United Airlines

I flew 3 times with UA during our July 2014 vacations: a round trip Houston-Managua and Houston-Munich. 1) Houston-Managua-Houston: a 3 hour trip and neither a packet of peanuts nor a coke to offer. All was chargeable but water. Never experienced it before with a major airline. 2) Houston-Munich: Firstly our initial flight was cancelled after a 4 hours wait. Ground staff overwhelmed. We waited 2 hours more for rebooking on next day flight they lodged us for overnight in a poor hotel. When finally we took the next days flight crew on board were unpleasant neither a smile nor a "thank you" especially for the offloaded passenger of the previous day. Lunch and breakfast were unacceptable except for pets. Frankly I'm not a demanding guy nor a pain but I will never take this airline anymore.

I booked a straight flight from Washington Dulles to Toronto CA. Keep in mind that this was a weekend trip and I was supposed to return Monday afternoon. My departing flight was scheduled for 3.20pm and we boarded around 4pm. The pilot announced that the door could not close completely so we had to wait for an Engineer to fix it. We waited on the plane for an hour. The Engineer came and it took an additional 30 minutes. We got on the runway then the pilot announced that Toronto had issued a no-fly restriction due to severe thunderstorms. We waited on the runway for an hour. They took us back to the terminal and after about 2 0minutes it was time to take off again. We got back on the runway went to the same spot to prepare for take-off when the pilot announced that Toronto Intl. issued another no-fly restriction and we had to wait 30 more minutes. So we did. Then later they called the plane off the runway and cancelled the flight. It took 2 hours to get to customer service so they could help me get on another flight. The Agents were so rude and barely attempted to help me find something that would take me to Toronto that night! Ended up booking me on a 5.45am flight Saturday morning. I left Washington Airport at 11pm. Saturday morning I got on a connecting flight through Texas. What was supposed to be a straight flight to Toronto took 6 hours! To make matters worse my new booking was out of Reagan Airport so I had to adjust my return flight. They gave me a flight back on Air Canada (the Toronto to Chicago leg). I stood in line to check in and learned from the agent at Air Canada that United never officially reserved the seat for me. I had to run to United get them to reserve the flight give me a print out so that I could return to Air Canada. I connected in Chicago. The United flight from Chicago to DC was hour late. I lost time money and sleep. United had no compassion and was unapologetic.

After taking a red-eye from San Francisco I was bumped from my flight. It happens the planes were switched but the very blatant tension selection of those who got left behind was very frustrating. The customers left behind had booked their flight well in advance and there seemed to be a consistent trait we were connectors from SF. The question of whether I was in for an adventure aka a delayed flight to a completely different location was condescending. No apology until I dealt with a woman at the end of the process. She treated the situation with sensitivity and realized that as a traveler and customer this could possibly be stressful and frustrating. As their customer it seemed like my Sunday was worth less than everyone on the plane. Perhaps they should under board planes not over board them to make more money.

Completely disorganized unfriendly and the least bit helpful. The customer service from the second I came into the airport in Toronto were so unwelcoming. After printing out my boarding passes at the kiosk with no help (Sunwing kiosks had assistants walking around assisting people) struggled with a kiosk and then headed to the line to check bags in. The girl at the desk just seemed so unimpressed and was very cold towards my family and I. Upon going through customs it was very disorganized and very little help was offered while at the receipt kiosks. While going through baggage check the man checking our carry ons was telling everyone that passed that our flight was cancelled. Mind you the smartphone app said the flight was on time early actually. We then got into the waiting area there was just a sense of panic going on and nobody knew what was going on. A flight attendant came and confirmed it was cancelled. Maybe 10 minutes went by and another flight attendant came by and said it was in fact running on time and not to worry. All in all very disorganized and unwelcoming. I've always flown with Sunwing and I guess next time I won't be travelling with United.

I have had several problems with UA over the years and tend to avoid them but recently I had no good option other than to travel with them from SFO to Dulles round-trip in economy class. The return flight on a 757-300 was horrific with turbulence for hours. The pilot never really commented on it other than a brief "It's bumpy so I've turned on the seat belt sign". I am only 5' 2" and 105 lbs. and I was unable to sit without my knees hitting the seat in front of me. There was no in-flight entertainment at all. I will continue to avoid flying UA at all costs even though they have a hub near us in SFO. My past grievance with them concerned their small seats rude flight staff and last-minute flight cancellations back-to-back with other overbooked flights. While turbulence is turbulence it was handled very poorly.

Flight from Detroit to New York was 3 hours late which meant we arrived so late that there was nothing left of the day despite only a 1 hr 50 min flight. On the flight from NY to Stockholm we never experienced such unprofessional and unpleasant behaviour from the cabin crew. Overall grumpy except one younger female flight attendant. The older female was very harsh and unfriendly. We will never fly United Airlines again.

Flight from Cancun to Houston 8/5/14 arrived at the airport 2.5 hrs prior's to flight time of 3.02pm. It took the entire 2.5 hours to get through the check in line. Ended up having to run to catch the plane. Don't know why they didn't open more lanes the line never got any shorter. When we finally got to the front the line was just as long if not longer than we got there 2.5 hours earlier. Stewardess's were not friendly. Only good thing was flight was on time.

HNL/LAX: The return flight from Honolulu to LAX was cancelled. Even though UA had our contact information we were never notified that our flight had been cancelled. It wasn't until we went online to do our check-in that we found out about the cancelled flight. The first reservationist we spoke to was not very helpful. She had us booked to return home the next day in economy and not first class as was paid for stating this was all that was available. We weren't satisfied with her "solution" so we called UA back and spoke with another reservationist who was more helpful. Not only did she offer us another first class flight but it was also on the same day as originally planned (not the next day). Dealing with the first reservationist was very frustrating.

The in-flight service and cabin cleanliness was terrible. I have flown this flight before it has been fine. This time around the flight staff were rude or off-handish. One flight attendant abruptly placed the food tray stating 'only chicken' when another flight attendant actually had pasta. When questioned we were spoken to rudely. The toilets were not cleaned on other airlines they clean as you go. My wife mentioned to the flight attendants and their reply was 'you should see the rest of China' - we actually live in Beijing. They also said that she should wait until Beijing when it will be cleaned. Also in years past (18 years I have been flying with UAL) United had been much better. Flight attendants didn't know when to turn lights on or off or when they were suppose to start the food/beverage services. Where has the United I once knew gone?

MEL-SYD-LAX-IAH-GIG. Paid an economy ticket and was upgraded on all flights to Business using one global credit. Service out of Melbourne was superb - attentive crew and a light load. Out of Sydney the flight was full but again the crew were attentive and service was fairly good. The flight LAX/IAH was particularly good - the crew were amazing. The last flight IAH-GIG was superior - the 772 was much newer than the one used on the SYD-LAX route and crew did not disappear for hours in the middle of the flight. The dinners were good but the breakfasts average. Considering the price paid for the ticket I was pleasantly impressed. All flights left on time and arrived on schedule or ahead of schedule. After 39 hours of travel time I was left feeling not too bad!