FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Benicia, California, USA
Programs: AA PLT,AS,UA PP,J6,FB,EY,LH,SQ,HH Dmd,Hyatt Glbl,Marriott Plat,IHG Plat,Accor Gold
Posts: 10,820
Really sorry but frankly not surprised to hear about your kid's lousy experience. If it makes you feel any better (which it won't), this is par for the course on UA these days.
I'm pretty high on AA right now for all sorts of reasons t- name a few, 8 SWUs per year if you're an Executive Platinum (the vague equivalent of 1K, but better because there's no real GS equivalent a tier higher), you can use those upgrades on just about any economy fare (unlike UA), a great Asia partner in CX (though not as many Asian partners as UA) on which you can get F award redemptions, better customer service (especially if you're EXP), F lounge access if you're an EXP, the list goes on - but like the others here I wonder if US might be your best option out of Charlotte. If you do consider AA, as you may know it has had a status match option available for UA customers. Not sure if that's still available these days.
FWIW, from the little I've read I think it's doubtful that AA and US will merge, but stranger things have happened.