Originally Posted by
dan1431
UA is by no means wonderful, but they are tolerable for shorter segments.
Another frequent CO poster and myself visited all three IAD RCCs and while one of them was actually worse than my old frat house basement (and my Frat was as bad as they got), the other two were fine with one of them being completely acceptable.
My experiences with UA have been hot/cold, but that "may" have more to do with my lack of any STAR status than it does with almost anything else. Each time I have had a negative experience with UA it is because I lacked any status which would have helped with "Elite Access" type activities. Beyond that, their product is not wonderful by means, (CO is in a different league in comparison) but it is not horrible either (and that is saying something as I have really been against the move to STAR Alliance since the get go as I really dislike UA as well).
In summary, I will be able to tolerate UA, not love, not be really thrilled with UA, but tolerate it.
Dan
I have been flying UA fairly frequently for 2 years, and have only achieved status recently.
The entire time I flew UA without status I did not encounter a single UA employee who treated me anything less than professionally. More than one went out of their way to assist me beyond the call of duty.
As to your comment about CO being in a league of its own, I believe that statement only applies to flying CO in the premium class.
In Y, CO's service is essentially indistinguishable from any other legacy, with the usual combination of friendly, indifferent and downright nasty service one can find on any other carrier. I feel that my flights on AA, DL, NW, and UA (and even US) have been pretty much indistinguishable from the service I have received in CO Y.
Additionally, CO has the added disadvantage of having the least comfortable economy section in the North America, especially for longer flights.
Regarding UA, there may be issues, but the presence of E+ makes up for a lot of the shortcomings.