channa

Java City is not cheaper than FreshBrew. It's actually decent stuff. I had to pick it up in Sacramento when I made that gag gift of airline coffees for UA Insider a few years ago.


Sounds like United, but it will have WiFi, whereas on UA one might have WiFi. Maybe that's why US outperforms UA (marginally).


What's wrong with the MD's? Those things are great planes, especially in F (very quiet). Dark + Internet and streaming media entertainment. Sounds comparable to a brand new UA plane to me.

Sulley

The one I was on last night was extremely tired, worn, and rattled like a bucket of bolts.

To be fair, I don't think AA is doing much to the interiors since they're retiring them. It seemed like every piece of plastic in the plane was scuffed or yellowed with age.

And if you think the blue checkered seats coverings at CO are bad (and they are), AA's legacy seat covers are just as wretched.

As a disclaimer, I was in row 31 with the rest of the NRSA. At least I wasn't in 32. Those are for the buddy pass riders. Ha.

UA-NYC

Of course, I'd happily take that mainline bucket of bolts (with 16 F seats, wifi, power, quiet up front, real pilots, better reliability, etc.) over a UA RJ any day of the week...and yes they are often on similar routes.

Long Zhiren

Yes. UA seems to have gone from #6 on the list to #5 after CO was removed from the list. Way to go!
As the merger approached, CO dropped from #2 to #4 and then ceased to exist.

anc-ord772

That will happen when you fight with your customers,

and your employees.

Everyone is making money, its easy to be distracted.

United will turn it around one day. They have before.


I've moved over to AS. Notwithstanding seat pitch, I enjoy their F hard and soft product. They are well run and the elite program works nicely. It's not as if the best is always perfect, but every touch-point is more pleasant.

as a bonus, I grew up on AS. It's like coming home after a really long time.

spin88

Well then I am warned I'll toss some via in my bag (something I can leave home w/o now that I mostly fly VX/DL/AS).

It is a good example of price/product sensitivity. UA had lots of seats on its one flight, but wanted $20 more than US wanted in F for Y (surprised with how cheap some sUS FC fares are) and had some stupid price for F. The seat map showed about 30 empty seats, so it was the usual odd UA pricing. Regardless, US is more likely to be on time, and I'm not playing lottery on a flight of that length. I would have taken DL (as I did on my last trip to PHL), but the flights that worked were $300 more in FC than sUS. Sorry, I'm not playing $300 more to change planes.

I dun'no. UA would have bleed red ink recently absent the fall in fuel prices, given its poor yield performance, a fuel shock and reduced demand together, it will badly miss the elites it chased away...

mirror meet "savvy" management.

StingWest

Interesting that Frontier Airline's CEO has apparently resigned over the airline's poor ranking, according to the AP:

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/5a4e9...rsonal-reasons

BearX220

No confirmed causal link. Correlated events only.

Shareholder

The categories are somewhat artificial but at the same time would appear to contribute to the higher ratings the LCCs get vs the Legacies. After all people expect less from the LCCs and thus are not disappointed when they receive minimal service or less legroom. With Legacies, they expect more and thus are disappointed more often because what they get does not live up to what they expect. We elites are likely to be less disappointed because we still get free checked bags, priority check ins, E+ seats and the like. Imagine yourself seeing others getting these "perks" while you wait in a long line to be asked to pay to check your bag(s).

channa

WN offers 2 free checked bags, B6 has 1 free checked bag, United has 0.

WN and B6 have typically more legroom than what UA offers in E-.

WN and B6 both offer a free snack (pretzels, chips, peanuts, etc.), United provides nothing.

While expectation may play a part of it, you often get more on these low-cost carriers, which no doubt contributes to their better ratings.

spin88

Don't underestimate the impact of WN (and VX, B6 etc) being all mainline. JDP interviewed around 14,000 passengers, many of the WN ones are from secondary cities/regions (e.g. BNA, STL) where the options are (1) fly a "nice" 737 with friendly staff, or (2) fly a small RJ on AA/UA/US (and now less and less DL). For much of WN's traffic the other option is a small RJ. No wonder they are happy with WN, I'll take WN over many of the sCO RJs (or even the sUA CRJ700s) any day.

None of these surveys are looking only at those buying first class, or those who are elites, but a cross section of passengers. If - as we have heard many times - United has a much higher portion of elites (and this is certainly what I see flying VX, AS, and DL) then I would expect a much higher portion of the respondents as to UA to be elites. Given the elites get lots (or are supposed to get) of stuff for free, and you would expect would be more positively inclined to UA, UA's bottom of the heap score is even more impressive.

It appears that in the JD Power study, as with those posting on this board, exposure to the "new" United breeds contempt.

CO_Nonrev_elite

United could offer anything they like, but until they fix the grumbling bitter employees, they will remain dead last. I don't think I have had a grumpy employee on Southwest in 12 years of flying them, United you are hard pressed to get a smile out of anyone.

Southwest offer less sometimes, but offer it with a smile, don't gouge their customers and are WAY easier to deal with on everything except adding a Trusted Traveller number to a reservation online :P

Baze

Wow, your experiences are just so different from mine. I see smiles and hear thank you and welcome all the time on UA and UX.

CJ99

The Gip flew coach.

mike1968

Maybe it's just me, but I rarely pay for drinks either...I often get the "it's on me line"

Meanwhile flying UA on a paid F and I have to cough up a credit card for a veg carb box on the chicken or chicken meal flights; or hear the upgrades took the 2 veg choices loaded...very savvy and (elimination of pre-ordered veg meals) one of those awesome things CO brought to party...At least they warn you off from even considering an F booking so they can save a few bucks...that a very savvy way to make room for more TODs on cheap economy fares