hoobly

As problems go, this is minor. But after being on hold repeatedly with UA for a complex reservation, I'm ready to punch George Gershwin, if I ever meet him. The hold music is a 60 or 90 second segment of Rhapsody in Blue. Fine to listen to the first time, bearable after three or four loops, but after the twenty-sixth iteration, I'm screaming inside.

On the plus side, the UA phone agent was very nice (albeit slow).

Fleck

It could have been worse. Much worse.

It could have been The Tragically Hip.

rmadisonwi

Any hold music loop will make your ears bleed when you hear it too much.

milepig

This is true - I once spent a long time on hold with Austrian and can still hear that waltz in my head years later.

mherdeg

I'm happy with the current hold music now precisely because it's so monotonous and fairly easy to tune out.

A few years back there were short 5-15 second blurbs of human voices intermixed with the music.

This was worse.

"The United Mobile App is like a travel toolkit."

"Wherever you're going, we're going there -- and there -- and there -- and there!"

etc.

NikoLGA

Is the United Hold Music actually Rhapsody in Blue? Everytime I’ve called, it’s a two/three minute looped version of the music that used to play behind the old safety video:


Sometimes there is a quick Explorer card ad, but that’s it. I find it extremely pleasant and uplifting. Either it’s a very different version of Rhapsody, or a different tune all together.

BBSHOPSINGER

It's somewhat affected, but it is Rhapsody in Blue.

findark

Have you ever been on hold with pretty much anyone else? Yes, United ruins Rhapsody in Blue after a fashion, but it's at least 10x more pleasant than any other hold music I can think of having dealt with in the last year.

NikoLGA

With the possible exception of Air Canada, you are 100% right.

Most everything else is ad-filled with inaudible music...

goodeats21

Current hold music is light years ahead of the underlined above. Worst ever.

JVPhoto

One time while boarding an Air France flight CDG-TXL they were playing one of the Hotel Costes vol __ mix CDs which was rather nice.

Steve M

I haven't been on hold with UA for awhile, but I know what you mean. Right after the CO merger, when I first had to deal with UA call centers, I found the music to be unbearable. It's not so much the song itself or the repetitive nature, but the particular version they used was simply not suited to be looped over and over for upwards of an hour. It had these over-dramatic kettle drums near the end which managed to get even more annoying each additional time they played. That rendition would have been fine for something like a TV commercial where it played once. Perhaps that's where they got it. I did notice a few months later that they had improved it to a version that was better suited for the looping nature of Music On Hold.

As an aside, here's something that I think I mentioned in the NH forum a while back. It's suitable for mention here since it involves the NH NRT lounge that many UA passengers will use. The background music in the lounge is NH's theme song, maybe in a 5-minute rendition, that just plays over and over in a continuous loop. Once I became conscious of it, it was almost enough to make me want to leave. How many times in a row do you want to hear the same song? I can't imagine what it would be like to work in that lounge. I get corporate branding and all that, but it can go too far.

cerealmarketer

I like it too in a strange way. Feels like they asked whoever did the Continental hold / safety video music to do a Muzak / elevator music version of Rhapsody.

Before the merger / early days they used a more standard orchestra cut which is nice if you're a fan but dramatic for hold music.

radiowell

I actually like the music, an American classic.

Thank your lucky stars that UA decided not to play “I love you” by Barney as their hold music

Eastbay1K

Once upon a time the RIB was most likely on a warped loop tape, and sounded like a warped loop tape. The first (and quite possibly only) Clinton was president.