I am and have been a 1K flyer with UA for several years (over 100,000 miles a year). So I have had lots of experience on them - too much. I only fly them because I have to. Their service has decreased greatly. Their employee morale is horrible. They are stripping all amenitied. Once they have your money they basically do not care about you. Yes, even their highest flyers are treated terrible.

I have met some WONDERFUL UA employees and receibed excellent service. But overall I would have to say service is not part of their vocabulary. And writing Customer Service is like sending a letter to a dead letter mail box. IF you get a response it is a form letter which does not address your problem.

UA use to be wonderful! But since the employee buy out it has gone way down.

I travel a great deal for business, and I always request United over any other airline. Why?

-With the exception of the 737-200's, all aircraft have audio programming.

-They serve meals/snacks much more frequently than other airlines (I've done a lot of research by sifting through a lot of timetables, and it's clear United is much more generous than American, Delta, Continental, and especially Northwest in giving food.)

-I've also never had a United flight cancelled or delayed more than a few minutes. The last two times I flew Delta I had a flight delayed for an hour due to mechanical problems and one cancelled. And the past two times I flew Northwest, one flight was cancelled and another was delayed for an hour and a half because the mechanic didn't fill out the paperwork correctly.)

-United is part of the Star Alliance

-I like United's fleet. It seems to be a little newer than Delta's and much newer than Northwest's. I also like the fleet variety -727, 737, 747, 757, 767, and 777 as well as 319 and 320. I usually don't like to take AA because it seems 90% of their flight out of ORD are on MD-80's. Not that I have anything against the Super 80. I'd just like some variety.

That's just my 2 cents. Keep in mind, by comparing other airlines to United, I'm not bashing them. I'm just using examples to explain why I prefer United.

It sounds like United is a mixed story then. Yes, I agree, Midwest Express is excellent. And their SkyWay partner too. Seems like United is not the greatest.

ANA767 you are LUCKY about UA and delayed and canceled flights. I travel a lot on UA and can not remember the last time I took it long distance that there was NOT a problem. I came back from LHR on it this month (or was suppose to) but it was delayed 11 hours. I was on it last week and it was delayed PHL-LHR causing me to miss connections.

I envy you your experienc with UA. It is not mine!

i travel united 3 or 4 times a month, not a year like some on here, and my experience with them is overall excellent. The two reasons I absolutely favor them, though, overall are simple

- No MD80s. I hate flying on MD80s. And the comment about AA above is true - it seems EVERY AA flight is on an MD80. Drives me nuts. This is literally exactly why AA is NEVER a choice.

- Cockpit radio. I can't believe more people on this thread haven't cited this; I absolutely LOVE being able to listen to ATC aloft. I wonder if UA's marketing department realizes there are people like me who spent $40-70 thousand dollars a year on air travel who choose UA simply because of cockpit radio?! Because that's the real reason. It's just so sweet to hear a command radioed to your flight and immediately feel the turn being made or whatever, or the order to descend at maximum rate and hear the speed brakes flip up, it really changes air travel for me...Its actually the reason I was able to get over fear of flying.

Anyway, no MD80s, ATC on the radio, no charge for headphones, I'm sold. Like the sweet A320 I flew from ORD to DCA in F Class thursday night, what a perfect way to cap off a day (and how much moreso than a cattle ride on WN!)

zartan (eric)

I flew them once, and never again. In my opinion, AA is a lot better and I am fortunate to live in an AA hub city, so it is also more convenient for me. I also think AA offers a far better product than any of the other airlines I have been on. Plus, I don't know what the hype is with AA being so bad. I have not had one bad experience with them that was their fault and was unnecessary. One was weather related and two were engine related(one time we lost our slot over the atlantic and we waited for an hour at the gate because of engine repair). They were all for safety reasons, and if it is safety reasons, I really don't mind and I commend AA.
rgds,
blink182

David,

The Mighty Bigfoot and Queen of the skies both belong to the 747-400 in United's fleet.

Also,

United has one of the nicest fleets out there. From the little guppies(737) to the mighty bigfoot(777), and the queen of the skies, United has a very diverse fleet. The planes are always clean, and they all have economy plus with the exception of the 762s.

Just can't manage to get the "747" out?

I think by "and the queen of the skies" he meant the 747. Don't get your panties in a bunch over it.

Whistler,

I wasn't being that serious over the subject. Because ILUV767 considers the 744 an oddball in UA's fleet, I like to mess with him occaisionally.

ILUV767,

In case ya can't tell, I'm just messin with ya.  

Well, I grew up in an AA family. Dad was a res agent for a few years. We non-revved all over the USA. It was great.

But that was a few years ago when I was a kid. Now I am in college, and the airline I choose is more important.

I have to go by price a lot. United is frequently lower than AA for the flights I take.

I should mention that Blink182 and I both live in the same city- Dallas. Well, suburbs anyhow.

But that is why I grew up American.

So I took an American flight (after Legend went bust, and NO, I will never stop whining about their absence) from Dallas to Washington DC Dulles. It was fine. We were delayed about an hour on the returen flight, due to the de-icing process taking in excess of 45 minutes. But I am really not sure if I can blame AA personnell for that. But overall, the flight was fine. I have grown up with AA, and it was exactly what I expected- just like all the other flights I have taken with them.

By the way, dad hasn't worked for AA for several years now, so that doesn't bias my opinion here.

I took that AA flight in December. Well, in March, I needed to go to Washington DC again. I was looking at fares, and started thinking of who had nonstop service from DFW to Washington. Well, nobody. Just AA. And Delta, and their fare was not acceptable. So then I thought, "You know, I always see a lot of United birds up at Dulles, I wonder if that is a hub for them..." Well, sure it is, it's their gateway to the Atlantic. So guess what their fare was? $241. Beat that, AA.

In May, United was less than two hundred bucks.

I need to go now, I have to shorten this reply.

But their service was better. The food was... something worth eating. AA's isn't bad, but not as good.

I haven't been delayed. Sure, it will eventually happen.

The flight attendants have been phenomenally friendly on UA, more so than AA.

The pilot talks more.

I made the switch. Even after growing up AA.

Randy

Let me take this in a slightly different direction...First,on any given day you can have either a great flight, a so-so one,or a bad one on ANY airline depending on a lot of factors (crew,weather, gate agents, equipment, etc.
One could/should judge a carrier by the overall experience and the consistentcy of the experience from day to day, flight to flight.If we judged a carrier by only the one "bad" flight we had on it, there would be no carriers left to fly on!

United has some serious leadership/labor/direction problems in my opinion. These are all solvable, it just needs the correct plan of action.

Through the 70's and part of the 80's they were the leader, hands down. Then came along Allegis Corp, the botched buyout in 1987, and a number of years of labor unrest(at best). (Pat Patterson has turned over in his grave by now)

Yes UA has a modern fleet, so does AA and for the most part TW, CO, Alaska.

One thing really mystifies me with dome of you fellow members on here, and that is the focus on IFE systems on this or that airline. Yes, I enjoy them if available, but that is not the defining criteria I use to select a flight. I enjoy the time to catch up reading some good books. However, it is your choice..it is a free country!

Anyway, my aim was to point this toward improving UA and suggestions to that end. We all know they have great planes, a highly skilled workforce, global routes, etc. TLets hope that they can find the leadership to truly rise again to the stature they once were. This would help to improve all carriers, AA, NW, CO, DL and the rest. Raise the expectations for the consumer at all airlines.

Sorry 747-400, I thought u were flaming him  

domestic at least, untied beats NW any day.

Well, I'm sure this has been said before but it all really depends on personal opinion. You also have to look at both sides, or all sides.

Being the mediator that I am, I will explain. 
Them employees at UA have had it real rough lately, and management doesn't seem to care. So they're probably taking their problems out on the customer.

Why? Because it's easy and you'll never see that person again. Besides, as was said earlier, complaints to customer service are falling on deaf ears.

What would improve the situation, with United? A new direction. Instead of moving in a pattern of MORE CAPITA, MORE CAPITA, MORE CAPITA, why don't they try a different approach.

See, there's only so much you can do as far a buying up everything in site. You might have the most well-known name in the industry, but if your service SUCK, or for some reason you are not treating your real assetts, your customers, like they are valueable to your corporation, well then in the end you're screwed, because people will get tired of you.

Sad thing is, if you buy up the competition then people have no choice. Here in the US, we have anti-trust laws to protect against that, but there's a whole load of BSing un the upper levels before anything is done, so thing like this happen, and go away when it gets out of hand.

What I'm refering to, and I do not mean offense to any UA employees, is that I see UA's managment thinking in a monopolistic sense. I think they'll go as far as they possible can before the gov't steps in ans says "no, no".

As I said I mean not to offend UA employees. They are the real victims here as they're sucked into the capitalism machine. Basically they're pawns used to make everything run, and nothing more.

That is NOT the way a business should operate. The wayit SHOULD be done, is- (Oh darn, I almost said this earlier, sorry I'm ramblin'  )

The way it should be done is to rather than invest in other people's businesses, with the hopes of merging or aquiring their capita, invest in the employees themselves.

REALLY screen hard for those go-getter, nice to see you I wear a smile types. The friendly go-out-of-your-way types.

Why? Well if you put your money into them, and give them a GREAT working environment, give them pride in their company, and give them a reason to come to work every day besides paying the bills, they'll reward you by being pleasant, content, and that will extend into their work. Because they are happy with their job, and have tons of job security as well, they will therefore be more pleasant when addressed by a customer.

Simply because their day, month, or year is all the more better. And the customers see it. If there's warmth in the employee, the customer sees that. And they also know what's fake but that's beside the point.  

Anyway it is that warmth which brings the customer back and back again. You don't need to bribe customers with good food and leather seats. No, no, no. It's all in the service. Good management + Excellent employee relations = Good work environment = Happier employees = Better customer service = Better impression on the customer = Return customers = Success.

That's the equation. It's all that simple. And we can't take airline service on face value. Because you might have had a bad day at AA doesn't mean that AA sucks, it means that somewhere in the system a vital part is missing, at least for the person that served you. And you can only blame that on managment.

That said-

Hehehe...I LOVE MD-80s. Used to want to fly one. And they look especially good in AA's colors. WOW.

Best U.S. Airline as far as employee relations = Southwest.  

I won't really judge UA, AA, US, AW, etc...until I've flown them. Hehehe... I haven't.

Of course those are only my opinions, take them as you will.

Aloha!!

Aloha 737-200!!