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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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
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