United Airlines

Recently travelled from Australia to US and back this included both international (SYD-LAX) and domestic (LAX-BOS) returning LAX-MEL was apprehensive as had read critical reviews however my experience was positive in all aspects. Found cabin staff both helpful and friendly helping passengers with difficulties in placing on board luggage this was more a problem on the domestic legs probably because people try to avoid checking in luggage and therefore push the limits with carry ons I note that some Aussie domestic airlines are cracking down on this so perhaps other airlines will follow. Anyhow just wanted to relay my positive experience with United and would recommend them for a good service at good price. Loved the "Dreamliner" on the return flight!

IAH to DXB via IAD IAD to DXB 5 hours late no help from ground staff I thought that their rules about lengthy delays evidently not on United sat in first class lounge for 7 hours. I have never seen such a pathetic excuse for a lounge the snacks were questionable and the whole lounge is out dated and appears dirty. Cabin staff were clearly annoyed by the delay imagine I paid for this my seat area was sticky and dirty flight attendant was un co-operative when I asked her to clean it. I was never once addressed by my name the crew clearly thought that they were doing me a favour by even being on the flight. Food was worse than I've ever seen even for a United flight. Fortunately I took my own food we were told Restroom was reserved for crew so the 2 restrooms for business class had to serve first class. All food was prepared by bare hands and galley person eat food as she prepared it also sneezed and even scratched her head whilst preparing food. Other airlines offer pre packed nuts etc. considering the choice of other airlines that fly from the US to UAE United is way behind. Looking at Emirates lounge in Dubai or BA lounge in London puts United at the back of the line. I did arrive in Dubai and so did my luggage but the trip was far from first class and worse still some of the original crew were on my return flight and still equally annoyed by having to perform their duties. Cabin staff are obviously disgruntled and it shows I wonder what happened to the old continental crews because before the merger continental really wasn't that bad as airlines go. Today's first class on United is not even as good as the old business first on continental. Worse still one of our group who had suffered 15 hours from Dubai to IAD was down graded from IAD to IAH because of over booking. I've learnt my lesson never again with United.

Having spent the last 7 weeks travelling around the world business class with various airlines we were very excited about our business first class flights firstly Honolulu to San Francisco and then Newark to Edinburgh on our journey home. The disappointment started with entry to the lounge on both occasions where no substantial food was offered. Carrots by the truck load and processed cheese on the tiniest crackers did not appeal so we had no option but to head back out to a food retailer for a sandwich at further expense (having spent £6000 on tickets already for this allegedly upgraded service). Liquid refreshments are limited with my husband being charged for a third drink when I had not even had one! It would appear that United Airlines Cabin Crew Bar Staff and Club reception staff attend regular classes in being curt disinterested or just plain rude! Thankfully waiting staff etc do not and are very pleasant. Regarding the plane itself on both occasions these were very obviously old and incredibly uncomfortable. Sitting in row 2 on both flights subjected we were subjected to cabin crew slamming doors continuously chatting very loudly or witness several members chomping on food whilst preparing the passengers meagre offerings. Please United Airlines take note of all these negative reviews you are offering a low budget service at a Premium price. Having looked around at the miserable faces (staff as well as passengers I might add!) in Newark lounge as I write this it says it all! We will we making as many friends and family aware of this and I'm guessing the others mentioned will too so I guess "what goes around comes around" eventually.

Traveled ORD-PEK-ORD in economy. Very minimal service. Lounge offerings for star alliance gold are downgraded. Not even packaged cookies any more. Complimentary bar is extremely low quality no complimentary alcohol on plane. In- flight movies are OK. Avoid.

Our travel agent booked our flights within the USA from Australia. Each leg was on United Airlines. I had read previous bad reviews on this airline but thought we would give them a go. The experience was okay. The staff were fine each flight was crowded and each time we were down the rear of the plane. There was nothing remarkable about any of the flights but at least we arrived safely.

RT Kona Hawaii to London Heathrow. The flight from London to San Francisco is about 11 hours non-stop. I am a 6'3" disabled and booked my flight with that disclosure. To accommodate me the agent made an effort to place me in a seat which had an empty seat beside me - very considerate and appreciated. At Heathrow prior to boarding I was called to the podium. To accommodate a family so that they might sit together I was told (not asked if I minded) I was being moved to a different seat and unbeknownst to me in a three-abreast row without an empty seat beside me. Now I know that United felt the priority of placing a family together takes precedent over my disabled status and assuming a full flight I can understand that priority. This particular flight however was about 90% filled. Many empty seats were available. I know that having an empty seat beside me is not a right or entitlement as a disabled person yet was a kindness extended to me by the reservations agent a kindness for which I was very grateful. UAL has a policy in place to help accommodate and make more comfortable disabled veterans whenever they can. I am pleased with that policy. I am just disappointed with what happened on that flight. Additionally and as mentioned in previous reviews a 737 is far to small an aircraft for the flight from Kona to San Francisco without increasing the pitch and width of the seats. Years ago United was known as an airline that cared. It made for comfortable travel travel to which I looked forward. In summary in the future I will make a sincere effort to travel with an airline other than United.

Since the late 80's I have been flying UA for business and pleasure and it has been a roller coaster ride. Having switched to another carrier for the last couple of years due to truly awful reliability and missing customer meetings I thought I would give UA another chance on a trip from Denver to Paris. How hard could it be? Get on the DEN-ORD flight allowing 2.5 hours in ORD to make the transfer to the ORD-CDG flight. The trip occurred 10 days after the control center fire and calls to UA customer service a couple of days prior to our trip confirmed things were working well again in ORD. The origin flight in DEN was the continuation of a SEA-DEN leg and that plane arrived right on time. The departure for ORD showed on time so we went to the gate to find another on time message on the board. Boarding time came and went with a last minute 15 minute delay. No problem I thought we had plenty of time in ORD. Soon another delay showed up on the gate monitor now we were 30 minutes late should I be worried? How much worse could it get and where was the Seattle aircraft that had made it to Denver on time? Soon another delay with the bottom line of just over an hour. Finally we boarded and pushed back and sat and sat and sat for another 15 minutes when a mechanical problem was announced. At this point it was clear we would miss the Paris connection and we went to the long lines at Customer Service to see what we could do. UA moved us to the later Lufthansa Frankfurt non-stop with CDG connection and said they would transfer our bags. (Of course no bags the next morning in CDG and UA blamed it on Lufthansa). Bags showed up 3 days later and we found out that UA sent them to ORD on a later flight. All this is very sad as the customer service people are trying hard to make their system work but are hamstrung by continued incompetent management. Once again we are riding the competition who are not perfect but much better than UA.

Sat waiting for maintenance and cleaning crews for over an hour. Sat in hot plane for all that time. More ground crew accountability is badly needed. This was just the tail end of our trip. Flights from home were delayed. We have people counting on our arrival for childcare. Unbelievable disorganization of different crews in Houston New Orleans and Illinois.

We were traveling Business class from Newark to Las Vegas on Sept 26th. Apparently the definition of Business class offered by United differs from any other airline out there. When traveling economy I normally bring my own bottle of water and buy some food in the airport. This time given that I had paid 3 times as much for a Business class ticket and also remembering what it means worldwide I did not bring anything of my own. What a mistake! When I asked for a glass of water while plane was still boarding an extremely rude flight attendant asked me: "Do you really want it now?". Again United definition of a Business class does not include providing enough food for everyone. I have never encounter such unprofessional behavior in any service industry - and air travel belongs to a service industry last time I checked. In Business class provided by United you are paying for some extra leg room and nothing more. I will never fly this airline again.

SFO-HKG-SGN-HKG-SFO in Economy Plus. The B744 to and from Hong Kong was clean and well-maintained but showing its age-especially in the lack of IFE. However in both directions the crews were very good with lots of passenger interaction and presence in the cabin. They were HK based and very international in composition. The crews to/from SGN were even better-old Continental Mic staff based in Guam. I had exit row seats on all legs and found the legroom to be fine and the seat OK--but on such long segments no seat in economy is really "comfortable". The food was OK-could have been better with just a few additional touches-but no real complaints. The lounge in HK is fantastic-head and shoulders above anything in the US which made for a nice interlude. Overall an acceptable performance.