United Airlines

LAX-JFK EWR-LAX. Pros: two helpful ground agents and warm friendly lounge staff at LAX. Decent IFE and comfortable seat for the 5 hour flight. Cons: Too many to mention but mainly staff attitude about everything. Even the simplest task is completed with a sigh and a roll of the eyes. I've never experienced boarding a flight before while the crew talked amongst themselves and literally ignored passengers boarding - not even a request to show boarding passes. I've honestly never been tested with such consistent disdain by employees of a company to which I'm paying a considerable chunk of money. It got to the point where I just smiled to myself with amusement at their unprofessional and frankly useless and unhelpful manner. I only flew UA as a code share with AirNZ but can honestly say I will never ever waste my time or money again.

This review relates to a 5 flight itinerary booked with United. Other than flight segment 3 which was with Lufthansa from Barcelona (BCN) to Munich (MUC) the other 4 flights were with United Airlines. The problem started when United had a schedule change which did not allow us a legal connection in Newark (EWR) on the outbound flight to Barcelona (BCN). We received an e-mail from United informing us of a change in time to an earlier flight from Phoenix (PHX) to Newark (EWR) allowing us a legal connection for our flight. This in itself was a bit annoying since we went from an original connection time of one hour to a four hour connection. Unfortunately we "accepted" the change on-line which was the first error on our part. The day prior to departing from Phoenix we received the usual message telling us we could print our boarding passes. This worked fine until we checked the boarding passes only to find out there was no longer the priority boarding we had booked and paid for. This resulted in spending over an hour on the phone to United. As it turned out with every segment flown with United it was necessary to go through the whole process of having them reprint boarding passes which showed the priority boarding and then only after we had provided them with proof this had been purchased. As for the flights themselves? The usual experience of dealing with disinterested flight attendants barely edible food and the fact as I was told "United no longer offers special meals (eg: low cholesterol or diabetic) but does provide a kosher meal for its Jewish and Muslim passengers and a beef free meal for its Sikh passengers. So all in all the poor service of United Airlines appears to be the norm more and more these days rather than the exception which really is a problem for the UA's promise that we are "flying the friendly skies".

My sister wife and I travelled Heathrow to Chicago to Denver and onto Minot ND. Booked meals asked for veggie for me on the first flight. Lousy onboard service Chicago chaotic. Flight on small jet to Minot was excellent. return was via Washington. Lousy flight uncomfortable seats on United tight for me at 6'3" on board attendants no patience. Food again on return was unplanned.

I flew United on domestic US flights 3 times in last month and I am very disappointed by their customer care. They haven't informed passengers that due to delays their connection flight (on the same flight number as from Portland to Las Vegas through San Francisco) would be missed - they knew that before boarding the first plane. Secondly they ignored passengers who had to sleep at San Francisco airport on the floor having all restaurants and half of restrooms closed. When coming back from US to Poland (3 flights - 17 hours) I couldn't check an additional bag (as I should have Star Alliance Silver status) informing me that these were Lufthansa regulations and they have their own united and they don't care or I will have to pay 200$. I was forced to check the carry-on luggage as they found they had no free space onboard. Of course my hand luggage was an appropriate size. I am very disappointed and will do my best not to use United Airlines again.

I was very pleased with the service I received on United during the recent bout of nasty weather. I left Charlotte going to Chicago and then onto Duluth MN. My Charlotte-Chicago flight was cancelled due to the weather and the agent here in Charlotte handled things quite professionally. The same held true in O'Hare when flying back to Charlotte. It was snowing pretty hard in Chicago and a number of flights were already cancelled. I asked to be rebooked on an earlier flight that was scheduled to go out. Again the agent handled things quite well. I wish all carriers had airport staff as professional as those at United.

Planned a vacation to Australia and New Zealand over a year ago! Left EWR on Jan 22 for SFO flight was delayed almost 2 hours (waited about 40 mins to take off) most of the delay was caused by a mechanical problem. Pilot apologized for problem saw mechanic going back and forth down aisle. Had a connecting flight to Sydney with 1.5 hr layover. Notified flight attendant about connection and pilot contacted United to let them know that there were a number of people on the flight connecting to Sydney. Was told plane was taking off "on time" Got into SFO in enough time to make connection but sat on tarmac for 20 mins. waiting for gate. No gate agent no transportation - just run. Got to gate at 10.42 doors closed at 10.40. United's response - tough. One flight a day to Sydney. Customer service said EWR flight was delayed due to weather (untrue) therefore no compensation. Was upgraded to First class for following days flight. One hour before departure United takes away our first class tickets and gives seats to United employees (saw the badge) - unbelievable! Don't want to bore you with the return flights but suffice it to say had to spend two nights in SFO of course no compensation.

We just finished a trip to Belize from Edmonton Canada. This was our first time using a US airline. We flew with United and we were pleasantly surprised. Our only real issue was that the TV's were not available.

Flight from HNL to Denver has been sitting at gate for 2 hrs and no information given other than cargo door problem. I quit flying United several years ago but booked this flight due to price. Never again. Will now miss my connecting flight to DSM. Will not make this mistake using this airline again. On flight over to HNL the entertainment system did not work.

Worst airline I have ever been on. So far UAL has cancelled 3 flights from EWR to BOS with the excuses being weather crew and now mechanical. That's 3 separate planes. Seats in economy are tight with virtually no movement. I'll never fly them again.

Arrived Tullamarine (Melbourne Australia) for long planned family holiday to USA. Informed flight cancelled and next flight was two days away! No apology no explanation. Flights through to LA and then to New York uneventful. Flight home from JFK - baggage issues plane delayed on tarmac for close to two hours no amenities from staff water etc. LA connection end then delayed by non appearing traveller. Flight to Sydney diverted to Brisbane due to low fuel missed connecting flights and luggage 'lost' (arrived 11pm four days later). United never again.