FFs MUCH better to INCENT loyalty), I think United is doing a decent job keeping its FFs happy. Could be better, but it’s not as bad as it could be (and is, frankly, on US Airways).
ItsMe says:
December 15, 2007 at 12:35 am
I used a frequent flier ticket to come to Los Angeles. While here, I needed oral surgery to remove a tumor.
As a result, I was not able to fly on my scheduled departure date.
I looked up seat availabilty online, and flights that would get me back to the Newark, NJ airport prior to Christmas Eve were showing available seats. When I attmpted to switch my flight, I was told by agents, supervisors and Customer Relations that those seats were ONLY available for purchase.
Since I have been stupid enough to be loyal to United, I had an additional 50,000 miles available and offered these miles in exchange for a seat on one of these flights. I was told by a United airlines Manager at LAX that this was not feasible, as the way the airline makes money is by selling seats, and the only seats they had available were for purchase at a fee of $1,000 or more. The soonest they could let me use the remaining portion of my frequent flyer ticket was on the red-eye Christmas Eve into Christmas day.
They could clearly see at the ticketing counter that I had just had surgery, as I still have a black eye, stitches and a plate in my mouth. What they offered was a “special fare medical emergency ticket.”
What’s even more insulting… they said that I could fly Orange County to Laguardia, if I paid a $100 change fee. ARE THEY SERIOUS??????
Did I mention that I spent a total of 10 hours yesterday and today trying to resolve this issue in person and on the phone?
Finally, I figured I would get the last laugh… I will fly stand-by. They have many seats available, and I will undoubtedly get one just by showing up. I won’t have to pay more and I won’t have to give them any more miles. Screw United.
I will be canceling my United credit card and telling my company travel agentcy that we will no longer be using United.
Oh… every United employee I spoke with thanked me for being a Premier customer, having flown nearly 200,000 miles with this airline alone.
What do I want as compensation? There is no compensation for the grief and suffering caused by their unfriendly policies.
Happy Holidays.
TA Dole says:
December 24, 2007 at 11:42 pm
It is interesting to note that United Airlines has dropped the slogan, “Fly the Friendly Skies of United.” Either United knows that they cannot keep this promise (of “friendly skies”) or they simply do not care. I believe it is the latter.
Throughout the 80’s and early part of the 90’s, I was spending a lot of time on planes flying for work. While it was difficult spending time away from my three pre-school children and my wife, it was some consolation to know that at least I was racking up frequent flyer miles. United had built my loyalty with the promise that if I flew with them I would some day be able to treat my family to a nice vacation after years on the road.
I did my part. I flew almost exclusively on United Airlines. This was before the days of “expiring miles.” Later, my miles were broken out separately on my statement as “non-expiring” miles.
Now my kids are in their teens, and I wanted to take them on the trip I had EARNED by trusting United Airlines (i.e., that if I did my part by spending thousands of dollars with them they would provide the trips promised me). You must be able to imagine my surprise when I called to find out my balance. Instead of the 165,000+ miles, I was told that I only had 5,000 miles in my account. I was stunned and assumed that there must be a mistake. I was later to find that the mistake was in ever trusting United Airlines.
United made the decision that they would, in fact, expire the “non-expiring” miles. Since I hadn’t traveled over the past few years they would wipe away all of these miles. I do want to point out that American, Delta, and Alaska airlines had similar classifications of miles, i.e., those that expired and those that didn’t. I had much lower balances on these other airlines, since I had used United for most of my travels. This is important to bring up because (unlike United) American, Delta, and Alaska air kept my “non-expiring” miles intact.
I made frequent calls to both Mileage Plus and United. Each pointed the finger at each other. The response that I got was consistent. They needed me to fly with them over the past few years and since I didn’t they didn’t consider me to be a loyal customer. I pointed out that I wasn’t flying with anyone during that period. Apparently, they expected me to rush out and buy a ticket that I didn’t need just to keep their airline afloat.
United has made it very clear that they do not intent to live up to their promise of giving me ticket rewards for my loyalty in the 80’s and 90’s. I feel as though my bank account was wiped out by a criminal. The bank account was my mileage account, and you know who the criminals are.
Read the complaints of others, regarding United Airlines. Don’t let this happen to you. Make a conscious choice not to end up like me. I urge you to trust your flying dollars to airlines with integrity, such as American, Delta, and Alaskan Airlines.
You will undoubtedly see many complaints that United Mileage Plus members find it impossible to use their miles (i.e., planes don’t have seats available for rewards travel). I find it interesting that I had little trouble getting reward travel on American Airlines to and from Miami for a cruise that I have planned. United believes airline travel is a commodity. I disagree, and I appreciate the service provided by other customer-focused airlines.
[email protected] says:
June 15, 2008 at 11:33 am
United is definitely no passenger friendly. For all of those long tall guys, do not waste your money or rewards on first class. They have shortened the distance between seats. Now the extra room seats are in fact the seats with the most room. They also make using your rewards a contest of wills.
Zebo says:
November 5, 2008 at 4:59 pm
I hear you. Just be thankful you didn’t lose any of your personal items. I was delayed for a connecting flight out of Chicago, causing me to have to stay overnight. In the mean while, United took it upon themselves to rifle through my bag, which I could not get back for some unclear reason during my overnight stay. When they “reassembled” the bag, they left caps loose on some of my items, causing the contents to spill out all over onto various items. Additionally, they failed to put my camera, a very expensive photo cube, and various small items back into the bag, along with one of my shoes.
I will never fly with the airlines as a result again.
Every time I have had the misfortune of dealing with them, something gets lost, stolen or my flights are nearly always delayed. Customer service is poor and the company’s attitude toward their operation is unprofessional.
I have filed my claim with the Better Business Bureau. They can take their air miles and free flights and put them straight up a very uncomfortable place as far as I am concerned.