United Airlines

Never never will use this airline again!!!
We had book our flight suppose to leave at 9:00am
The flight was delayed for 45 minutes at first
Because they say the pilot was running late.
Eckstein the flight was delayed until 1:25 PM
Because all the crew wasn’t there
That BS !! I know because the plane was in full so didn’t want to leave. It cost them more money to get there.
If you want to get to where you want to go
DO NOT BOOK UNITED

Most horrible airline and service I’ve ever encountered. 3 flights in a month and all three got delayed. you don’t care about your customers. avoid it if you can. oh and to topic it off, their prices aren’t even great, i have no idea why they still exist.

I fly 3 to 6 times a month and was flying another carrier consistently for the last few years but I had a bad experience with them. I started flying United and I immediately saw a few key differences. The first was quality of staff, they all seem to be happier, nicer and more knowledgable as. I did not realize it until I changed but I felt like a customer… A valued customer.
The exact situation arose that made me leave American… Plane is at its last stop with issues, flight delayed an hour, then another announcement delayed another half hour. I thought here we go I going to be stuck here… What United did not tell us is that they had called a San Francisco based crew in, mobilized another regional jet to not only get us home to Tucson but they were a little late because they were fixing the Reno portion of this issue, we got in to Tucson an hour or so after we were supposed to which is over the top compared to what their competitor did. Which was nothing, I had to get home from my connecting city on my own.
The crew was great, I noticed again how I felt like a customer not cattle. Angela and the gentleman that were the flight attendants were like they were serving at at party rather than an institution. Little things that I noticed was when I asked for a Coke Angela asked if I wanted just a cup or whole can. The other airline… Just a cup. Then she handed me trail mix… Little thing but non of those on American…
The bottom line when something went wrong in their operation they did what it took to honor their commitment to us on Super Bowl weekend… I just don’t see this from large companies anymore at all so United hats off to you and your exceptional employees in San Francisco.

Horrendous. Flew from Newark to Maui, with layover in San Francisco… served us a drink on both flights. that is it. Not even a dinner roll or a frigging peanut. Seats in economy are designed for dwarves, no offense. How about focusing on the customer and less about cramming as many people as possible onto each flight. I will never fly across country again because of the putrid taste this flight left in my mouth…

What a joke. We booked 6 months ago and they put across the plane from each other. One guy when we first checked in said there was an open seat next to my husband, but he couldn’t move me. So at the gate check in we asked for them to move one of us. He said no, that seat is saved for a standby person ??? Are you kidding me. Move me and give them the open seat I created. He couldn’t do it. Awesome !!! Thanks United. Usually when two people with the last name are traveling together, it’s nice to sit them together, my next flight won’t be with United.

NEVER fly United. My aunt and I had the trip from hell because of them. We were supposed to fly from Nashville to Washington DC to San Juan to St. Croix over Christmas break. We were scheduled to leave on the December 28^th and come back on January 4^th. After we checked in at the airport on the 28^th, we were told that our flight had been delayed three hours. Now this is understandable, a huge storm was wreaking havoc across the whole country, but our layover in DC was only 40 minutes so obviously we needed another solution. We managed to get pretty much the exact same flight the next day, which lost us a day of our vacation, but what can you do.
The next night we arrived in DC in time for our layover. We boarded, stowed our carry-​ons, and sat on the plane for fifteen minutes before receiving a text notification that our plane had been delayed by half an hour. The pilot then came on the loudspeaker and apologized because they were missing a copilot and could not take off. The half hour mark was reached and another text notification, the plane had been delayed by am hour. Not ten minutes later, our pilot came on again and said the flight was canceled due to lack of a copilot.
With no flight to San Juan and no contacts in DC to pick us up from the airport, we went to baggage claim to get our bags back. After the three hour wait for our luggage, we were looking forward to making it back through security quickly so we could find some empty benches to lay on, only to find out that United closed its doors at midnight and we couldn’t get back into the airport. We spent the night in the lobby frantically trying to find a flight into San Juan in time to make out connection (we had an EIGHT HOUR layover there) in between bouts of fitful sleep. Travelocity, who we booked the tickets through, couldn’t help because when we were delayed United had taken control of the ticket. Since there were no open flights to San Juan, we decided to fly to St. Thomas and see if we could catch a flight to St. Croix there. After we had checked our bags, a desk attendant told us that two people to San Juan had canceled and that if we wanted to take that flight instead, he would reroute our bags for us.
After an eleven hour stay in the airport we were thrilled to make it to San Juan. Unfortunately, our luggage didn’t. We checked with the airport we were at, the airport in DC, and the airport in St. Thomas and nobody knew where our luggage was. All we could do was board our plane and hope our luggage had gone to St. Thomas, in which case it would arrive on the island around the same time as us.
We eventually got to St. Croix after losing two days of our vacation. Our luggage was not so fortunate. Luckily we were staying with a friend who lent us full access to her wardrobe and bathroom until we could figure something out. We had someone in DC, San Juan, and on St. Croix who said they would notify us when our luggage was found so we collapsed into bed.
The next day at about five when our luggage still wasn’t found, we called the St. Croix airport to ask them about it to be told that our luggage had been there since the night before. United has partnerships with two airlines on the island, Seabourn (the airline we flew from San Juan to St. Croix on) and Cape Air. They sent out luggage over on a Cape Air flight without bothering to tell anyone, so the Seabourn attendant on the island couldn’t know that it had arrived.
The remaining four days of our vacation went by fine until the night before we were supposed to fly out, we got an email that our flight from St. Croix to San Juan had been canceled. By the time we received the email the Seabourn office was closed so we had to wait until the next day to figure it out. When we got a hold of a Seabourn attendant, we were told that despite the email we received and the information on their website, the flight went out. It hadn’t been canceled, we just missed it. United claimed they also did not tell us they canceled the flight, and we heard a similar story from Travelocity. We had to get off the island somehow, I was missing school and my aunt was missing work, so we tried to work something out with United. They couldn’t get us off the island for at least a week which was unacceptable. We were forced to buy another ticket with a different airline just to get off the island and get into Nashville, where I caught my flight into Boston that I had to pay a transfer fee for since our getting stuck on the island caused me to miss the first one.
United ruined our vacation, caused us to miss unnecessary days of school and work, lost our luggage (which according to the FAA is ILLEGAL), and cost us an extra two grand to buy two tickets off the island when we bought roundtrip tickets with them in the first place. They, along with Travelocity and Seabourn, still refuse to reimburse us for anything. The upsides? Staff was friendly and they had good peanuts.
Never. Fly. United.

I never flown United before, but someone from my company booked it. I WILL NEVER EVER FLY UNITED EVER AGAIN!!! JUST HORRIBLE SERVICE HORRIBLE TIME MANAGING! GET IT TOGETHER! Worst flight experience ever and I’ve been flying since I was a child wonder why I never flown this flight, my parents knew better… They should change their name because they’re definitely not!!! united!

After our flight last June upon the death of my father, for which United overcharged us, and during which United lost all of our luggage, I called them every day to try to rectify the situation. Eventually I found our luggage myself, by calling airports; United completely failed in this. And finally United conceded but never rectified the billing error. Finally, after several weeks of daily phone calls, the company was kind enough to give my wife and me a $ 400 credit each on a future flight within a year.
We are retirees living on a minuscule pastor’s pension in the country of Panama. We cannot afford distant travel. So we tried to book a visit to Peru — with the credit, the round trip was within our financial reach — but United tells me we cannot use the credit for these flights because they are with an «affiliated carrier», even if the plane says «United» on its side. There is no way on the internet for me to determine which flights out of Panama City are susceptible to this credit, but it doesn’t matter, since they are all well out of reach of our budget. Basically, that renders the credit useless.
It is shameful that, after putting us through hell last June on top of the grief of my father’s death, United cannot pass the mere $ 800 credit on to their affiliate Avianca so we can use the credit before it expires. Right now, we think of United as the last stop before the sewer system in Grand Central Station. And in my travel books I tell readers honestly about my consistently horrible experiences with United (there were others previous to last June).
Shame on United for finally, grudgingly, trying to make us feel better with an $ 800 credit, and then snatching it away again by refusing to accept it back for our trip to Peru!
***
Further information:
Since United Airlnes’s so-​called «customer service» couldn’t be bothered to reply, I was forced to make a decision or lose all the money I’d paid for reservations in Peru. Therefore, I very unhappily booked flights that are not with affiliates.
These flights cost a lot more than flying direct from Panama City (our home airport) to Lima, Peru, because the only choice was to fly far to the north, to Newark, and then fly an incredible distance back south again from Newark to Lima — and then, for our return, to fly from Lima far to Houston, and then back south again to Panama City.
As a result, yes, I was technically able to apply the total $ 800 credit, but the much higher prices of this routing meant United’s credit became almost worthless. It was far less a genuine credit than if United had done the right thing and honored our original flight plan from Panama City due south to Lima, without flying uselessly far to the north.
Once again I am thoroughly disgusted with this airline. EVERY time I have flown with United, it has botched things. When my mother died, United lost all of our luggage. When my father died United AGAIN lost all of our luggage, and overcharged us. And now, after United does us the kindness of awarding us a credit on a future flight, the airline snatches it away again by forcing us to fly SOUTH to Peru by going far to the NORTH, through Newark and Houston.
Tell me why I should be pleased with United!

United keeps telling us that they are making things better, but I’m not really seeing it. Personally they are just okay. They seem to lag behind Delta in pretty much every category of investment. I could go on bitching about every little detail, but it seems like a waste of Unilocal space. Keep on being perfectly mediocre, at least you’ll always meet expectations.

U know what!!! If there is an way to leave no starts or even jump off the airplane then I will do that! Horrible service! Horrible experience! It’s just terrible with no word can even explain! It’s our first time traveling together with my girl friend u know what happened? They assigns us to different seats for two times! Two airplane! Two times! We ended up only can see each other or don’t even can see each other !!! Also We r the only couple on the way to Cancun that were separated, they don’t care about who u r and what’s ur condition or purpose of traveling and yes they r evil service and crew member ! It’s just horrible experiences
Ohhhhh look the airplane is taking off now and the crew member is just look like a zombie or like we owe her one million dollars or sth

What a disaster of an air line. Service was deplorable. They were ride and abrupt. Not willing to help. WILL NEVER FLY WITH THEM AGAIN!!!
Flyer beware!

Worst experience with customer service. Ever.
Purchased a plane ticket with United 4 months ago with miles. They sent me 2 confirmation emails! The second confirmation email said that they changed my flight departure time to depart much much earlier (before sunrise). I was not aware an airline was allowed to change their customer’s itinerary post-​purchase? Felt sketch to me, but I can deal.
Less than a week before scheduled flight, I received an email my reservation was not ticketed. I thought that the definition of a confirmation email is that it confirms you booked your reservation?
Spent 2 hours (no exaggeration) on customer service line. Complete awe-​struck by the lack of care.
–Supervisor offered me options: Pay $ 125 to get my miles back. Give you more money for what I rightfully already purchased? What.
–Write to customer service email, which takes weeks to receive a response. But my scheduled flight is less than a week from now? Probably will receive a generic «don’t care email» response? No thanks.
Planned everything around this trip. Feel:
–Misled
–Notification was less than a week before departure date, although ticket was purchased 4 months ahead of time. Now, to re-​book a flight (with different airline of course) would cost 4−5x more than it would if I purchased 4 months ago, which I did.
–Wasted 2 hrs on customer service with people who obviously don’t care.
Wish I read these Unilocal reviews before giving them business. I can confirm from the other reviews that the following is true:
–Shoddy
–Dishonest
–They’re a money-​making machine, driven by business not customer satisfaction.

I missed my flight home after the holidays after an email mix up, and Sam (who was prompt and efficient) got me on a flight the next day with no fee!
With common airline customer service being so lousy these days I was shocked. United earned a customer for life with that one.
Thanks Sam!

If I could give them negative stars, I would! United has become one of the absolute worst airlines to travel with. On a whim, we purchased a trip to Maui (yay!) for New Years. All was fabulous and wonderful until we tried to check in for our return flight home on January 2^nd, and well, wouldn’t you know it, our flight from Maui to L.A. was cancelled… Why you ask? Beats the hell out of me! I still haven’t gotten a straight answer from anyone from customer service other than «operational».
We immediately called customer service and asked to be placed on another flight, and lo and behold we were… A flight flying out of Honolulu to San Francisco, then San Francisco to San Bernardino, then San Bernardino to Denver, then Denver to Sacramento — our final destination. What?! I’m still wondering how exactly the customer service rep wanted us to get from Maui to Honolulu… Perhaps she thought we would pack our luggage in bags, tie them around our waist like cinderblocks, and swim across the Pacific to make it to our flight. Then we would ping-​pong across the US to get home. Sounds like a great way to start off the year, doesn’t it?
Unsurprisingly, we politely declined her «resolution» to solve our problem. We asked to speak to a manager and waited on the phone for TWO HOURS, yes, you read right — TWO HOURS — just to have the manager come to the phone and hang up on us! (I needed an anger management class at this point)
We called back, just to have to tell another not-​so-​bright «crayon» in the box about the problem. Finally we were put on a flight from Maui back to L.A. and connecting to Sacramento in the late morning… But apparently that was booked in error too ’cause we got jerked around and rebooked on a flight leaving at 11:05pm — and for any complaints, we were told to talk with the United Reps at the airport check-​in counter. Well, good thing we were confirmed to go home, but now we had to go over our budget to cover United Airline’s screw up with our flight.
With it being the New Year holiday, it was a challenge finding something cheaper to accommodate a last-​minute one-​night stay, especially since the original hotel we were booked at was sold out and we had to move hotels. We finally found a room at The Royal Lahaina Resort, for a pretty penny of $ 500/​night. Not to mention we still needed the car, which was an extra $ 200.
When we finally got to the airport, we went to the check-​in desk as we were told, to speak with someone about compensation/​reimbursement, we had the unpleasant opportunity to speak with Kainani (sorry if I spelled it wrong). Kainani had the absolute worst attitude on the face on the planet — rude, disrespect, and a degrading demeanor. Didn’t she know that when you get a job in CUSTOMER SERVICE, you have to deal with actual customers?! Shocker!!! You don’t say?! We asked to speak with the manager to which she immediately snapped back that she was it; the «team lead» on for the evening and she made it very clear she wouldn’t be helping us at all. She barely listened to what happened as she kept talking over us and at one point I thought she left, but she came back 10mins later with a piece of paper that looked like it was printed in the 1950’s with an address to write a letter to customer service and mail it in, or fax it… (I was thinking to tie it to a pigeon’s foot and have it courier the complaint letter over.) So much for a team lead teaching others how to treat customers properly — but maybe that’s the way they’re taught to treat their customers? Hmm… Are those the «standards»? Food for thought.
We finally got on our flight and got seated (in the tightest possible chairs and rows without sitting in anyone’s lap), and made it back to Sacramento safely. Not without a layover in San Francisco, however. While in San Francisco, we managed to finally speak with someone a smidgen nicer and more helpful who told us to file a complaint online. When asked why the flight was cancelled, again we got no reasoning. So strange…
Needless to say, we probably won’t be flying United Airlines anymore unless it somehow gets booked accidentally from a 3^rd party site.
And Kainani, if you’ve caught wind of my review or if you’re reading this: I’m sorry you clearly dislike your job and/​or people in general, or perhaps you just had a bad day/​night — so here’s a smiley face to hopefully put a smile on yours; try to mimic it and turn that frown upside-​down. :)

Our flight from Tucson AZ to SFO was delayed by one hour [ANA All Nippon Airways Flight 7393 Operated by United Express/​SkyWest] — No problem, we understand it’s winter and weather happens.
The only problem with this delay was the fact that we would not make our SFO to Narita Japan connection. When we got to the Tucson airport, your counter staff helped up out and was amazing. She managed to find another flight which routed us to Hong Kong where we had to spend a night. This is annoying but tolerable and we understand once again, winter happens.
What I don’t understand is when we got to the United gate at SFO and we inquired about the possibility of being upgraded to business class. The staff in Tucson had told us there were seats available but it wasn’t allowing them to click and told us to to see the counter staff when we got to SFO.
When we arrived and inquired with the SFO gate staff for a business class upgrade, he was a complete asshole.
He flat out told us «YOU MISSED YOUR FLIGHT WHICH IS WHY YOU ARE STANDING IN FRONT OF ME.»
– He totally turned it around, blamed us for your flight delay and accused us of lying.
A regular «no» or «we can’t do that» would have sufficed.
– When we tried to explain that it was UNITED that delayed our flight costing us our international connection, he just shut us down.
– We never wanted to fly United to start with. We didn’t have a choice because our domestic connection was delayed by YOUR airline.
– To top it off, when we arrived in Hong Kong, our luggage was in the cargo and had been tagged all the way to Kuala Lumpur. After a 14.5 hour flight, we arrived with nothing but the clothes on our back with another connecting flight to catch the next morning.
You have the rudest staff member I’ve ever encountered in my 35 years of flying around the globe.
His name is J. Park (Korean) and his position is Customer Service according to his badge, and works right at the waiting area and gate just before you walk into the plane.
Date: Dec 24 2015
Airport: San Francisco International (SFO)
Gate Number: 93
Flight: UA869
Path: SFO to Hong Kong
I can deal with the lack of individual monitors on each seat (which is a standard feature on any long haul flights on Asian and Middle Eastern carriers) and your old friggin’ plane from the 70s,
What I can’t deal with is the unnecessary rudeness by your counter staff.
It is no surprise that United has NEVER won any airline awards. This shows you WHY it’s just a flying Greyhound bus.
– From the lack of service, horrifying communication standards and general overwhelming feeling of tiredness from the fleet of planes to the cabin crew.

I’ve been flying on United Airlines out of SFO my whole life, so they have become my gold standard. While they remain a quality airline, it was disappointing on my most recent flight from CA to FL to see just how many ways they charge their customers — yes we have a choice of airlines but man, United will nickel & dime you into the poor house. $ 25 to check your bag, $ 7.99 for any type of in-​flight entertainment (no more gratis movie on longer flights anymore, not even in first class!), $ 6+ for the meager snack boxes, additional charges for mileage perks. I also booked my flights several months in advance, and my flight numbers were changed many times via email, and I ended up losing my seat assignment. To avoid being miserable on my long flight, I upgraded to Economy Plus, which is still pretty darn cozy. With flights already so pricy, it’s a bit soul crushing to know how much the experience of air travel has changed since I was a kid. But I guess everyone feels like that when you’ve been on this big ball o’ dirt long enough.
United will continue to keep my business for LONG hauls, but they just don’t offer enough for the money for shorter flights. Choose wisely, shop around before you book!

I don’t fly United much. Except for the occasional international flight, I rarely fly United domestic. On Friday, September 25^th, our flight from EWR in Newark landed a little after 12am.
It was pretty much a no frills, basic flight. No TV. No complimentary snacks. Just complimentary non alcoholic beverages. There really are no amenities on United when flying domestic, so I tend to shy away from this airline. When other airlines are priced about the same, have on board entertainment and plugs to charge your portable devices, I’d rather fly those airlines.
A couple years ago, I did take United to Japan, South Korea and back, so those flights were a little more enjoyable. They fed us and gave us complimentary beer and wine. Service seems to be better on international flights. Except to the Caribbean, where you get the same no frills kind of treatment. No complimentary food or alcohol.
Okay for international flights, but I’d stick to other airlines for domestic.

NOPES
Me habían contado historias tremendas sobre United Airlines y vengo a dar mi experiencia que se resume bastante simple.
UN DESASTRE DE LOGÍSTICA pero los aviones cómodos y con buen sistema de audio video en vuelos internacionales.
Tomé 6 vuelos en 2 semanas por un viaje de laburo. Los de ida y vuelta Buenos Aires = Houston muy bien. Aviones modernos, cómodos y con buena comida (ok, digamos), BIRRA IPA y gran sistema de pelis y tv.
AHORA, los vuelos internos en USA? MAMADERA.
De 4 vuelos, 3 demorados. TRES. TRESSSSSSSSS.
Algunos por 45 minutos, otros por 2 horas y otros por 5 horas. Nunca vi algo así.
Me falta el meme de Gago quejándose DAAAAAA TOOOOODOS LOS VUELOS SE TE VAN A DEMORAR???
Y los aviones internos son bastante malos. Todos bastante viejos, incómodos y muchas menos prestaciones.
No sé, veremos.

Organization skills really lacking! I would say this was a royal mess. Random boarding, everyone in line, 1 hour delay for food to be loaded, told to download app to enjoy media on personal phones and tablets (really are we that cheap on 11 hour international flight?), 1k upgrade option to business class (not sure if it’s worth it).
We sat on the ramp for about an hour then after we were airborne and almost level flight, I had to use the bathroom badly. The flight attendant who was standing in the walkway shook her hand at me and told me return to my seat. I returned and waited another 15 mins but had to get up to utilize the bathroom. As I walked past her, she informed me it’s my job to inform you to keep your seat belt on. She was stern but polite.
The food was actually pretty good compared to my previous experiences.
The in-​flight entertainment was lacking. The sound was intermittent and the films you could watch from your phone are movies you would expect to see in the bargain basket at Wal-​Mart.
I would not ride united from now on if I can help it, unless it is a regional flight.

We got our airline tickets blind through one of those travel sites and ended up with United Airlines. I didn’t choose the airline but I would fly with them again.
Our flight to SFO departed on time and the 4+ hour ride was incident free. However, our experience traveling home was truly unique for three reasons:
1. The day before our flight, United Airlines had to ground every single flight worldwide due to a software glitch. Almost 5,000 flights were affected and by the next morning passengers were still feeling the impact.
2. That morning, we used BART to get to the airport and on our way a fire broke out on one of the train cars. They had to suspend the service which caused system-​wide delays.
I’ll get to #3 in a second. Clearly #2 made us late getting to SFO but it was ok because #1 delayed our flight by an hour. Instead of missing our flight we ended up being early.
United had TV screens in the back of every headrest. Usually they charge $ 5.99 for access to over 100+ Direct TV channels and movies. To compensate for the flight delay they gave every passenger free access. We also enjoyed free Wi-​Fi, standard on all their flights.
A service member on my row held a dog (the size of a Lakeland terrier) on her lap for the entire flight. I’d seen pets on flights before but only in crates. I thought they might have made an exception for her military status but I checked and anyone can have a small dog, cat, rabbit or bird with them.
3. When we landed, the pilot told us there was a medical emergency on another flight. That plane was still sitting at our gate so that the passenger could receive medical attention. We had to wait for an extra 20 – 25 minutes before we could pull into the gate.
Needless to say the United Airlines crew was presented with some unusual situations, circumstances outside of their control. I think they made the best of things and they kept the lines of communication open.
They gave no less than 4 – 5 updates about our flight delay. Later, the pilot came on the PA about 3 times to update us on the medical delay. Then the flight crew got on the air to give out gate info to help people make their connections.
Last, but most importantly, they apologized for all the delays and thanked everyone for their business. All indications are that they care about their customers so I would fly with them again.

After an over 9 hour flight from Haneda to SFO on UA flight 876, I think I would try to avoid any UA flights for the time being…
Within an one week span, I flown on EVA, Thai Airways, UA, ANA and AC. UA flight came out to be the worse flying experience.
Seats were so packed together with hardly any room. I already has an aisle seat and I think I would die if I was seated in the middle. Food was horrible. I know I should be happy that there is at least food. I ended up not eating any. I suggest get on the flight with a full stomach and just drink water, soda and beer. A bag of potato chips can come in handy. I would rather eat that than what they put in front of me.
Now I am having recurring nightmare that I am stuck in a long haul UA flight… I might have to pay for the upgrade to Economy plus to get more leg room or a bulkhead.