sgfood

I've noticed a positive attitude change in the past few months;

Both GA's and UC staff thank me by name for flying UA.

On four occasions FA thanks me for my business before meal order

Yesterday on SJU/IAH FA approached me before meal service and thanked me for my loyalty and asked me if I would be having lunch. After replying no, she then asked me if she could offer me a snack from the purchase menu. This was about 10 mins before taking orders for the rest of the cabin and my drink was delivered first.

I think I'm aging faster than I thought...senior sympathy!
(or perhaps I got tired of fighting for CPU's and starting buying F. It might be $'s)

hookthem

I got to the point last year where I was 95% sold on flying AA (even had an EXP match). I had been travelling M-Th every week and had gone many consecutive weeks with awful experiences with UA. Most of which had to do with poor customer service. Based out of SAT and with my travel patterns, I really had to go out of my way to fly AA. I chickened out.

I have had mixed feelings about UA this year, but they are drastically better than 2013. The following list isn't just customer service related.

Good Experiences

1. I feel like my GPUs are worth more when I'm travelling on my own dime, as UA has successfully lost many HVF's (thus increased my chances of scoring an upgrade). This benefits me greatly as a pseudo-HVF (I very easily qualify for 1K spend, but not quite to the point of GS). Having GPUs clear is refreshing.

2. I have had some great international flights with just wonderful flight crews. In particular, some awesome experiences BOM-EWR, SFO-HKG, ICN-SFO.

3. I have had some customer service agents perform tasks that I didn't know possible (e.g. refund a co-pay with a RPU/GPU without having any uncertainty).

Bad Experiences

1. The software/IT issues are just as prevalent. I still feel like I waste a LOT of time on the phone due to inefficiencies/limitations with the software. I have to make changes to flights A LOT, and a lot of the time it simply doesn't work on UA.bomb.

2. The customer service is still just inconsistent. The crews still don't consistently perform the same. Furthermore, I think we must have lost the concept of the 1K desk. It seems as though some of them don't properly understand basic concepts like which fare I wish to pick (e.g. I'll commonly request that they search for P, R, W and they don't get it --- I just hang up and re-dial).

In The 216

The last part of your comment is exactly how I feel. The terrible employees are so bad that it's hard to care about the positive experiences. There are honest some absolutely horrible, horrible people representing United Airlines in customer service roles. It's sad that they are so miserable.

FlyingNone

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Please don't attack me but I will ask hypothetically - (I honestly don't know) - but feel this may be the case --

Are these United "agents" on the social media team on Facebook and Twitter really the same as reservationists when it comes to rules, decision making, company policies, etc. or are they just there to "make nice" and respond and fix problems quicker by overrides or waivers? Are they public contact employees under a union contract like reservationists are? Most importantly for those of you who tweet and Facebook United, do your respondents always come through with positive responses or are there ever "no" answers ?

bajrbajr

My experiences with FA's, GA's, and CSA's has been nothing but positive over the last two years.

embarcadero1

While your conjecture about age may be true, we have no reason whatsoever to believe that jumping ship is related to anything but what s/he relayed to the FTer at the hotel bar.

I've noticed two things: (1) unbelievable operational difficulties that make flying UA overseas not worth the risk, and (2) systematic degrading of customer service levels that make flying UA a risk no matter what the duration of the flight. I can't imagine why cabin crews would not have noticed the same thing, as appears to be the case from this exchange.

It must be getting harder and harder to keep those UA pom pons in the air. Fuel prices will bring some temporary relief but the damage to the company appears to have passed the tipping point.

Pat89339

In short, no. I can count on one hand the number of remarkable employees I have crossed paths with in my 150K flown so far this year. There have been countless of the not-in-a-good-way memorable kind.

Ecuacoflyer

In general, flight crews and agents on the phone have been very good, and most seem to have "gotten over" the merger.

fly18725

There were plenty of exceptional, horrible, and mediocre employees before the merger and I think we've returned to status quo as integration (at least operationally) settles down. The number of negative comments about the merger others seem to encounters in surprising and leads me to believe there's baiting. In my experience, employee don't talk about the merger much in front of customers unless encouraged to complain.

BearX220

Right on #1. On #2 the striking thing to me is how much autonomy UA service people have to be good, awful, or horrific. Experience quality seems entirely down to their whim and personal energy. No apparent sanctions for saboteurs which must make things harder still for employees with a conscience.

Not in mine. I asked if she thought the worst of the merger turbulence was behind us, and those were the last words I got in for ten minutes. Believe what you want.

StingWest

(1) I have not had any operational issues (cancelled or late flights) this year, flying about 18 legs SFO TATL - maybe there are more problems over the Pacific?

(2) I think the service has actually gotten better. I fly mostly in the premium cabins thanks to many upgrades, but even the few times in Coach have been fine - again, TATL.

I certainly hope many of the over-60 flight attendants take the package, as some new blood is definitely needed on the European flights. I guess union seniority rules prevent mixing in a few younger FA's in each cabin, but that would go along way toward bringing back some "freshness" and renewed energy to the service. That being said, service recently has been mostly good, occasionally outstanding.

seanp7

Yes, agreed. I'm sensing a more positive vibe as well - not in the UC's, but onboard with the FA's (and even the tone of the Pilot announcements).

Continuous improvement desirable, of course, but it's better now than it was 12 mths ago.

goodeats21

I agree with this...especially when it comes to the outsourced UAX ground operation. One of the first casualties of "Operation Quality" must have been axing any oversight of the contractors. Horrible operations that continue to get worse...which I thought was darn near impossible.

There seems to be no oversight or control.

StingWest

That's a good point. Very little oversight in evidence, and are there consequences to occasional bad behavior (or better still, encouragement for outstanding performance)?

Bring in the "secret shoppers" - that would improve things.

halls120

You are correct, the employees aren't arguing as much with each other about the merger in the presence of customers. That said, every time I fly UA, I ask the purser/sCO equivalent how things are going, and every single time they tell me the work group integration isn't going well, and they aren't particularly happy with management.