texasex95

I've had many wonderful experiences flying United and I just don't get all of the bashing. Every airline will have bad apples but overall United is no better or worse than Continental.

Read this and see what they're doing to be the best...

http://content.united.com/ual/asset/UAL_CSR-web-v4.pdf

I think with the Continental influence this can and will be the best airline out there. Hopefully they'll get a new look when the merger happens to start fresh. Kind of like what Delta did before it's merger.

Enjoy the United brochure.

Laughable

Propaganda...

BearX220

I would have been happy never setting foot on a United aircraft again, after all I've seen from those people. All this we-appreciate-your-business stuff is a deathbed conversion; for many years UA as a corporate entity paid its customers little to no heed at all.

unicon

I agree that UA is not so much worse than CO as some people make it out to be. But the best airline out there? Unless you are considering only US airlines, there is no way it is going to be the best in the world. Biggest, of course, but not the best.

Carolinian

While certainly not as bad as awful DL and US, UA will always have a second rate ff program as long as they continue to engage in *net blocking. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will change, and would then stay with CO/UA, but if it doesn't, I am gone to AA.

PeaSouper

Agreed. I travel a ridiculous amount for work, and I have this job primarily so that I can use the OnePass miles to take my wife on nice vacations.

I hate to be one of those "the sky is falling", "if my guy loses I'm moving to Canada" kind of people. I would probably abide having to pay for drinks in the new lounge, flying around on dirty old Airbus planes, and many of the other crappy things from today's UA, but if *net blocking is in the new CO/UA, I'm gone to AA as well. There would really be no reason to stay.

chavada

Which Airlines does UA block that you would want to use ?

entropy

As much as (many of you) think I'm a CO basher, I think you gotta remember that I was a big fan of CO until a couple of years ago. What changed? My upgrade rate plummeted (as Plat) and I tried UA... meanwhile, CO touts how great they are, while implementing 50% EQM, watching as upgrade %ages drop.

Recently, UA has started tooting their own horn a bit loudly for my tastes (rah rah we're #1 on time, plastered on everything).

Things aren't as good on CO as y'all think, and things on UA aren't as bad either.

ConciergeMike

Certainly others more familiar on the topic will eventually chime in, but I do know that it is not airlines, but certain routes that are blocked.

dreidel

You are correct. I believe they inconsistently block some routes where UA offers competing services, but I've never experienced anything too noticeable. Last year, as a 1P (50,000 miles/year), I booked two first class tickets for my father and I through Europe, travelling on UA, LX, LO, SK, and LH (including access to their FCT, which was a highlight of the trip), and I was able to get exactly what the NH booking tool showed. Obviously, that's a tiny data set, and YMMV though. I was still thrilled to be able to visit 5 countries on (2) 120,000 miles awards tix (I think they're 135,000 now).

sbm12

And most routes are not blocked wholesale but at specific times or days. Yes, it is an issue, but not one that is so awful it requires a change of loyalty IMO.

channa

It's some routes on some airlines, some of the time.

I've booked a number of F awards on partners with UA with no issue whatsoever.

While it's indeed a nuisance, it's not like it's a wholesale block of everything.

I hope the combined entity gets rid of it.

okrogius

Granted I've only taken about five flights on CO this year. However, they generally had dirtier (relative, not that it was terrible) interior than dozens of UA flights I've been on. Sure, UA keeps some paint jobs in deplorable condition, the interiors are quite well cleaned. How many UA flights have you sampled recently?

Star blocking - yes, unfortunately. However, out of curiosity, have you booked any star alliance carriers recently that would be blocked? (and for the bulk of them, it's just slightly more time consuming personally -- you can still get the rough flights you like if you're flexible) Also, out of curiosity, were you with CO before *A? How was partner redemption on skyteam for you?

Let's see, reasons to stay - somethings such as E+, SWU's, top notch compensation should anything go wrong, perhaps a few others. (as a plat you won't even notice any service quality)

Now, this isn't meant to say UA is perfect. What I am saying is I hope you're diligent enough to not claim the sky is falling over one issue, or before even looking at the sky (competition). Every program has its pros and cons, so picking based one arbitrary item seems somewhat dubious. (in general MP/OP are fairly comparable now, so hopefully the new merged program won't be bad, maybe just a tad different from either side)

Bonehead

For those of you not sure what all this "blocking" talk is about, see this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...-blocking.html

PeaSouper

Six UA segments in 2010, all domestic, two in F, four in Y. It's not as bad as US, which I flew once this year and continue to swear that I'll never fly again, but subjectively speaking, yes, I found the cabin dirtier than on CO. Again, though, not so bad that I won't fly UA.

To be honest, I never tried to redeem on SkyTeam, but yes, I heard it was bad. All of my redemptions were on CO metal.

In our future travel plans, my wife and I are looking at BKK, IST, and some other places that you simply have to use *A carriers other than CO or UA to get to. Of course this is simply anecdotal, and I have no experience with *net blocking myself, but looking at this thread scares the crap out of me.

I'm not going to dispute that there are great things about UA. Hell, I'd take ch.9 over E+. I guess the cynic in me predicts that the new entity will be the combined worst of UA plus worst of CO, all of which I could live with, except not being able to use my ff miles to go where I want to go.