Anonymous
Post 11/30/2016 13:06     Subject: United rant
Anonymous wrote:OP, how do you want this resolved?


I would like them to put me on the American or Jet Blue nonstop flight at a similar time at no additional cost to me. I asked. They laughed.
Anonymous
Post 11/30/2016 13:04     Subject: Re:United rant
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Yeah United is the worst. We've had problems every single time we've flown with them so now we avoid it like the plague. Sorry.

They were on the cover of Business week a year or so ago, talking about the improvement plan they had just implemented, and I remember that their whole thing was trying to improve, not to be the best, but just to suck less so they wouldn't be the literal worst. That struck me as amusing.


Frequent flyer here. I think United has some rather sophisticated bean counters and that's why flights get cancelled far in advance like this -- they realize it's not going to fill up to the 75% (or whatever) fill rate they need to make money on it.

I fly business class on long trips, and avoid United on their planes that are 2-4-2 in _business class_. Who wants to be in a middle seat on a 14-hour trip to Asia? I instead go via Toronto on Air Canada for a lower price, and with a better seat layout.

United finally realized they're losing out even on their big-money spenders (business customers), so they just announced their new "Polaris" business class product which brings them up to par with other airlines. However since United has such a large fleet to retrofit with new seats, it'll be years and years until all planes are upgraded. The first upgrade is in January I think.


My husband does this, too, and has given up on UAL for long flights. He's going to Hong Kong next week and is flying Singapore through SFO. United also has business class seats that face backwards!?!
Anonymous
Post 11/30/2016 13:01     Subject: Re:United rant
Anonymous wrote:Yeah United is the worst. We've had problems every single time we've flown with them so now we avoid it like the plague. Sorry.

They were on the cover of Business week a year or so ago, talking about the improvement plan they had just implemented, and I remember that their whole thing was trying to improve, not to be the best, but just to suck less so they wouldn't be the literal worst. That struck me as amusing.


Frequent flyer here. I think United has some rather sophisticated bean counters and that's why flights get cancelled far in advance like this -- they realize it's not going to fill up to the 75% (or whatever) fill rate they need to make money on it.

I fly business class on long trips, and avoid United on their planes that are 2-4-2 in _business class_. Who wants to be in a middle seat on a 14-hour trip to Asia? I instead go via Toronto on Air Canada for a lower price, and with a better seat layout.

United finally realized they're losing out even on their big-money spenders (business customers), so they just announced their new "Polaris" business class product which brings them up to par with other airlines. However since United has such a large fleet to retrofit with new seats, it'll be years and years until all planes are upgraded. The first upgrade is in January I think.
Anonymous
Post 11/30/2016 12:58     Subject: United rant
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I am surprised the OP's flight was pushed to begin with, morning flights are the most popular, especially when time zones are involved.


OP here. I know!! This is a non-stop morning flight to a warm weather destination the first day of many people's spring break. ?!?!


So they combined 3 flights into 1 to a warm weather spot during Spring Break? That's really odd. I wonder if they will add an additional flight later on.
Anonymous
Post 11/30/2016 12:54     Subject: United rant
Anonymous wrote:OP here. I guess I've been lucky. I've had weather/mechanical delays obviously. But this is the first time they've preemptively cancelled multiple flights months in advance. If they don't want to run these flights going forward, fine, but I think once they've sold tickets they should honor the flights and just not schedule new flights.

I'm a dreamer, I know.


What happened to you is annoying, but it's nothing compared to the drama of flights that get cancelled at the last minute. You have months to rearrange your plans.
Anonymous
Post 11/30/2016 12:53     Subject: United rant
OP, how do you want this resolved?
Anonymous
Post 11/30/2016 12:52     Subject: United rant
Anonymous wrote:I am surprised the OP's flight was pushed to begin with, morning flights are the most popular, especially when time zones are involved.


OP here. I know!! This is a non-stop morning flight to a warm weather destination the first day of many people's spring break. ?!?!
Anonymous
Post 11/30/2016 12:45     Subject: United rant
I am surprised the OP's flight was pushed to begin with, morning flights are the most popular, especially when time zones are involved.
Anonymous
Post 11/30/2016 12:22     Subject: United rant
We had this happen over spring break, and I won't fly United again either. They changed us from a flight that got in at 11 pm (not ideal to start with) to one that arrived in Texas around midnight, had a many hour layover in Texas, and then got us back into DC at something like 3 or 4 a.m. It was utterly impossible to do with three children (who are too big to put in strollers or throw over your shoulder, but too small to be up in the middle of the night), and it costs us thousands of dollars to switch to a flight the next day (in addition to costing us another missed day of work).

Also, they did not notify us of the time change. We found out about it when we went to check in for our flight online.

I've had other airlines change flight times before, but never anything that approached this.
Anonymous
Post 11/30/2016 12:18     Subject: United rant
Also be VERY careful booking two one-ways. Or buy travel insurance if you do. If for any reason your trip changes, that's going to be change fees X2. Been there, done that and it sucks.
Anonymous
Post 11/30/2016 12:17     Subject: Re:United rant
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I've never had a good experience with united, I don't fly them anymore. Frankly, they don't give a shit about their flyers.


x10000. The treat customers like ATMs. Anything you want to change or add has a price attached.


Do any airlines care about their customers?
Anonymous
Post 11/30/2016 12:16     Subject: Re:United rant
Yeah United is the worst. We've had problems every single time we've flown with them so now we avoid it like the plague. Sorry.

They were on the cover of Business week a year or so ago, talking about the improvement plan they had just implemented, and I remember that their whole thing was trying to improve, not to be the best, but just to suck less so they wouldn't be the literal worst. That struck me as amusing.
Anonymous
Post 11/30/2016 12:13     Subject: United rant
OP here. I guess I've been lucky. I've had weather/mechanical delays obviously. But this is the first time they've preemptively cancelled multiple flights months in advance. If they don't want to run these flights going forward, fine, but I think once they've sold tickets they should honor the flights and just not schedule new flights.

I'm a dreamer, I know.
Anonymous
Post 11/30/2016 12:01     Subject: Re:United rant
JetBlue did this to us for our flight home from Thanksgiving. I had not seen the emails alerting me to the change, so when they called to let me know that they were moving us to an earlier flight (the original one was no longer on the schedule) and asked if that was ok, I said "No, not really, but what choice do I have." The customer service rep offered us $50 credit each towards a future flight, so I'm not as frustrated as I might be, but I'm not happy either.

I can't think of a trip in the past 2 years that I booked more than 3 months out that didn't end up with a time change - though luckily most of them have only been about 30 minutes later.
Anonymous
Post 11/30/2016 11:59     Subject: Re:United rant
Switched to southwest and so far have really loved it.