travelcomments

Two recent experiences with United:

(1) TUS-LAX-SFO (Ugly)
TUS-LAX was on a UX RJ200. Enough said. Due to weather delays the flight arrived late in LAX, but timely enough to allow for most connections. Incredibly, the plane stopped 40 yards away from the gate (for those who know LAX - the last gate at the tip of the terminal, gate 80 something). After a couple of minutes UA ground control sent the plane on a remote parking position. Apparently UA ground control could not figure out the sequence of other planes leaving the gates and simply decided to hold flights and clear waiting planes out of the way.

At that time a 20 minute delay grew to 40 minutes. Most pax missed their connections and the typical mayhem ensued since UA had exactly one CSR in gate area. All I needed was to pick up a new BP. Given the long line I tried the RCC - and was rudely shown the door. Yes, I am not a RCC member (not worth the money IMHO) but as a 1K I had hoped the act of spending 30 seconds to print a new BP would fall under general customer service. It ultimately took 42 minutes in line to get the new BP - ehough to nearly miss the re-bokked flight.

The original LAX-SFO leg had been upgraded and before boarding I asked - very politely - about getting upgraded on the re-bokked flight. A fairly gumpy gate agent told me to get out of his hair. I boarded as one of the last 5 passengers and was told that no upgrades were available ("F is full"), a number of other pax were also denied upgrades. I was none to happy to discover that the F cabin was half empty. The GA's attitude very much seemed to be "you don't deserved to be in F so I will not upgrade you".

Summary: Less than stellar operational intelligence, understaffing, and staff unwilling to assist in event he smallest way or staff interpreting CS in "interesting" ways.

(2) BOS-SFO (very good)
Great F cabin crew. Attentive. Polite. The captain kept the pax updated (again wehather delay) and was even funny. The food was good. This was one of the rare occassions which led me to send a comepliment to WHQ.

Summary: All in all a very good experience.

What to make of this? I guess this is UA in a nutshell - some very good and quite a bit of very bad CS. But what is so difficult to create a consistent, half decent CS experience? Other airlines from SQ to VJ (Virgin Blue) get this done.