Rod Paddock

Wow...not a very good story, but not at all surprising. Glad to hear at least you got on the flight you wanted.

I avoid United as much as possibly, mainly because flying through Chicago is a nightmare. Rarely do I have an uneventful flight through Chicago, and here is one such experience....a very BAD United experience.

I was trying to fly from Traverse City, Michigan to Chicago on a late afternoon back in May. We boarded around 4...and sat on the runway for almost 3 hours, because of rain and storms in Chicago.

Some of us wanted to get off, switch airlines, and try to get on the last Northwest flight to Detroit. Unfortunately, they would not let us off the plane until 5 minutes AFTER the final Northwest flight took off. So about 50 of us were stranded in Traverse City for the night.

To make matters worse, United cancelled the first two AM flights the next morning, so most of us did not reach our final destination until 24 hours later than expected. While I respect that they didn't want to fly into Chicago because of the weather, they should have given us the choice...but they kept stalling, claiming that Chicago was about to "lift the delay" any minute. Half the passengers were screaming to be let off the plane, but they wouldn't allow it.

When it's an option, I always chose Delta. Sure, they make mistakes, no airline is perfect. But I've consistently had problems with United, Northwest, and US Air...and have generally been pleased with Delta. I've heard favorable comments about SW, but I don't recall ever using them.

I totally can relate to this story about United...and I work for them. A few corrections...we are no longer "owners"...our stock fell out, and UAL management pulled reign since our contract expired 2000. (Our ESOP ran from 1994-2000). Also, when flights are overbooked there is always a standby list for paying revenue passengers...as well as us...non-revenue. But they could have given you a seat right away. With the threat of terminated pensions, more wage/work rule concessions, job outsourcing, and layoffs on the immediate horizon, I wouldn't expect things to get much better:)

you are retarded. No body gives a shit about you minor inconvenience. moreover,the two people put you on the wait list because you are obviousely a pushy and winey asshat.

Response to anon.

You said: you are retarded.

First, when you start a sentence, be sure to capitalize the first word. Second, this statement assumes facts that are not in evidence. Rod may be many things. A retard however, is not one of them.

You said: No body gives a shit about you minor inconvenience.

It's Nobody, not no body. Also, you meant to say your, not you. You suffer from pronoun displacement - as well as cerebral rectal inversion. Since you are not one of the intellectual elite, I will tart it up for you. You have YOUR head up your ass.

You said: moreover,the two people put you on the wait list because you are obviousely a pushy and winey asshat.

Again, make sure you capitalize that first word. With respect to rank, there comes privledge. Nowhere is that more true with frequent flyer miles. Airlines should reward loyal customers. All that said, Rod's comments are spot on re: the customer service, or lack thereof; with respect to airlines. Finally, the reason why the two people were put on the waitlist in no way is related to whether Rod is whiney or pushy. And by the way, he is. No doubt, he is a prima donna when it comes to travel. As his best friend I know this. As his best friend, I know he will admit it. What is moronic is the way you draw conclusions from a faulty premise. Ergo, it is you that is retarded.....

You shouldn't start a sentence with and, even if you do capitalize the first letter. You knew that though didn't you?

MT

I have flown over 750,000 actual miles on United and currently have over 100,000 Mileage Plus miles stored up. The airline that I put those miles on no longer exists. United has become totally disfunctional and I avoid them at all costs. They can't go to the scrap heap any time too soon for me. And I don't give a damn about using the "free miles" (or starting a sentence with 'And' for that matter).
RIP

It's been in Chapter 11 for quite a while.

Well, I am going to have to fly to Germany on United and would love to purchase some airmiles to upgrade to first class, anybody willing to sell around 75K?
Please email:hiannette@juno.com

It's not that UA suck's it the CEO Glenn Tilton that sucks.

When you call United Airlines customer service number its some poor fool in Mexico City. The English is bad and the services even worse. Try calling their corporate headquaters in Elk Grove, IL. The number is 847-700-4000.

To all of you complainers out there, I ask you this: How much did you pay for your ticket?....You get what you pay for! Flyers today are spoiled by the low fares and many have the attitude that they should be getting first class service despite the fact that they paid the equivalent of a bus fare (or sometimes less) for their ticket.

United employees are facing a third round of paycuts and are making less than half of what they were making 2 years ago. Would you be as exuberant about your job if you were in a similar situation?...

United Airlines doesn't get it. Delta's Song has free trivia games in seat backs and for an additional $5.00 per flight you get unlimited LIVE DirecTV and the remote control. Decent foor for $6.00. Nice seats.

Frontier Airlines has the same DirecTV and really good food.

United Airlines gives you TED-VISION on group monitors - filled with ads. $10.00 salads that make airport food look cheaper and better, and employees that are just looking for ways to burn their passengers. And if you lack status on the flight or are switching flights at the last minutes, you may not get the "Economy Plus" seating, which only gives you leg room equal to other airlines.

Being a Chicago passenger on this airline sucks. I am switching my FF to American.

Don't tell me that we get what we pay for. I pay less on discount airlines and get a-hell-of-a-lot more!

United Airlines continues to lose money after cutting everything. Just cut operations and call it a day!

I need to shift my flight time a later flight (4 tickets). The pricks at United want $200.00 a seat.

I swear to God I'll rent a car first before they see another DIME of my money.

Lamont

United's problem is the airlines TED. If someone offered me 1 million free Ted miles I would tell them to shove it. This is the worst airlines I have ever been on. They are rude, they lie, and they are unhelpful. My wedding dress and I were flying Ted. They would not let me use any part of the plane except the bins for my dress. As you know the bins are small. They told me at the gate to get a piece of tape when I got in and attempt to shove my dress in part of the bin then tape it so heavy luggage didn't got on top of it (my only carry on btw). I was informed by the stewardess that I couldn't use the tape I saw in the cabin because that was airlines tape. Airline tape...gee and I thought we were flying by bus. And I was on my own to figure out how to transport the dress. Of course that was nothing compaired to the trip back. After our flight was delayed three times and a take off time was yet to be determined, plus it was guaranteed that we missed the last flight into our home city and they informed us we would be stranded in D.C overnight we called United and got rerouted. We were told that with our flight mileage status that Ted airlines would be happy to pull our luggage off for us. Ted said if you get off this plane we are not going to help you get your luggage you will have to find it whenever it gets to your destination. We still left. Although our luggage did make it for 48 hours later we were pleased (not) to find out that only 4 things in our luggage were broken which cost us about $200 to replace and one item can not be replaced. My husband and I decided that we would rather not travel or travel by any other means including walking rather than fly Ted in order to get to our destination. BTW....Delta bent over backwards to get us home and they even found our luggage and brought it to our house.

I really don't like TED. I'd rather have the convential two-class or three-class planes, especially on long flights. A United employee told me that rumor is United wants to cut all first class for domestic travel and embrace the TED model. God, I hope not.

My luggage has been "delayed" since June 10th @ 3:00 PM (when my flight finally landed in Jacksonville). It is now June 13th - nearly the 14th and I've called 22 times and spent over 5 hours on the phone to get my luggage.

The company that I work for has a contract with United. I'll pay for my OWN flights going forward just so I won't have to deal with that "customer service", or lack thereof, anymore! I've been hung up on 3 times and told to "calm down".

I just want my luggage back - any chance of that happening? I doubt it!

I guess it's all a matter of perspective. I've had an absolutely horrible experience with all of the airlines that people love so much on this list: Delta was rude, American's plane was a P.O.S., and Northwest, well.... Sure, United is occasionally late, but so are all the other airlines. That's why it's important to check out the "on time" rating for each flight before booking your ticket.

Pamela--sorry to hear about your wedding dress story. After our honeymoon, my wife and I were flying United and as soon as they saw her wedding dress, they totally overlooked the fact that our bags were 20 pounds overweight... and the crew hung her dress in the closet during the flight (no, we didn't fly first class--I was a cheap bastard).

Of course, everything we're talking about is circumstantial. The bottom line is that United IS losing money and constantly in trouble... and if they don't fix it soon, even loyal passengers like me will call it quits.

I would like a direct email contact for customer service at United. I cannot find it on their site. i need to write to them, another airline and Travelocity and would prefer not to write separate emails. Yesterday, July 4, 2005, I was trying to board a return flight from Boston to LA and the person at the ticket counter basically accused me of printing my own tickets, told me they were fraudulent and wrote across them that they were voided in the computer. Never mind that my name and the rest of my family were already in their computer. (I guess I must have hacked in and put us in there). Since I bought my tickets through Travelocity they told me to talk to them, it was not their problem. Consequently I missed the flight and was stranded 3000 miles from home.

I called United to change my flight beacause my wife had a medical emergency. The ticket agent on the phone said there was only one seat left and the only seat available on this flight was in first class and all other flights were over booked. I had paid for a coach ticket and have never flown first, but I took the ticket as I really needed to get home. When the plane left there were three vacant seats in first and seven in coach. I feel like I got scammed. I will never fly that airline again. I hope the people who are mismanaging United all get aids and die or burn in a fiery rollover.

no, i wasnt allowed to board a frontier flight because i was too hungover from the night before. They made me get a hotel room and buy another ticket the next day.

You are so right. United deserves to go bankrupt. They treat customers like crap. In a nutshell. Non-profit org flying 16 people round-trip to Tokyo. Return flight is overbooked. Last minute, the non-profit group is invited to be the guests of the Natinal Football League and the Governor of Indiana to stay one extra night in Japan. Ask United if return tickets can be changed to one day later. Remember the flight we are currently booked for is overbooked. The one we are asking to change to is half empty. Guess what the answer was...NO! Well yes if you pay over $3000. Huh? This makes no sense. Poor PR. We told the NFL and the governor thanks but United Airlines says too bad to 13-year-old kids. They don't care if it helps them out in the long run or not. I quote the customer service rep: "We're in bankruptcy and we don't really care. We don't want to help anybody out." I said, "Even if it ends up helping you out by opening up needed seats on one flight and filling empty seats on another. Her answer: "I don't have time to mess with it and we don't care about a bunch of kids."

I haven't had horrible experiences with United but have had horrible experiences with Northwest. Do you know that now Northwest makes you pay for peanuts? So they charge you more than Southwest or JetBlue, they make you pay for your peanuts, they don't provide movies or any entertainment for long-haul flights. Why are they still charging the same fares?

I think eventually all the legacy carriers ie, United (I know it already has), Northwest, Delta, American, etc., will go bankrupt. A different business model will emerge, ie., Southwest, JetBlue, and become dominant. There is a proposed jet taxi service that is in the works. A little more pricey but maybe you don't have to deal with the cattlecar conditions in coach.

All airlines are destined for bankruptcy because consumers aren't willing to pay for what the actual cost of the flight is. Face it folks, the only price that hasn't gone up in years is airline ticket prices. Everything the airline uses (especially fuel) has gone way up. The employees benefits and salaries have gone down to try to make up the difference. And they still can't survive. Let's enjoy this consumers market while it lasts, but as airlines start liquidating under chap. 7, it will get much less competitive. Basically the prices and service are like Greyhound. You get what you pay for.

Has anyone heard of a 45 minute check-in time with Checked Baggage for United?

I've been a Premier member for years now and having flown for business over the last three years I have not had to check any bags. Because of new addtions to the family my wife and I haven't had a vacation where we could fly anywhere for over the last 2 1/2 years.

Last Thursday my wife and I arrived with checked baggage 40 minutes before the scheduled departure. Having lot's of miles with UAL, I had upgraded from Economy-Plus to 1st class.

At check in the UAL employee informed us we were under the 45 minute window and could no longer get on the plane with checked baggage - if we had carry-on luggage there would have been no problem. This was the first I had ever heard of this policy and discovered later there is no printing of it in any of the e-receipts or in the policy section of UAL's website. We were told this policy was a TSA policy and outside of UAL's control. To make matters worse the flight eventually was delayed 1/2 hour because the pilot was not there and we could have made the flight no problem.

I ended up talking to five different employees in five different departments that day, including the supervisor for customer service on duty, and we got five different reasons why this "policy" existed. We were told by one 32-year employee that UAL spends $55 million trying to find and return lost luggage.

To make a long story short, we were forced to go "priority standby" on the next flight, which we were assured would be "no problem" - no surprise - turns out they only had one seat available and the ticket agent actually asked if I wanted to go by myself without my wife.

By the way, our luggage made this flight! We didn't make our first flight becuase we were told our luggage couldn't fly without us and there it went on it's own. The customer service supervisor then told me now we could fly without our luggage because after missing two flights it's clear to UAL that we really want to go to Portland Maine and won't decide to just stay in Chicago forcing UAL to retreive our luggage and return it to us at their expense. This is Absurd!!! Not only that, we had reservations at an expensive B&B that doesn't take cancellations. (It's our 5 year wedding anniversary and we only had the weekend so why not splurge.) Furthermore, there were no flights from ORD to Portland, ME with available seats so after dealing with this geographically challenged customer service supervisor, my company's in-house travel agency discovered we could fly to Manchester, NH; pick up our luggage in Portland, ME and the drive to our destination in Bar Harbor, ME.

Unfortunately, due to the weather and the time we made it arrived in Manchester (7pm and we should have made it to Portland, ME originally at 1pm) we couldn't make it to Bar Harbor that night safely as there was tremendous fog making the highway very dangerous to drive, so we spent the night at a Best Western and made it to the B&B the next morning - we paid to stay in the B&B despite not being there unfortunately.

Thanks to United's random "45-minute policy" we wasted 25% of our one chance to vacation for the next year as my wife is due with another child. And after that marathon day on Thursday it also took us a long time to recover essentially wasting our trip.

I've learned never to fly United again. In fact, I feel like a fool to have still kept flying them when all of my 1K colleagues went to American Airlines a long time ago.

Any suggestions? I'd really like to let UAL have it, but suspect they couldn't care less as the company has so many financial issues still it is no longer in the business of keeping customers rather it's just trying to survive. They should liquidate the company now and just get it over with.

These are all interesting stories. Frankly I've seen it all. I was a 1k United customer until about 1999-2000 when they were at the height of their arrogance. Personnally, I saw the writing on the wall a long time ago - and switched to other airlines long ago simply because every time I flew United I got headaches from the lack of professionalism in all the service aspects of the business. You name it - I've seen it.
- flight attendants in first class bitching about United management while all their "customers" listened to it.
- A person "de-planed" as unrurly and attagonistic simply because he took issue with a flight attendent about whether he could put his jacket in a slot in the overhead. The attendent wanted the slot for some other potential bag-as overhead space was limited. But he got kicked off because he took issue with the fact that she didn't want him using the overhead.
-Lost baggage and no one servicing the lost baggage counter.
- Lost baggage and the person servicing the lost baggage counter was from some other department and didn't know how to work the computer system.
- seat assignments made online that were changed for no obvious reason.
- rude flight attendents.
- rude service people
- Long lines just about everywhere there's any kind of United counter.
- Zero communication regarding flight delays - just try and get a United rep to give you status of a delayed flight, and you'll probably get some kind of resistance.
- I've even chatted with United picketers outside O'hare. They were wearing C.H.A.O.S T-shirts. It stands for "create Havoc throughout the system" Apparently the brilliant plan was to have pilots / attendents not show up for a flight or two a day in order to create havoc. In their mind, this would somehow get their pensions back.
- I've had United close the door in front of my face 5 min before a flight because they had a "10 minute rule" at one time. Meaning if customers were not on board 10 minutes before departure, they couldn't get on.
- One time I was even awakened from a sleep by a United flight attendent only to be asked to fill out a customer service form.

Anyway, I could go on and on about diferent flight experiences. At this point, I just can't wait until the fire sale at United allows their gates and routes to get bought up by people that actually have a clue about running a business with a workable business model. It's a shame overall because they could have been a great business - but they lost focus on the core aspects of their business a long time ago.

By the way, I still fly about 3 weeks out of every 4 even after I kissed off United. I just fly other airlines. It's no wonder United is in bankruptcy when their best customers "business travelers" like myself have had such a pitiful experience with them. In all the years I flew them, I can point to only one superior service experience and that was with a Singapore based crew from Hong Kong to Bangkok (which is like a 5-6 hour flight). And I can tell you, if all of United was as customer conscious as that crew, then the airline would be making money hand over fist because I would be willing to pay for that kind of service. But, of course it has never dawned on anyone in United that customers might actually pay more for better service, just like it never dawned on American automakers that customers might pay more for better quality. The automakers eventually learned something from that lesson. For United, it's too late. Just roll the airline up in a giant carpet and put it out with the trash. The flying public will be better off the sooner they do.

Now I am all wound up talking about United. LOL. I actually had to fly them this past week because my regular carrier didn't go where I had to.

But here's a question...

Has anyone ever heard of a United flight attendent saying "excuse me" before, during or after she plows past you in the aisle way while you are trying to stow your baggage in the overhead?

My wife use to work at a major airport which United flies from, she told me they are the worst when it comes to handling bags. They have very poor handling service, and couldn't care any less if your luggage was fragile. They're also imfamous for losing your luggage

ARRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!.
I just got off the phone with a UA rep who put me through a living hell. I called UA directly trying to book a flight from FLL to ATL.(Using a previously cancelled ticket).
The initial message while I'm waiting says UA services 50 States.

I talk to some idiot on the phone that tells me UA does not service Atlanta. I tell the guy that his web site says different and give him the itinerary. I notice the carrier is a Canada Air Jet for the connecting flight from Dulles.

The fool begins to argue with me about that I cannot book a reservation with another carrier. I became so infuriated with this buffoon after telling him I want to use my cancelled ticket and to pay the difference.

The fool actually hung up on me.

I collected my thoughts after 15 minutes and called back, looking to speak with a Manager. To my disbelief, I get another agent who was able to book my itinerary without issue.

I normally read about these kind of things happening and am somewhat skeptical about what I read, first blaming the customer (thinking that there are some nasty customers out there), but this incident has definitely changed my perspective.

This will be my last flight I ever book on UA.

I use to work as a pilot for United airlines. I can only say that the belong in the great hangar in the sky, it cant happen too soon for me.

I work for United and am ashamed to admit it to anyone. The company is full of liars and cheats around every corner. The pilots are the biggest bunch of cry babies anyone has ever met. They seem to forget THEY are the ones who lost UAL thousands of corprate contracts, as well as the US Postal contract in the summer of 2000 when they went on strike. Gee is that why the company last quarter of profit was the second quarter of 2000??? They should issue the pilots skirts. They don't seem to get it,its there fault. And they have the nerve to negotiate away all the real employess pentions. By the way..who allowed the highjackers access to the cockpit on 9-11??

I work for UNITED in its Operations Center at its World Headquarters. We operate this Airline from this one room in Elk Grove Village, IL. Do you people understand that UAL operates 3000 flights daily? It's 56,000 employees work hard everyday and do their best under extreme and adverse conditions. Do any of you know what it takes to get a airplane in the air and have a safety rating as high as ours. Do you know who flys our troops to Iraq? Who trains the crew who fly Air Force One? You complain about service.........do you seem to realize how much fuel it takes to get a plane that weights hundreds of thousands of pounds in the air? Do you know what it takes to come up with a flight plan and deal with atmospherics? Do you know what it takes to route a fleet as big as ours? We have a fleet larger than any other airline, we have B747-400, B777-200, B767, B757, A320, A320(TED), A319, B737-300, B737-500.

I read that someone was complaining about not being put on a flight that they did not originally pay for. Why should united bend over backwards for you to go on a earlier flight when you purchased a ticket for a later one. If you know you wanted to go earlier then by the ticket for the flight you want! Do you not realize that when a plane goes out with empty seats it is due in part to people like yourself who have seats on that flight but go on an earlier flight. I think you should have to pay way more than what we charge now.

I think some of you need to think about what your saying because you sound like winning little girls. I mean just be happy that your flying. Trust in fact that the price you paid for your ticket does in no way equate to even the fuel cost of that aircraft.

United OPB
In your post I can see the root of the problem. I don't care what it "takes to fly an airplane." What I do know is that other airlines (both US and European) have rarely been able to duplicate the abysmal service and obvious duplicity of UAL. These other airlines seem to be able to carry out the difficult tasks you outline without problem. I have had the misfortune of flying UAL 8 times since 2000--6 of those times with major problems that I've only encountered once with another airline. I for one will be partying when UAL finally arrives at the chapter 7 it so deserves--cheers.

Comments like those from United OPB are the root problem with UAL. Travelers pay UAL so they do not have to worry about what it takes to get a plane in the air. If I wanted to care about it, I would buy my own plane. Get a grip on what customer service and employee pride entails, then UAL just might succeed!

Here are the active e-mail addresses for the Corporate Management at United Airlines.

Larry.deshon@ual.com
dennis.cary@ual.com
Sara.fields@ual.com
paul.lovejoy@ual.com
ken.feldman@ual.com
Kenneth.feldman@ual.com
cindy.Szadokierski@ual.com
deborah.porter@ual.com

theiving baggage people. thats one great reason i am crossing my fingers and hoping that united dies a slow and painful death

This is the first time I've heard of the 45-minutes check in procedure, too. My friends and I supposed to fly from ATL to DEN with UAL last sunday. The flight is scheduled for 7:30am. We got there around 6am, plenty of time to check in and get to the gate (so that's what we thought). When we got to the airport, the waiting line was VERY VERY LONG!!! (And why, because they only operate 2 out of 5 computers for self-check-in with lugguage, and 3 people working there) So we waited in the line until around 6:50am (around 40 min before our flight), I approached one of the agent and asked if he could help us out since we've been waiting in line for a while, and I was afraid that we might miss the flight. To my shock, his response was "Sorry, we already cleared the flight. I can't do anything about it." Apparently, at least 15-20 people in that line missed this flight along with us because of this 45-minutes check in procedure.

So we had to get back in line and waited for the agent to put us on stand by list for different flights. We were very concerned since we only had 3 days to spend for our vacation and the next flights were at 5pm and 6pm. According to the customer service, "All these flights are overbooked, it is very unlikely that you will be able to fly out today." So we asked what happened if we couldn't get on the plane today and decided to go ahead and cancel our entire trip, can we somehow get our lugguages back? (At this point, we didn't even want to think about refund) I just wanted to laugh when I heard the answer, "If you go, your bag go with you. If you don't go, your bags will go. And if you don't get on the flight you stand by for, you have to pay for the cost to get your lugguage back"!!!

So finally, we had to be on the stand by list and wait for UAL to call our name to get on the next flight. When they called my name, I was told that there was only 1 spot left, and I had to either go by myself, leaving my 2 friends here at the airport, or give this seat to someone else. So we decided that I had to go since our lugguages would definitely be there whether we made it or not. Plus, I had to go deal with all the reservation cancellation for the trips that we missed. When I got the the plane, there were AT LEAST 5 open seats in the coach class that were open. WHY CAN'T THEY JUST PUT MORE PEOPLE ON THIS PLANE AND GET THEM TO THE DESTINATION!!!

Without going through another long tiresome chronology, I recently had an ABYSMAL experience on a multi-city journey with the old "Friendly" Skies. After flying in excess of 1,420,000 with this flying bus company, I was treated to: 2 hour check in times, delayed/lost/damaged baggage, crappy attitudes from employees ("Its unexpectedly busy today" (sole UAL baggage check-in employee at LAX on Friday 3/10/06 at 3pm), $5 charges for a bag of stale chips, one flight where 1/2 of all passengers had delayed bags after an announcemnt was made about the cargo hold being mostly empty.... I could go on. These are all examples of a business in failure.

The simple truth is that they dont give a shit because the customers dont have much choice. Dissatisfied customers find alternatives; for the service I would be happy to go Greyhound. I also would be happy to pay 3x the fare to get reliable, credible service.

Anyone want my UA miles? I wouldnt give them away to charity beacuse that would be cruel.

OPBiatch... you're so f'd up. Just like the company you work for.

Here's our fun run. My wife and two daughters are down in Brazil. They are dual citizens and flew out on their Brazilian passports while their US passports were being readied (daught now 6 needed a new on, wife, now a citizen, needed one too). The US Passport agency screwed up and didn't ship them back. They finally caught the error and FedExed them that day... still too late to make the Monday flight.

I call the friendly folks at United and confirm that they can change their flight (of course, for a $150 fee per ticket), and I made the arrangements to get their passports to them. Their Brazilian passports didn't have exit visa's, which would have taken 2 more weeks. I call United back and bingo, no "L" (loser) fare class tickets are available for 1 more week! Well... they had 2 but not a 3rd for my 2 1/2 year old daughter. that being the case, they'd gladly sell me a seat for her for an additional $500.00!!

So, now we're down to semantics. I ask "does she get to sit in a better seat than her sister and mother?", "No". "So, it's the same seat.", "Yes." "So you do have seats available...", "Yes, sir, just not at that price." I find my self arguing to pay the ridiculous $150 price... hell, the damn plane was empty. Why not serve a customer? What would be the issue with just simply moving my wife and daughters flight back a couple of days? What's the issue with freeing up another "Loser" fare so my 2 1/2 year old daughter can get back to her dad?

So I ask for a supervisor... fatal mistake. After 20 minutes on hold, I get this life support system for a cu^! on the phone... she now tells me it will be 2 weeks, or... I can pay. Up until this point, I was EXTREMELY POLITE. I asked her if there was any way we could get my family home. "Not without paying the additional $500.00". Then this biatch (probably our very own OPB) stops talking to me... then she tells me that I can hang up and call an agent (she didn't want to hang up because that's a no-no at a call center).

My wife tries United in Brazil the next morning. Guess what? She got a human there who was interested in helping a lady who would be schlepping through airports with two little kids in tow. Guess what? They got her on a flight, on the day we requested. There's one extra leg but my girls are coming home. No thanks to you OPBiatch and the rest of you pieces of crap that work at United!! Bite Me!

Thanks for the e-mail addresses!!!

After reading all of this, my experience this evening with United seems like a common occurence. After an unexplained delayed flight out of DC, and two cancelled flights out of Chicago, I arrived at my destination behind schedule and with no baggage. Now, I am trying to call United to locate my baggage and every 1-800 number they have either doesn't work or has some long-winded, frustrating voice recognition system that doesn't seem to understand anything I say, even though I have a pathetically boring Washington, DC accent. So, I sit here in my hotel room with no clean underwear, no toothbrush, and none of my business clothes for my meeting tomorrow. I will NEVER fly United again. They can take my numerous frequent flyer miles and shove them up their bankrupt asses.

As a tourist in the US I broke my knee and I need surgery ASAP, back in my country, Argentina.
United will not change my flight to because my ticket is a mileage award one. They say they run out of award seats, but if I purchase a new ticket I can fly back soon.
I even have the doctor's documents saying I need surgery soon, but they don't care!!!
It makes you wonder if they know anything about customer service.
Do I need a lawyer?

I had suck a rough experience with united I started my own website about it.

http://www.airlinerage.com

I tried to fly from redding ca to la on march 3 and was 2 minutes late for the 30 min prior to boarding and the employee was in the rear and not as his desk waiting to serve me the customer. I was denied enterance to my flight due to the fact that no was there to check my bag. When I offered to leave my bag I was still denied entrance as the pilots were outside smoking. I was force to fly to la from sac int national airport the next morning and the airport was 3 hours away. I hope this makes it to united corprate office because I WILL NEVER FLY UNITED AGAIN.
086591

I cannot believe the reservations agents they have answering calls now at United's call center. As a Premier Exec I fly a lot with United. As of recent, every time I've called the Premier reservations, I'm switched over to India. You would think someone who flies over 50,000 miles a year with a company deserves better service than a person who does not have a working command of English, doesn't have the most basic information about the airline, and really is not even familiar with the names of the cities United serves. I have not had a phone call with an agent recently that has been less than 15 minutes. Even a basic call to get a seat assignment kept me on the phone for 30 minutes. Truely unbelieveable. I wrote a complaint letter to United and I got the standard response: it's all due to market forces, blah, blah, blah. If it's not providing basic customer service to its loyal customers, I can only imagine the treatment a non frequent flyer gets. Outsourcing is for the birds!!

I am currently in a horrible battle with United over a $150 voucher I received when a flight I was on was delayed for 6 hours. I called the reservation number and told them my travel requirements. The woman said I would have to pay the difference between the flight cost and the voucher so I gave my credit card number and she said I would have to mail in the voucher and some information, which I did. I then received a call saying the information I provided was incorrect (I wrote it down while speaking with the rep). So after explaining the situation twice they decided to book a new reservation. I told them the dates and times of the flights the rep had given me (not to mention I had made my plans around) the rep told me that those flights were run by US Air and I could not use my voucher. SO long story short I have now talked to reservations 4 times and customer service twice each time they tell me the other division is responsible for rectifying this situation. Also they can not communicate across these divisions. Does anyone else think this MIGHT be part of the reason United is having so many issues? Communication is essential in the business world and these guys can't/won't even talk to each other! Anyway they want me to take another flight, with a layover and I would have to pay 3 times as much out of my pocket for a mistake they made. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can get this issue taken care of; a direct line to someone important, an address to send a letter, etc?!?!?

I had a horrible experience over the weekend flying United. This was my first time, since I was always using Northwest. I think that the airline industry is HORRIBLE in the US in general and without airlines, there is no reliable/efficient train system either. So withthought both, you can be stranded in an airport sometimes for hours.

I was supposed to arrive late night friday to attend a relative's graduation on saturday morning. Couple of canceled flights and delays plus some annoying/rude customer service i finally arrived in destination 24 hours later. I missed the whole graduation waiting in the airport without the ability to do anything about it. Even worse at the end they canceled my return flight for some reason.

I just don't understand how United can still be in business. I had the worse experience ever. Whenever you complain or ask for some re-direction, their claim is always {"weather problems"). After a while of that it becomes hard to believe anything they are saying.

I WILL NEVER FLY UNITED AGAIN!!!! I will be laughing the day it goes out of business.

I don't fly united anymore because i was told they cannot afford their own mechanics to fix their airplanes, and they have to send there jets to mexico to get repaired.
I don't feel safe!

Yet another reason why United Airlines is destined for Bankruptcy.
United Airlines FREE Ticket
If United Airlines offers you a Free Ticket if you give up your seat because they overbooked the flight...Think twice before you accept. In March of this year I was flying home from a company business trip. While I was waiting for my flight to board the "Friendly" voice came over the P.A. system asking for volunteers to give up their seats because they overbooked the flight. I jumped up from my seat and made it over to the counter (first in line). The United Airlines representative advised she would give me a "Free" roundtrip ticket anywhere United Airlines flew (domestic 48 states) and can be used anytime within 1 year from issue date. Jumping at the offer (knowning that my wife would like travel with me on business trips) I accepted the offer. The whole time I was sitting in the airport waiting for the next available flight I kept reminding myself of the rewards I would have next time when my wife could travel with me. So the wait didn't seem that bad.

June of this year I was sent out again on a business trip. This time it was off to Georgia. My wife wanted to go and see the history landmarks. So I called United Airlines to make arrangements for my wife to travel along using my "Free" roundtrip airline ticket. I spoke with reservations and informed them that I had this "Free" ticket and written on the voucher was "Transferable". Knowing this I knew my wife could use this ticket. After providing my "Mileage Plus" membership card and dates and times of travel I was informed that I could NOT use this "Free" ticket. Puzzled I asked, Why? I was informed that the "Free" tickets/vouchers were to be used in a "Q" class rating of travel. "Q" class rating, what is that I asked? I was informed that "Q" class was a form of economy seating. Furthermore, he goes onto say all the economy "Q" class seating were taken on the plane. With this I quickly got on the computer and checked the flight for open seats. While still having reservations on the phone I noticed the plane was only half full. As a matter of fact from mid-section to the rear of the plane was empty. I asked him why she couldn't sit in an empty seat. He states those weren't economy seats. I know your asking yourself the same question...a seat is a seat. As long as its not First Class....coach is coach. Well in the United Airlines hand book I guess not. Each seat as he explained has a classification assigned to it. Crazy I know. But it appears just to be another way of United getting out of fulfilling their "Free" ticket obligations.

Upset with this information I hung up and called customer service. Yep you guessed it. I got someone on the phone who couldn't speak ENGLISH. After several attempted to explain my situation I got frustrated and hung up. Calling back a second time in hopes of reaching someone that spoke ENGLISH. Once again received another person who could barely speak the english language. I asked where they were located and they said, INDIA. India I asked? Why would United Airlines outsource their customer relations to India. Wow, I was amazed. Frustrated I called reservations again and was told the same information. I then asked well is there another flight my wife could get on in the same day that this ticket would be good for? He stated NO. The nearest flight for her would be on the 20th. The same day I returned from my trip. I asked now why would my wife want to go on a business trip with me only to leave for the trip when I was returning. Yet another way of United Airlines getting out of their responsibility of "Free" ticket rewards.

Conclusion: I went out of my way to assist United Airlines when they overbooked their flight. Now that the flight was cleared United has turned its shoulder on me and won't honor their "Free" ticket. SHAME ON YOU UNITED AIRLINES. SO I GUESS YOUR NOT THE "FRIENDLY SKIES".

United Airline deserves to go out of business. Every - and I mean every - policy seems designed to benefit THEM - not the customers who keep their sorry asses in business. Too many to mention here, but I'll cite 2 - change fees - NOTHING in their change fee policy is rational, from the ridiculous rates ($200 to change any portion of a flight) to cancellation ($200 to cancel, no matter what the reason - death, for instance) - as well as their policies which state that if a change is made, agents may only change UP to a higher fee, not to a lower one. Who in the hell in some boardroom thought up that screwjob?

I tore up my United card, and while they are the primary airline in my city, I would sooner crawl on my knees to a destination than to go through the horseshit I went through today with them over a simple change. What assholes.

We purchased a ticket for our daughter to travel today (June 27, 2006)from Seattle to Palm Springs. Her flight from Seattle to San Francisco was about 4.5 hours late, so United personnel put her on a flight to LAX instead. Then, she was to catch Flight 6124 to Palm Springs. Instead, the flight was cancelled, and she was told she could take a bus that was being arranged, or she could try her luck tomorrow evening, but no accommodation would be provided.
We did not purchase a Greyhound ticket, and a 2.5-3 hour bus trip (with at least an hour wait for the bus to arrive at LAX) is not an equal substitute for a flight lasting less than an hour.
We hadn't flown United for nearly a decade due to the horrible service we received on our last flight to the east coast, where the service was so awful as to be comic. Now, we're thinking that maybe we should avoid this airline completely in the future.
Oh, and to top off the fact that my wife gets to wait until 2 or 3 in the morning now to drive our daughter the hour to our home, our daughter's luggage will evidently NOT be on the bus with her, so she can enjoy her vacation minus her luggage, for at least a while.
Thanks United for messing up our vacation with our daughter. I am requesting a partial refund through the web service that we purchased the ticket through. I'm sure United won't do anything. The only good thing about this experience so far was that United's Seattle personnel tried to get our daughter a flight that would work. Unfortunately, the rest of the company did its best to render their work useless.

I saw this website while looking up flights and I thought it was quite interesting. My Father was a Captain for UAL for 37 years. Due to 9-11 and the horrible events that occurred, he lost every penny from his pension, as did all the other retirees, he lost his stock, and now as a 62 year old with cancer, has to work full-time in order to put food on the table for my Mother and himself.

Everyone seems to be complaining about the lack of good customer service, standby operations, cancelled flights, etc. Yet not a single one of you has stopped to think about why. If you worked for a company that had horrible owners, would you be very nice? I have waited in the lines before and listened to customers yell, scream, and threaten these customer service representatives and even flight attendants, and I know these employees had not done anything wrong. Yes, there are exceptions, and when you encounter someone truly rude, get their full name, write a letter, and watch what happens. UAL does take care of their passengers, I've written a letter before about a flight attendant, in return I received a formal letter of apology and a free ticket.

The passengers/customers are just as responsible for this problem. Would you be happy if you put in years with a company only to find out that the owners have taken away all of your benefits, your pay has been cut, and your stock is gone? All so they can keep their own pensions and high paying jobs.

Every Airline loses baggage, cancels flights, waits on the runway for hours, or arrives late, it's an every day occurence. It's not only UAL. Some of you think American Airlines is better? Talk about horrible customer service. How about North West? I call them North Worst. Southwest charges me flight cancellation/change fees too, about $200 worth. They have lost my baggage every time I have flown with them. Each one of you should quit complaining and acknowledge the fact that every Airline is under stress due to the events of 9-11. Try acting compassionate and sympathetic to the fact that each employee of every Airline is dealing with this pressure every day.

Omg - I have to respond to Kirsten's post. What planet do you live on?!?! You're blaming United's horrid customer service on 9/11 (which happened almost 5 years ago to EVERYONE, not just United) and yelling, screaming customers? Why do we yell and scream? Because United treats it's customers like pond scum - and that includes the "customer service" people! They don't give a flying crap if you missed your connection because your first flight was late because an attendant was too hung-over to be on time! In fact, the connection is sitting right there, but, hey, we closed the doors 2 minutes ago and all you people have to miss your connecting flight - except your luggage, which is going on without you. Each and every person at United had a different explanation (i.e., lie) as to why they wouldn't let you on the plane, why you couldn't get your luggage, and like you Kirsten, blamed everyone from the TSA, the FAA, Homeland Security, the bosses, the unions, the President, the pope - you name it. Combine that with the "not-my-problem" attitude you get from everyone working there, and you wonder why people freak out?!?!? United does NOT take care of it's passengers - I think it's in paragraph 6 of their union contract to treat passengers like crap. You are so typical of United, blaming the PASSENGERS for the fact that your union and bosses suck, and taking it out on them.

Last month my fiance's grandmother unexpectedly passed and she needed a last minute flight back home to Canada. After spending hours with customer service with both United & Northwest in hopes of getting a bereivement fare she finally hung-up and tried a low ball offer on priceline. Thankfully she got the price offered, much less than the one day advance price of $1500. Not sure how they keep saying the "lowest" fares are always through United.com, but that's a different rant.

Flying out there the trip went fine. Even the connection through Chicago went ok. Thank God since the funeral was the next morning. Coming home was different. Her flight into Chicago landed 30 minutes early but they circled the airport twice just looking for a gate to park at. Then they just sat the plane on the tarmak and waited - for 2 hours! She watched her connection flight back away and leave without her.

Of course almost everyone missed their connections. The customer service counter at O'Hare was so long that took her another 90 minutes. Meanwhile missing another flight home. Then United told her to fly standby on a flight leaving in 10 minutes. The gate agents laughed when she got there after the door was already shut. Eventually she got on the last flight out that night. A full 8 hours later than planned.

A big mess that could've all been avoided by just backing a plane away from a gate for 30 minutes. Or taking a stairway out to the plane and letting people walk outside to the terminal. (Something that American did for me in Dallas under a similar situation.)

The kicker is that United offered a $100 voucher for her time. Too tired to complain about how cheap that offer was she took it. Now she wants to go home for Mom's birthday. She tries to use the voucher. Of course, to use it she had to book the higer fare seat which is more than $100 over the cost of the cheaper one. It's all coach seating. Again, where's the difference?

I don't hate United alone. American, Delta, Northwest, etc. all have similar issues. What kills me is how United employees seem to go out of their way to bring the company down themselves. They knew sitting that plane out there would make people miss flights. They did it anyway and made zero effort getting those people off the plane. It's an airline of 56,000 people saying, "that's someone else's job." Pathetic.

I'm not going to go into the details, but suffice to say, 3 delays and numerous other problems including awful customer service has led me to avoid United at all costs!

We have used American for years and our company has moved their contract to United. What a mistake. I have made three trips to Asia, flying through Chicago. On the return trip they seem not to put HALF of the passenger’s bags on. I had a 3 hour layover at Chicago. My bags arrived from my previous flight from Shanghai. I pass picked them up went to Customs and gave them back to United. They had three (3) hours to get them to the gate. When I called everyone was apologetic but not one person could tell me when if ever I would get my bags. I don’t know about you but I don’t have the time to sit around at the house waiting from someone to deliver the bags. This is the last straw. I will NEVER fly United again and will complain to our company to get them to move the contact back to American.

4 flights, 4 problems. I try to fly out of Nashville to Portland Oregon on Tuesday afternoon, for a Wednesday morning job interview. I get to the airport, and am immediately told that my flight (7100) has been cancelled, and the next flight is 2 hours later, and I'll get into Portland at 11. Not TOO bad I think, I'll survive. So, they fly me to Chicago instead of the Denver flight I signed up for. Well, we make it to Chicago, and we sit on the tarmac. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I'd think that UNITED would know that a UNITED flight containing a bunch of folks looking for connecting flights was held up, and MAYBE hold the connecting flights for a few minutes. Well, I finally make it to the gate, and sprint down to the gate for my connecting flight. 3 minutes to go by the clock on the wall at the gate. They don't care, and boot me to the next flight. So, now, I get into Portland at almost 1 AM, remember I have an 8 AM job interview.

OK, fast forward to Thursday morning. I get to the airport early, stand in a horrible line, and get to the touchscreen check-in terminal with 47 minutes to go before the flight departs. (How do I KNOW it was 47 minutes you ask? Because the time is displayed in the upper right corner of the screen). Swipe my credit card, and am told that I can't check in. The woman pacing back and forth to help with problems says it's because they have a 45 minute cutoff. I point to the screen, and say "I'm *47* minutes early, what's the problem? "It must be a computer problem, you'll need to talk to someone at the counter, go stand in THAT line." So, I go stand in the line with the other people who were to be on my same flight, and we discuss how odd this is. Well, when the couple in front of my approaches the counter, and tells the woman of their problems with the computer, she sighs loudly and proclaims "This is the last one of these that I'm doing for this flight!". I guess customer service is just too taxing. So, I get another woman, and she tells me that the 45 minute cut-off has passed, so I'll have to get the NEXT flight, and proceeds to book me on it. I protest, and she says that I can TRY to make that flight, and that she'll have my baggage put on it (the earlier flight), just in case. So, I get my info at the counter, and sprint down, only to find out that I've been randomly selected for the anal probe. I have to stand in a HUGE line waiting on my turn to go through the "puffer/sniffer" machine, and to have my bags wiped to check for explosives. I look around in this line, and realize that all the people that I was in the "special line" with at the United counter are in it with me. (The couple in front of me in the counter line, were in front of me for the puffer). I go through the checks, and make it to the gate with 5 minutes to go. Door closed, woman at the gate couldn't care less. We pointed out the time, she didn't care. So, I caught the next flight to Denver this time. Get to Denver, find the departing flight gate, go to the gate, and try to get a boarding pass. "Sorry, this flight is booked, so I'll have to put you on standby". At this point, I pointed out that my trip had consisted of 4 flights, and that they had figured out a way to screw up every one of them. The guy at the gate, imagine this now, didn't care, and told me that I should have gotten to the airport 2 hours ahead of time. (I figure it wouldn't have mattered, they'd have figured out a way to screw THAT up as well). So, we (the folks on standy), sit there, and watch all the people with boarding passes get on the plane. Then, we hear talk about asking for volunteers, and then we see 5 people get off the plane, and then a couple of minutes later, (while the 5 people are at the counter), the plane departs. We go from high, (thinking we were gonna get on the place when the volunteers starting emerging from the jetway), to low when we see the plane leave. So, I start talking to one of the ladies who got off the plane. The reason they had to ask for volunteers? They had overbooked the flight, and issued boarding passes for seats TWICE! They had 5 people with boarding passes for seats that someone was already in! Talk about incompetence! These people got the "good luck trying to use 'em" free round trip vouchers, some of them got 1st class upgrades for the next United flight, while the standbys, and my lady friend got moved to Frontier. (This was all for the infamous flight 7100 that had been cancelled on me on Tuesday).

I called the company that I interviewed with's travel agency, and told them the story, they weren't surprised. I asked them to do ME a favor, and NEVER use them again.

As for me, I've been lucky, I've flown since the late 80's, and NEVER had a problem before this. (Of course there is the delayed flights, and a cancelled flight here or there, but never 4/4).

So, that's it for me. I'll celebrate the day they go down the drain. NEVER again.

We've had issues every time we've flown United. First, a flight got cancelled (who knows why) and of course they lost our luggage. Another time a flight was cancelled because they didn't have a pilot. Who offers a service without knowing someone will be there to provide the service (i.e. a pilot!)? After the cancellation I was put on another flight that circled the airport for half an hour and then landed where we started because the weather was too bad. Then, of course, they cancelled the flight and lost our luggage. I had to present at a professional conference in jeans I had worn the day before while trying to travel with United. This last time we tried United we were only going to take carry-on baggage because we know United is notorious for losing checked baggage. However, we had a carseat we couldn't take on the plane. We had to check it. Of course, it got lost. Trying to find the luggage through the United automated maze was a headache. Then, the customer service number only gives you a fax number where you can fax complaints. Also, when we arrived at the airport the flight was "on time." However, the crew had gotten in late the night before and FAA guidelines said they had to wait fourty minutes before the flight in the morning could take off for enough rest time for the crew. However, they couldn't just let us know when we arrived at the airport that the flight was delayed. They didn't even tell us until the time the flight was supposed to leave! We were all sitting around waiting to board, wondering what was going on. It was horrible! We decided no more second chances.

My United experience

- Going on honeymoon from Heath row to San Fran, San Fran to LA, LA to Vegas, Veges Back to LA, LA to Heathrow

- Heathrow to San Fran. Booked a hotel to stay overnight in Heathrow to be at the check-in desk early. Got to the UA check in desk 3 hours before flight departure. UA check-in assistant tells me ALL my tickets have been cancelled!!! Wife gets upset. Check-in assistant re-instates first ticket journey and then tells us we cannot sit together. Wife (nervous flyer) starts to cry. Check-in assistant tells her to not be so silly. Speak to the supervisor. He puts a nervous flyer and myself next to an emergency exit door. We deal with it.

- San Fran to LA, Get there 3 hours before hand. ONE check-in assistant desk open for 100s of people with paper tickets!!! Get to the desk just in time. Oh your tickets have been cancelled. Re0instates the rest of the tickets but cannot give me any seat allocations.

- LA to Vegas, Get there 3 hours before check-in. Again 1 check-in assistant for people with paper tickets. 2 and half hours in a queue. Gate staff will not move people so I can sit with my wife. Flight over booked.

- Vegas to LA, Get the 3 hours before check-in. 2 check-in assistants for 100's of people with paper tickets. A flight had been cancelled (not ours) which was causing chaos at the desks. Got halfway through the line and one assistant disappears. Not replaced. Checked in 20 minutes before the flight leaves. Has to run to the gate. Cannot allocate us seats together. Sit on the runway for 30 minutes.

- LA to Heathrow, Get there in the nick of time. Run to the gate. The flight is overbooked by 12 people. We offer to take a latter flight in exchange for an upgrade. Cant do upgrades as the not available. We check availability and they are available. Cant be bothered to argue. Rude staff at gate. Cant allocate me seat until 12 people have accepted a lame $600 travel voucher. Get a set miles away from my wife on a 10 hour flight.

I have flown BA, Easy Jet, RyanAir... loads of different airlines.

United are the worst company I have ever dealt with. i hope they sink and I will never use them again.

I won't go into details because United doesn't deserve my time. Bottom line, United cancelled a flight and refused to refund the ticket or give a voucher for another flight.

Goodbye United!

We arrived 2.5 hours before our flight.  We attempted to use the auto ticket retriever.  We were told to see attendant. The lady asked for our passports and said where are you going... my brother answered to Denver.  She said you are not in here... I said we have a booking reference and I have my receipt/Itinerary showing we are booked on a flight from San Diego to Denver and then on to Saskatoon.  The lady said why didn't you tell me you were going to Saskatoon...I did not respond to her comment because she asked it with a lot of sarcasm.  My bother and I are very tall and we asked if we could get isle or exit seats. She said yes it will be 40.00 per person for the upgrade.  I said we didn't want and upgrade we asked for an isle or exit seat she then said their are known available.  She then said that she wanted 40.00 per person for our extra bags.  My brother said to her that we have already paid for our golf clubs when we reserved our flights.  She said that we booked with air Canada and that had nothing to do with her and that it will be 80.00 for the golf clubs. My bother and I were very upset.  This lady would not even look at our Itinerary.  My bother took 100.00 bill and threw it on the counter, the lady said if you have a problem with paying you can bring it up with President Bush. I made a comment about her customer service skills and then asked to see a manager... she then said fine...she quiet printing our tickets picked up the phone and called someone... We waited and waited... then the lady went over to another agent and they both were on the computer.  The agent said to Christina that we shouldn't be charged for our golf clubs.  I had gone down to the end of the counter and asked another agent what was the girls name that was looking after us, she said Christina...  All the other agents had name tags except for Christina. Christina came back to her window threw 100.00 back at my brother and said I have decided not to charge you for your bags...My brother and I were very upset at this time I said to Christina that I had heard the other agent say to her that we shouldn’t be charged for our golf clubs so don't make it sound like you are doing us a favors, my brother said at the very least you should be offering us an apology... Christina then took our flight tickets tossed them on the counter and said if that what you want to hear I’m sorry...we then left because we would have missed our flight if we would have waited any longer for a manager...

I feel that my brother and I were treated very badly by this individual and our flight home was very uncomfortable... not only did we have our experience with Christina to think about... she managed to put us in the very back of the plane up against the window and middle seat... neither seat able to decline....seats 20 E and 20 F.  My brother and I get together every year and fly down to San Diego to see my other brother in Yuma AZ.  We have never ever been treated this bad or even close.

I sent this document to United Airlines and they thanked me and apologized on behalf of the airline but would not offer any compensation…I will not be flying with United again and I encourage everyone else to consider flying on another airline