United Airlines

Recently flew from Sydney to the US on United and a bunch of internal flights within US and returning home on United. Read a lot of negative reviews about United before I travelled so was a bit sceptical about the whole experience. I'm an average meat and three veg type of guy if I pay a beer price I don't expect to get Champagne service. Who does? I was more than happy with the service provided given the fares I paid. I recall only once one of the internal flights was delayed and it really wasn't a big deal. I would definitely fly with United again. I really think some people need to get a grip they want silver service for bargain basement prices. You get what you pay for and I was more than happy with United. No hesitation to fly with them again.

Travel from Newark to BOM direct and back Delhi to Newark direct. Paid for extra leg room but didn't feel much different. Food leaving Newark was good. On way back from India it was terrible. The veg breakfast was not edible. On return at Newark they could not unload checked bags for over two hours. Those with connections missed them. No apologies were made or compensation provided. In the future will prefer any other airline to United and are considering canceling our United credit card. Worst airline in business today.

Flying UA in F (oxymoron alert) from ORD to NRT. Our 13-hour flight was delayed for three hours after we had boarded because of radio issues. About 30 minutes into the wait they opened up the main door and with temps outside around zero the F cabin quickly became a freezer. I could actually see the breath of the pax in 4A. The cabin itself was tired and dirty with tissues stuck between my seat and the wall. The toilet rubbish bin overflowed about halfway through the flight and was never emptied. The toilet seat was filthy by the end of the flight. WiFi was broken. On the bright side the amenity kit comes with a United-branded ballpoint pen and comb. The food apart from a cold but well-cooked tenderloin steak was largely inedible. The “sausage” that came with the dry crusty omelette was a hard brown puck of mystery meat. Food in ANA Y is far better. There was no wine list because there were only four mediocre wines and some cheap sparkling in 375ml bottles. Service was not rude for the most part but below economy standards on any Asian carrier. I had to wait 10 minutes to get a cup of dishwater coffee. When the woman seated next to me asked what the squid sushi was the FA replied (with a smile to be fair) “Don't ask me I don't make it.”The shoulder harness that F pax are required to wear on takeoff and landing was extremely uncomfortable. When I remarked on this (politely and with a smile) to the FA while putting mine on she patronizingly replied “We can endure anything for a few minutes Mr. Johnson.”Will never ever fly United long-haul again.

I have flown United my whole life. It had been ten years since I had flown. This last week we flew from the mid west to the pacific coast using nothing but United. It's natural to have delays from weather related issues but We didn't have any to worry about. What has completely destroyed my desire to fly anywhere again is the complete lack of planning customer service and treatment from all the personnel we had contact with. Our delays service and vacation was substandard because we chose this airline. I will not recommend this airline to anyone.

Overall based on a round-trip flight between IAD and SFO I would give United 0 stars. On the outbound leg there was a medical emergency on-board and the United flight crew was totally unprepared to handle the situation. If a medical kit was on-board it wasn't made available to the medical personnel who tried to provide assistance and it took 15 minutes for the Flight attendant to bring a wet towel to help cool the patient down. Our return flight was delayed by almost 5 hours with not even "we apologize" for the delay from United. Then our bags were placed on a different flight that didn't arrive until 1 hours after our flight and the bags didn't show up at the airport until 4 hours after we landed. Again no apologies from United. then we got numerous texts from United about the status of our bags. One even claimed the bags arrived at IAD 2 hours before we did. Most of the customer support folks at the Baggage Claim customer support were surly and not the kind of people who should be working in customer support.

I recently flew from Indiana to Kansas City with a connection in Chicago. My flight from IN to Chicago was delayed by two hours causing me to miss my connection and stay another night. The staff at the ticket counter were very rude and not helpful at all. The next day my flight from Chicago to KS was delayed again because of another plane coming late. Two and a half hours later we finally take off. All the staff can say is sorry for the delay. Needless to say I will never fly with United again.

Chicago to St. Louis round-trip. All flights were on time with friendly service. Midday in Chicago I cleared security in 10 minutes. Mobile boarding pass is very helpful. Boarding was quick and easy. Flight operated by Shuttle America E-170. The plane was very comfortable with lots of legroom in standard economy. I am 6' and had no problem. Return was equally as easy. St. Louis security very quick. This flight was operated by Trans State ERJ- 145. It was fine for the hour flight but anything longer would have been unpleasant. Narrow seats and aisle less legroom low ceiling seats falling apart very loud engines and lots of turbulence. Flight attendant very nice. Arrived 20 minutes early. The cost was definitely worth it over driving or amtrak given the punctuality. No inflight entertainment was offered on either flight which is fine for such short flights. I arrived an hour be fore both flights but could have got there much later. I recommend United and usually don't have issues with them and plan to fly them again in the future.

AUS-IAH-LGA in F. First segment on a new E175 in Economy Plus. Actually really surprised at the comfort of the seat despite all the negative press about the new Slimline product. Of course this flight was only about 30 minutes but for a regional hop not bad at all. Continuing segment was on A319 in F. Seat was moderately comfortable but pitch was lacking and by the end of this 3 hour flight I was definitely eager to deplane. Service was attentive and professional however and drinks were consistently refilled. Food could have been better but what else is new. Overall I was pleased with this journey and despite being loyal to AA would consider UA again if traveling to one of their hub cities.

I have no idea why they call travelling United "flying the friendly skies". I have not seen even one friendly FA during my two flights. During SJU-EWR leg we weren't even greeted while boarding the plane. It felt like a sarcastic joke when they showed a safety video at the beginning of the flight with smiling crew greeting you since all you see on board is sad tired unprofessional crew. The flight was 90 minutes late due to an electronic glitch in one of the plane's systems. Even though many were going to miss their connections in FRA there were no apologies given - just a statement of facts. Pilot announcements consisted of mumbling something intelligible into a PA system couple of times and when it was brought to the attention of a FA she responded "Oh yes I know I could not understand him either". Thirdly it is a meal service. Food itself was inedible but this is a common trend of many airlines so I did not have any expectation in regards. The main issue was what they call service on board United or total lack of it. There were no smiles no "enjoy your meal" no "what would you like" just appalling "what do you want" and throwing it at your table - truly "the friendly sky"! There was a row and a half of passengers forgotten during the beverage service and FA had to be reminded to serve us some drinks. I understand mistakes and miscommunication may happen but a little "sorry" would be the right word to say. There were none! And lastly is the seat comfort. I understood that new United modus operandi of the economy class is to squeeze you towards the back of the plane into old uncomfortable seats with no leg room (in which no one should be allowed legally to seat for more than 2 hours) so you would spend a hundred or so bucks for the Economy Extra next time you fly with them. I also however do believe that even the most affordable on-board service class should include some basics of travel and hospitality: decent amount of leg room (not extra but just sufficient) acceptable service and a friendly crew. Anything beyond that should be considered extra and come for a price of course that customer will chose to pay or not. Since United has obviously different point of view in this regard I will avoid flying them next time.

Houston to Narita and Narita to Houston - dirty plane restrooms not cleaned during the flight and staff could learn how to serve with a smile from almost every Asian airline. Only positive was the flights were on time. We should not be treated like cattle and rude attendants who complained about the merger of two airlines rather than even attempting to serve the passengers. Oh and the meals were 1/2 the quality of ANA Delta Air France or KLM.