J.Edward

Well said. ^

Why care about US when they don't care about us?

Phudnik

The baseline was pretty low. I haven't flown in F for some time but they are just now getting back to where they were before the months leading up to the merger.

In some respects, the product is good (snack basket, new specialty drinks) and in some it's not (no IFE, ripped out the power they used to have in the East Airbus fleet, tight seat pitch). What is clear is that, unless you are a hub flier who wants to concentrate on one airline or a CP or all you care about is upgrades, Dividend Miles under the new regime is a pretty poor program.

SS255

Ain't it the truth! But at least US is cleaning up their act for those who are hub captives and those who value upgrades over all other collective considerations. Product-wise, the outlook was much more bleak a year ago.

fozz

After my awful experience with US this weekend, this can't happen soon enough.

Quite frankly, US is a substandard airline doesn't deserve to be in an alliance. Their folks are inept and their management makes the UA management look like shining stars.

To the OP, while it may make sense to fly US due to your locale, I encourage to redeem your points asap -- on *A partners. Once a ticket is issued, the operating carrier is obligated to honor it within *A and that way you don't get screwed when US folds.

dlen111

this may eventually be for the US board, but seriously, what is the huge BEEF with US. i have flown them plenty of times recently in Y and F and everything seems fine. pre-dep drinks, coats hung (behind row three mind you), plenty of drinks during flights (in plastic, however i dont really care) and a great snack basket.

what else do we want in these times? CO's service has gone to nearly crap from what it was pre 9/11. both airlines offered great service on flights over 2 hours. now neither do. CO chose to make it 2 hours plus, only during hours. US chose 3.5 hours plus all day. of course it all relates to departure city, route and time of flight.

absolutely, US may not best choice for domestic, but for short flights, they're all the same (minus glasses + snack basket). med haul (3.5 hrs+) they're equal, and long haul, they are lacking.

i love CO, and continue to fly them any choice i get, but i will not cringe when i have to fly US. especially from PHX when its acutally HP. and ESPECIALLY now that i get 100% EQM's for flying them.

vysean

So you had a bad experience with them and suddenly they can't get kicked out of *A soon enough? And they are substandard and don't deserve to be in an alliance? Really?

Come on - the .....ing and moaning about US would be funny if it weren't so sad. I had six flights with them in the last two weeks - two near-transcons, a short haul, two TATL segments, and a midcon. On the three domestic mid/transcons, pre-departure beverages were offered (anything you wanted, incl. alcohol), pre-meal hot towels were distributed, the snack basket was passed multiple times, hot meals were served, and my drinks were refilled multiple times. The food was okay to very good (for domestic US airline food), the drink selection was excellent, and the ONLY measurable negative was the lack of IFE (and glasses, if you care about that). The two near-transcons had one F/A serving 16 F pax on 4-6 hour flights and neither F/A sat down on the jumpseat for more than five minutes once service began - they were always available and were quite friendly.

Is this a guarantee that each and every flight will be as good? Absolutely not. We're all intelligent enough to know (well I hope) that even the best service will have occasional inconsistency. Likewise, one bad experience does not a trend make. That US is still in business (for multiple years) after posts like the one I quoted should be evidence enough that they are doing something right (or at least not screwing up significantly more than the competition).

As to your other paragraph, not so sure it's true. You might check with the NZ/QF forums to see if anyone recalls what happened with Ansett. A quick Google search reveals that carriers were under no obligation to honor tickets (award or otherwise), but some (not all) chose to do so out of goodwill. See http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&s...&aq=f&oq=&aqi= and http://www.smartertravel.com/travel-....html?id=17337 for more.

Look, I get that CO is the high and mighty of domestic carriers. Fine - I look forward to trying them out. I'll even pony up for a reasonably priced MUP to see (not something I'd do on US, BTW). But US is a perfectly acceptable option for many people and has shown more improvement in the last year than probably any other domestic carrier.

sbm12

When things run smoothly they're fine. When the wheels come off they REALLY come off. Worse than CO.

That's the beef that many have. It hasn't bitten me. Yet. But when it does I'm sure I'll be in the same hate parade.

PWMFlyer19

This can be said about any airline at any time. It really comes down to personal experience. My personal experience says that Delta is worst during IRROPS, then CO. Look at what happened the other day with FAA. Some airlines cancelled more flights than others and there are other factors such as weather and hubs.

It also has to do with flying patterns, where you are at in that specific journey
and your own reaction. I fly US predominantly because it has the most flights out of PWM, I can connect through 3 different hubs in case of IRROPS - if I really need to be somewhere or really want to get home to see my kids.

Cheers.

SS255

Agreed. US's customer service used to be excellent. Now it's merely inconsistent. And alot of the customer service failings are tied to US's disastrous reservation migration from 2.5 years ago. Things have improved, but still not to the level of the way things were before they switched over to Shares/Qik.

US is still an asset to the *A, but I do believe its position in the Alliance has been weakened by CO's presence.

Renard

They aren't going to be the ugly stepsister.... they already are It is just more obvious now with CO in the mix.

Pinky

Although I don't plan to fly them ever again, I'm sitting happily now in their Club in LAX since they share a terminal with Southwest and as usual, there are 3 delays to SFO. If you live in California, you might be happy to know that they will accept you in the US Airways club with a CO PC membership and don't ask what airlines you are flying

This one *Alliance benefit makes me very happy today.

whakojacko

In Y at least,
1. No IFE of any kind on domestic.
2. Terrible pitch. (alright I come from E+, Im a bit spoiled)
3. They tried to charge for soft drinks ()
4. They put ads on tray tables and spam the plane with credit card offers.
5. $50 confirmed standby (waived for CP IIRC), but no free non-confirmed standby
7. No 500 mile minimum
6. Not directly related to flying them in Y, but they also tried to remove elite RDM bonuses.