Originally Posted by
chiproos
1. Attitude - This may not be important to everyone but more times than not at UA you will be dealing with a very poor attitude towards their customers. AA seems to be much more consumer friendly and willing to go the extra mile for its customers.
I cant' completely disagree with this assesment but AA flight attendants and other personnel aren't that much more pleasant. Still unionized and facing the same pressures as UA employees.
Originally Posted by
chiproos
2. Reservations/Customer Service - AA is US based while UA is outsourced to India and the Philippines. I personally have no problem with outsourcing the UA agents are often hard to understand and totally inflexible in dealings with customers. I even had a UA representative from India suggesting I use 200,000 miles to upgrade from STL-DEN while telling me "Sorry but the DEN-HKG portion cannot be upgraded and the return is unavailable to upgrade. May I book this for you?" When I told him no and that I would fly another airline, his response was "May I rent a Hertz car for you in China?" Didn't have a clue.
Are you kidding me???? My fiancee lost her bag on a flight from ORD to BOS last summer. Somehow it got sent to JFK then DCA and finally back to BOS. She was on the phone for hours with the customer service folks who offered little to no help! Moreover, if you are a preferred member on UA you talk with folks in the U.S.
Originally Posted by
chiproos
3. Seat assignments are questionable at best. The last Asia trip I booked with UA saw my preferred seat assignments change no less than 7 times in 2 months. When I called to ask why, I was given numerous answers....none true. I was told the equipment changed (not true). I was told it was an automatic seat reconfiguration (what in the world is that???), and finally was told on UA that one cannot reserve a seat until day of departure which I know isn't true.
Sounds like you just had a very bad experience and I would discredit the fact that there may have been some temporary equipment changes. There tends to be more equipment changes in the Pacific AOR due to a variety of circumstances. Seat reconfiguration can occur if an updated version of the aircraft is introduced to that route. Again, sometimes you just need to hang up and get a better agent.
[QUOTE=chiproos;11385507]4. This point is debatable but UA recently decided to discontinue taking customer complaints/concerns over the telephone. One must email or send in concerns via regular mail. Check out the UA threads - it is seldom that one receives a response to mail from UA. When a person has a concern, he/she wants a person to talk to who can render immediate action./QUOTE]
I actually prefer email or letters because you have a record of the complaint or issue. It's time to live in the 21st Century and embrace technology (e.g. email) to communicate with corporate entities.
Originally Posted by
chiproos
5. No comparison between the AA Admiral's Clubs and the UA Red Carpet Clubs. Admiral's Clubs are cleaner, much more friendly, offer free WIFI, etc.
Never been to an Admiral's Club so I can't really comment. I am skeptical that they are that much better
Bottom line - AA is not that much better than UA. There preferred programs offer similar benefits and there customer service is not better, in fact, I would argue WORSE than United's. AA has been mismanaged since the 9/11 attacks and the fact that they are scrambling to updated their AGING fleet to new Boeing 737-800s is evidence of this failure. Moreover, United has E+. AA was a trendsetter before 9/11 in offering more space throughout coach but has now reversed to even smaller pitch. Finally, AA's record with labor and it's employees is abhorred. They even tried to nickle and dime the SkyCabs at Logan Int'l. I would stick with UA...it's a far superior product, airline and company.