United Airlines is total junk | FerrariChat

United Airlines is total junk

Discussion in 'Travel' started by amenasce, Nov 14, 2016.

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  1. amenasce

    amenasce Three Time F1 World Champ
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    Oct 17, 2001
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    Joe Mansion
    I had an awful exp with United.

    My trip was a total nightmare.My 3 years old and
    myself were supposed to fly out at 10am on oct 27th from Ord LGA, but our flight #1499 was delayed more than 3h because of a maintenance issue before we were allowed to board only to seat on the tarmac for more than 90mns and be told by the pilot that he didnt feel comfortable flying the plane and would take us back to the gate.
    I was with my 3 years old and we were already delayed by more than 4h at that point only to be told we would have to go to customer service to know how United was going to accommodate us. Having to wait in line
    again for 30mns+, we were then rebooked on UA263 at 5pm and given $10 food voucher (A water bottle is $4 at the airport..). UA263 was then delayed 30 mns because of ATC issue.

    We finally take off at 5.30ish and as we get close to LGA, we are told the airport just closed and we will be rerouted to Newark but luggage will not be released and will go to LGA when it re-opens. The pilot says they will refuel and we will go to LGA in 40mns. After 40mns, the crew
    says LGA is closed again and we need to wait 1h more before further updates. It is now 10pm. We have no food or drinks. So i decide to leave and take a cab from NJ to my final destination in NY and wait for the luggage to be delivered that night. After a $150 cab ride, i call United
    and they tell me our luggage never left Chicago and wont be delivered until the end of next day. I lost more than a full day that i was going to spend with my father, because of United's incompetence, and incurred
    more than $500 in expenses (cab ride, clothes for my son, phone charger, medicine, toiletries). My entire trip schedule was completely thrown off by UA's issues.Furthermore, on our return flight, our luggage was
    overweight (because of the clothes and toiletries i had to buy all over again) and i was charged a $100 fee that no one at the UA desk wanted to waive.

    I contacted their customer service and they offered me a $75 voucher. A $75 voucher..for a day and half lost, $500 expenses on top of the tickets.

    I understand some of it is not directly their fault (atc issues) but had i taken my original flight, i would have landed at lga before it closed and my luggages also. I also understand maintenance issues happen but it's their fault. They should make a bigger effort in compensating their customer. I mean $75 barely pays for checked luggages.

    I was a mileage plus member but will never fly again with them
     
  2. Texas Forever

    Texas Forever Seven Time F1 World Champ
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    Apr 28, 2003
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    Texas!
    I'm old enough to remember when flying was fun.
     
  3. amenasce

    amenasce Three Time F1 World Champ
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    Oct 17, 2001
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    Joe Mansion
    I do to. I absolutely hate it. And United Airlines only makes it worse by treating their paying customers as cattle. When we were waiting at the gate for more than 2h, the United Airlines team left and left us there without any updates. We had to get updates on google..I have pictures of the gate desk abandoned by the United Airlines team.
     
  4. dm_n_stuff

    dm_n_stuff Four Time F1 World Champ
    Lifetime Rossa Owner

    Frighteningly, this is probably not close to the worst flying/customer service story we'll hear before this thread is over, we all have crazy ones.

    My personal favorite involves a now defunct airline that was flying my family from Orlando back to Philly. We waited 4 hours or so in the airport for the plane to arrive, when it arrived, rather than boarding, we sat for another hour at the terminal. They were not servicing the plane, it just sat there.

    Another hour goes by, I walk up to the service desk and ask why we aren't boarding. Rather than tell me, the desk jockey tells me to go sit down or he's going to call an Air Marshall to deal with me. Hmmm... So several other passengers, having overheard the conversation go to the desk and ask what's going on. It escalates from there, to the point where the boarding agent eventually gets on the PA and tells us that anyone disrupting the flight area will be tossed out of the flight, and that we should all sit down.

    Eventually we're told the delay is weather related. Philly is having weather issues and they don't want us to take off if there's no window for landing.

    At 1AM, we take off. (flight was a 3PM flight) get to Philly about 3:30 in the morning, land in a storm, but survive. I called Air Tran's customer service the next day. They gave me $100 flight voucher. I had 6 tickets on the flight, and they gave me a SINGLE $100 voucher, which, needless to say, we never used.

    And this was 15 years ago.

    Now, it's MUCH worse. :D

    D
     
  5. energy88

    energy88 Two Time F1 World Champ
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    Jan 21, 2012
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  6. JohnnyS

    JohnnyS F1 World Champ
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    Oct 19, 2006
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    Just like spirit airlines.

    If United held their ground to the current rules for carry on, they would have a problem. I have been waiting in line to board and have been told there is no more overhead space so must gate check my bag. So, I do. I get on and 1/3 of the overhead space is empty. So, now when I get a green tag, I rip it off and get on the plane with my bag.
     
  7. BMW.SauberF1Team

    BMW.SauberF1Team F1 World Champ

    Dec 4, 2004
    14,244
    I've also noticed Delta state overhead is full just to see that 1/3 is open like you say. I hate flying commercial and may just end up renting a car to drive 7-9 hours each way to closer destinations than fly. Gas is cheap and airfare prices have not come down...

    I end up taking Southwest as it's the lesser of the evils IMO. At least they gave me a $200 voucher for my new years eve flight that was maintenance-delayed 8 hours (arrived 10PM instead of 2PM...barely in time for the party) and another $200 voucher for a cancelled Friday night flight due to the arriving crew being over work hour limits...
     
  8. Countachqv

    Countachqv Formula 3

    Apr 25, 2007
    2,343
    USA/France
    it is getting worst and as long as their profit increase, they will turn the screws on the cattles. Most people will mumble but will pay whatever it costs. Big money for bad service is the airlines mission statement.
    Now you got to pay to reserve your seat and many other things.
    I recall the days where the flight attendants allowed you to go up in the 2 deckers 747 to lighten up the crowding in the lower deck! I recall free wine, free food actually suitable for human consumption. All that is gone.
    There are studying to figure how to cram more people in these and some drawings involves stand up flying. You know what is coming next!
     
  9. amenasce

    amenasce Three Time F1 World Champ
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    Yes. They dont care whatsoever unless you are a biz class ticket holder or a million miles member. I hate flying and keep it at a minimum. They treat you like crap. No consideration whatsoever, even if you have a toddler or an infant. At least in Brazil, when they see a small kid or a baby they will let you go first. I personally dont mind waiting (normal waiting...) but kids dont like it and when they cry, everyone is bothered.

    When things go wrong, most of the airlines staff are just like customer service phone operators and they just spit the same answers over and over without any consideration to the actual questions.

    Airlines are the worst business to deal with. Phone/Cable providers are next.
     
  10. amenasce

    amenasce Three Time F1 World Champ
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    After i complained about their $75 voucher, they told me it was a goodwill gesture that they believe was aligned to the factors and to the satisfaction of the customers.

    First of all it's a voucher, so it's more business for them. 2nd of all, it's ridiculously low.

    However, they said they would review my case again and get back to me in a week.

    We shall see.
     
  11. energy88

    energy88 Two Time F1 World Champ
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    Any "customer" satisfied with $75 has to be awfully stupid. Perhaps they don't understand their customers?
     
  12. TheMayor

    TheMayor Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    In two weeks I will pass 3 Million miles on United.

    To do that you have to do 100,000 miles a year for 30 years.

    How I am still sane I will never know.

    When it comes to United, don't ask me to say nice things. The service has dropped, the planes are old, they are often behind schedule, they cut corners everywhere, they have changed over the years the award program to make it more difficult and expensive to use, and have changed the rules for becoming a "1K" flier (their top tier) that actually discourages people from trying (I think they think they have too many 1K fliers).

    I also fly Lufthansa, which is a great airline. I can't imagine what a Lufthansa flyer must think when they come to America and jump on a United plane. Ethiopia Air has newer planes.
     
  13. Texas Forever

    Texas Forever Seven Time F1 World Champ
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    I guess you haven't made Global Services status?
     
  14. energy88

    energy88 Two Time F1 World Champ
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    I always liked Continental and flew them exclusively until absorbed by United. Continental was always good to me. Why does a crappy airline always have to take over a good airline? Just goes to show how far the mighty have fallen now that Southwest ends up as the best airline today.
     
  15. Peter Tabmow

    Peter Tabmow Formula Junior

    Nov 10, 2010
    619
    I haven't flown United for over 15 years despite frequent trips to Chicago, partly due to personal experience and partly due to hearing stories like the one above.

    I must say American seem to be going down the same road. Virgin America showed promise but I'm not optimistic about their merger with Alaska. I've flown Southwest a couple of times and thought the people were nasty. Fortunately, Boston is a Jet Blue hub. They have the (domestic) routes I need, are pretty reliable, and can be trusted to work hard to fix problems or provide proper compensation when all else fails.
     
  16. TheMayor

    TheMayor Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    #16 TheMayor, Nov 20, 2016
    Last edited: Nov 20, 2016
    Are you kidding? Forget it.

    For Global it's not how much you fly. Its how much you SPEND that counts. Even that is a sort of mystery. I barely make 1K now because I only buy cheap tickets. It used to be if you flew 100,000 miles in a year, you were 1K

    Then they changed it to 100,000 miles AND $10,000 in receipts

    Two years ago they change it to 100,000 AND $12,000 in receipts.

    I think they had a lot of legacy people from Continental who were automatically "1K" so they are trying to cut back.

    At 3 Million miles you become permanent 1K forever. At 4 Million miles you become permanent Global services. They tell me some fool has 17 million miles!

    I tell this story when I crossed 2 million miles.

    I was on a flight from Hong Kong to SFO then switching to fly down to LA.

    So, I arrive and walk over to my LA flight. I'm late getting through customs and I'm running to the other terminal.

    I see 4 flight attendants at the gate to board my plane. As I give them my boarding pass one of them says "congratulations for making 2 million miles! Unfortunately your upgrade to LA didn't go through..."
     
  17. amenasce

    amenasce Three Time F1 World Champ
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    What does it mean it didnt go through?
    You asked to be upgraded to biz class and they didnt because they didnt want or because it was full?
     
  18. TheMayor

    TheMayor Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    I had a certificate to upgrade to biz class and they took people ahead of me.

    United has a bizarre system to figure who does and doesn't get an upgrade. It's your status but more than that, it's how much you paid for each ticket that matters most over your "long term loyalty". I see the upgrade lists and sometimes there are 4 seats available and I'm number 17.

    C'est la vie!
     
  19. energy88

    energy88 Two Time F1 World Champ
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    Such terrible odds nowadays!
     
  20. rob lay

    rob lay Administrator
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    Dec 1, 2000
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    Has to be a market for an all first class experience airline. People on one side are sick of the airlines going downhill and coach amenities. On the other side it costs so much to charter. There has to be a sweet spot market right there somewhere.
     
  21. Texas Forever

    Texas Forever Seven Time F1 World Champ
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    I agree, but obviously no one else does. I don't give a damn about the free booze and the warm towels. Just decent seats and treat me like a human being.
     
  22. TheMayor

    TheMayor Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    Interesting. United just sent me a survey and that's what was on my top most desired.

    1) good comfortable seats
    2) good service

    I also mentioned good storage of your stuff because more planes are packed to the gills with bags now, even in 1st. When they put in bag fees people have done everything they can to avoid putting luggage under the plane. Where does it go? Overhead -- DUH!
     
  23. JOEA2

    JOEA2 Formula 3

    Feb 2, 2006
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    I agree with Continental having been a pleasure to fly. If you fly United, you will see Attendents with badges that read Ex-Con. Talk to them and they will tell you how much they miss Continental.

    Joe
     
  24. Texas Forever

    Texas Forever Seven Time F1 World Champ
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    The funny thing is Continental sucked until Texas Air brought them. (Anybody remember Texas Air?) Of course, the wheel turns again with United.
     
  25. It's Ross

    It's Ross Formula 3

    Jul 30, 2007
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    Ah, United. Still reminiscing about the glory days before deregulation when they were fat and happy. Now fat again, but still resentful and taking it out on paying customers.
     

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