It’s been no secret that I’ve not been a fan of United Airlines. I’d like to say that “we’re” not a fan, but honestly, Sharon has nothing to do with it; this grudge with the airline was totally my doing. After watching how management was running things and how they acted tone-deaf to everything happening (even before COVID), I was the one who made the decision not to book any more flights with the airline.
I made sure to mention this often, including in our yearly airline rankings where I regularly put United under Frontier and Spirit.
It was easy to avoid United as I had many other airlines to choose from that flew from Orlando to any destination in the US. Only once, during my horrible travel day, did I waiver and look for a United flight to get me from Washington DC to Austin.
At the time, I wrote about what could change my mind and allow me to search for United flights again.
What can change my mind? I don’t know. Once someone makes a decision about a company, it’s hard to change. I’d have to see them start treating their passengers better. No more stories about dead animals or beaten up passengers would be a good start. Maybe standing up and realizing that some of your employees need to be let go, or disciplined when they act poorly instead of sticking up for them, even when they might be wrong
Several months ago, a reader commented on my United post and it struck a cord.
Don’t you think it’s been enough time for you to stop bashing United continuously. Sure, they aren’t perfect, but every time you link back to your original post and I pull up all your complaints, you could insert the name of every other major carrier and they would all fit appropriately. You are willing to let everyone else get a hall pass for their faults but not United. It’s about time to move on.
The reason the comment was so spot on accurate was that I’d already come to the same conclusion. In 2022, United Airlines was acting no differently from any other airline. Gone were the stories of bloodied passengers and dead animals. Admittedly, things weren’t perfect but they weren’t any worse than you’d find on another carrier.
In addition, Sharon had already booked and flown a United segment.
It was a combination of airline scheduling and me realizing that things had changed that led me to book Sharon on a United red-eye flight from SFO-MCO. Well, that and the fact that we have a bunch of United miles sitting in our account from our canceled flights to Japan in ANA First Class.
United is currently the only airline that flies overnight from SFO-MCO and it wasn’t hard to use 18.5K United miles instead of paying for a ticket. When I asked Sharon if it was OK for me to book her on United, she said “Why not? You’re the one with the problem flying them, not me.”
Given that an award ticket doesn’t give you the best seat on the plane, she’d hopefully be sleeping for some of the flight and doesn’t need much legroom. I did manage to get her an aisle seat.
According to her, “It was a seat, on a plane, which got me from where I was to where I needed to go.”
I’d say that I’m done with my feud against United Airlines. Besides Sharon’s flight, United has the most flights from Orlando to the West Coast, which will come in handy for positioning flights on our trips with Singapore Airlines to Southeast Asia. I’m already searching for the best connections and trying to figure out if I’ll be able to check our bags on two different reservations (which should be allowed on Star Alliance carriers).
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7 comments
Remember this, all domestic carriers suck. A few (Delta) suck less than others
A United Airlines agent got me detained by German police in FRA some years back when I asked why they tagged my bag for a flight that I wasn’t ticketed on? She told me it was no big deal and I would get the bag back in a day or two. Since I was on a 3 hour connection, I firmly requested they they make an attempt to retrieve the bag and retag it. She called the cops and a couple of Guys with machine guns put me in a little room kept asking me why I didn’t want to travel with my bag?
I got my bag back a week later with the Swiss chocolate I bought for my wife melted all over the inside of my bag. I did not fly United again for many years.
I never found your rationale to be persuasive. It wasn’t as if they killed your pet or left you stranded somewhere without food or water. I find UA no worse than the other legacy carriers
The only airline I actively boycott is Ethiopian because their irrops handling at ADD hub was unacceptable. And of course I can easily avoid them as I have no need to fly via Africa.
UNITED rising
There’s no shortage of disaster stories about an experience on XYZ airline. In my experience it was Delta, and they certainly did a splendid job of turning me from a fervent loyalist into a person who will do almost anything to avoid them in a remarkably short time. I guess you have to look at more than one experience and how the airline treats your loyalty.
I know this is anecdotal- but between myself and my colleague we’ve had a rivalry for years between me, a United person, and he, a Delta person. We both hold the highest status you can that is publicly available (e.g. 1K on United) and have for almost ten years with our respective airlines and have managed to keep status even through the pandemic. He has universally had horrible experiences this year both with Delta operations and with Delta customer service (yes he can call the special line and get someone quickly, but when they try to connect him to someone who can actually FIX a problem he has then been on hold for hours). I, however, as cynical as I have been about United in the past, and even having gotten top status on British Airways and American to see how they work (Delta isn’t an option where I live and travel, generally), have been remarkably surprised at how little United has been messing up this year with operations and with customer service. In a year when many airlines are having meltdowns, and even more are using the pandemic as an excuse to gouge customers or treat them horribly, and/or not have enough staff to make anything work properly, United has come through. And NOT, for once, done the bare minimum. I was surprised.
Now they DO need to bring back a proper hot fudge sundae in business class because what they are serving now is an abomination.
Personally I avoid American like the plague. They have so many cancelled flights that I don’t want to take a risk.