United Airlines

Flying EWR-NRT with Flight UA 79. Boeing 777. Punishing 14-hr flight in cramped seating condition. Everything about this plane is run down from seating to carpeting. Food is terrible and served in plastic tray covered with ripped aluminium foils. Breads are served out of bundles of plastic bags instead of bread baskets. What are we in jail? Ridiculous!

I travel all the time for business and booked on United for cost reasons I was flying last-minute from LGA to MSP. I was scheduled to depart at 6pm from NY change planes in Chicago with an hour layover time and land in Minneapolis by 9.30pm. Departing flight was listed "on time". 5.45 boarding still had not begun - asked the gate attendant when we would be boarding since I had a connector. He informed me that they were about to delay the flight indefinitely. After advice from customer service that my original flight is unlikely to take off in time for me to make any connection in Chicago I am rebooked on a flight scheduled to depart an hour later - 7pm. However this means I will miss my O'Hare connection so that is also rebooked to a 10pm CDT flight. 7pm flight boards on time. Around the time of boarding the originally-scheduled 6pm flight also starts the boarding process. Chaos at the 7pm flight's gate as multiple irate businessmen who had changed out of their 6pm first- class seats for a time-saving economy seat on the 7pm scramble to articulate their outrage and get rebooked on the now-departing earlier flight. At 7.10pm the 7pm flight is finally loaded - and completely full. It's sweltering hot and ripe with body odor and very very dimly lit. 7.20pm: still hot still smelly still dark. Flight attendants are trying their best to be accommodating. The plane finally acquires a couple of pilots 45 minutes after scheduled departure. At this point I am getting nervous that I may miss my re-booked connector as well in which case I will either have to overnight in Chicago or drive the 6.5 hours to St. Paul. The plane touches down in Chicago only a little bit late despite the delay in take-off. Stopped on the runway in the middle of taxi - stops for at least 20 minutes. Flight attendant makes an attempt to ask passengers to remain seated so those with tight connectors can deplane first. His plea is denied immediately by the scores of tired and angry people who flood the corridor before the plane has even reached the gate. Fighting through 35 rows of people I manage to deplane with 10 minutes to spare before boarding call for the connection. Arrive sweaty and out of breath at the gate just as my phone brings up a text from United: flight is delayed until 10.30 because the plane hasn't arrived. The gate attendant changes the sign to read 10.45 instead. Once 1035 hits she updates it once more - to 10.51. In short she assures there is no possible way I will arrive before midnight (CDT). I will never be taking United again.

Our trip from Quito Ecuador to Lincoln Nebraska was supposed to take 12 hours but included a four hour delay in Houston and a 9.5 hour delay in Denver. Weather was not the problem. United should have re-booked us when their mechanical failure and four hour delay was apparent in Houston. Ours was a 26 hour ordeal with many of those hours standing in line waiting for service and that was completely avoidable. What did they offer? A $7 food voucher.

SFO-CDG-SFO. Over the past couple of years I have had the opportunity to travel internationally on both United and several foreign carriers. United's First Class or Business First Class service and amenities are no better than those in economy on the foreign carriers. Outbound we didn't get drinks prior to take off as the flight attendants were spending way too much time chatting with the other passengers. The meals were satisfactory though I am getting a bit bored with the ice cream sundae. The inflight entertainment worked well though it would have been nice to have different choices on the return flight. The only thing United's front cabin had going for it was more comfortable seats than in the back of the plane however even that comes with a "but". On the 767 the pods next to the window have very limited room for your feet when in the flat position. The aisle seats do seem to have more room. I travel weekly for work so I will continue to fly United but if I were a leisure traveler without frequent flyer status I would choose another airline. (United treats it leisure passengers very poorly - they board last often have no bin space and are generally treated shabbily.) United barely lives up to its three star rating.

Flew from Los Angeles to London. All alcoholic drinks are charged. This is a first for me on an international flight that isn't a budget airline. The drinks service took twice as long as normal due to the charging process. Staff were clearly embarrassed by the policy and apologized for it. Will never fly United again.

IAH-PTY and reverse. Pleasant staff decent food plane rather small for business class no musical options in entertainment system.

We flew from SFO to FRA and returned from OSL to SFO on UA. The service for these international flights was good the cabin staff helpful and professional and the flights on time. The seats in cheap economy were extremely cramped and offer little hope of rest. The flight over had a large contingent of passengers from the Indian subcontinent who did not take the hint to settle down and rest when the crew turned down the lights and yakked the night away oblivious to requests to quiet down. Not UA's fault but they could have been a bit more pro- active to settle these people back into their seats for the long flight.

TPE-SFO-TPE. Economy Plus. B-777 aircraft. United has become a very average airline. Economy"plus" seats are really not much better than normal economy especially if you can get regular economy seats near exits or bulkheads. Food was mediocre. Flight attendants were considerably older than other airlines and seemed to be worn out as evidenced by their indifferent and even sarcastic attitudes. Compare them to All Nippon for example where the attendants are super friendly and bend over backwards for passengers. The return leg was late out of SFO by about 90 minutes. The one saving grace for this United flight was the price which was significantly lower than other TPE-SFO non stops. So I guess you get what you pay for. Recommended for price but if you can afford it any of the Asian airlines offer better service.

I recently flew in the first class section of a United Airlines 757 from Orlando to Dulles (about a 2 hour flight). The only things to like is that I arrived promptly on schedule and my seat was larger than a coach seat. Otherwise there is absolutely no reason to fly first class on United domestically. I asked for a blanket and was told after some time that "the supervisor said we don't stock blankets on flights from Florida". Then less than 1 minute later a different flight attendant brought a large clear plastic bag full of blankets onto the plane and put them into a closet in first class! I'd just left Disney World and the contrast of the Disney quality of service versus United's was stark. I began to wonder if the safety and evacuation training for United employees is better than their customer service training otherwise you better hope you never need them!

YYC-IAH-MUC in Y. As an Aeroplan Elite I got premier access check in and boarding which was greatly appreciated. I also like that United seems to be making an effort to control oversized carry-ons. As a result both flights even the full flight to Munich left with all bags in the cabin. Planes were comfortable and clean (A320 and 764) with adequate room for my 5'8" self. Crews were generally fantastic a real surprise given United's reputation. I like United's boarding structure as it prevents a mad dash to board and worked very well making boarding easy and comfortable. Only gripe is food on 10 hour IAH-MUC flight- small dinner and then before landing a mini croissant and small fruit cup- This is what I usually get on YYZ-MUC but that is a 7 hour flight. I expected more on this longer route and can imagine that some larger passengers were quite hungry! Connection in IAH was also very easy no security screening required no bus or train either even though I had to change terminals. Very impressed!