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My experiences with United has been miserable. I earned my 1P status last year and almost hit 1K and I hated it every moment of it. My biggest gripe is every week for six months, my flights from SFO to SAN were never on time. Often, they were late by 3-4 hours. Sadly, it took me the same time to go from SFO to EWR as it was taking for me to get to SAN from SFO. The agents at the airport are never pleasant, especially at SFO where they tend to be rather cocky and unhelpful.
The one thing I give United kudos for is their rebooking tools. Anytime I had a delay or a cancellation, I had email with a new reservation, often before the people at the airport knew. Now that Alaska flies between SFO and SAN, i've just told United to take a flying leap and have been trying to give AS as much of my biz as possible. |
Originally Posted by cstead
(Post 8317401)
I guess I take a few things for granted, but I am a little bit surprised at some of your observations. Based on what I've read, it seems that you're mostly frustrated by the cramped CO Y, and the fact that EUAs are really tough to get if not booked in high classes or Y. UA does seem to keep at a few NF and NC seats open ahead of time, especially on 757s at non-superpeak travel times. However, you also had the fortune of being able to burning 150,000 miles rather quickly. Once your balance has fallen and you're stuck playing the upgrade game as a 1P (or even 1K), the rules of the game change dramatically. Upgrades are really route specific, but UA elites gripe a lot about how hard upgrades have become. This is largely because UA flies A319s with 8 F seats on lots of midcons and transcons, and other than the 757s, UA has far less F seats on their domestic fleet than the rest of the legacies on a per-plane basis.
Some of the cons of UA: -crappy RCCs -ICC -mediocre 1K agents -consistently inconsistent service onboard -understaffed airports -747s in Y -IAD -expensive UP/discounted domestic F fares, especially compared to CO -lack of agent training on QUPs -smallest European network of the legacies I will admit that being able to upgrade to F on C tickets is a nice perk, as is *G status and access to awards on SQ, NH, OS, LX, etc. If UA really works for you, thats great, especially since you have some international worked in. If you're a purely domestic traveller for biz like me, I've been really slow to fully switch to someone else, despite my unhappiness with UA just because its such a hassle. My experience with AA as a midtier has been better than my experience as 1K. BTW, UA doesn't serve VIE. I'm assuming you upgraded to FRA or MUC and are taking LH to VIE? Only thing I'd disagree with is to say that an AA PLT is better off than a UA 1K (or even a 1P). E+ alone swings that one to UA IMHO. But AA's EXP is perhaps the best elite level out there among US programs. |
As someone who was UA elite from 1988 to 1990, CO elite from 1990 to 1996, CO elite from 1996 to 2001, UA elite from 2001 to 2007, and now both UA 1K and CO Plat, I think I can make a pretty good comparison:
1. Route System - UA blows away CO. CO is strong in the eastern U.S., but weak in the west. UA is generally strong transcontinental. 2. Alliance - *A blows away SkyTeam. Kudos to SkyTeam for getting a lot stronger and better coverage. Nevertheless, SkyTeam is still an alliance of airlines that no one else wanted. And overall, SkyTeam has surpassed OneWorld. 3. Local Alliance - The CO/NW/DL alliance is great! Super seamless! Words can't praise it enough! UA/LH is pretty good. Most OneWorld alliances pretty much suck. 4. Quality of airlines...UA/AA/CO...they all pretty much suck! 5. Quality of frequent flyer programs: UA is best, especially for 1Ks...in 2 1/2 years as a 1K, I've only failed the upgrade once! Can you CO Plats make the same claim? And IKs get 6 SWUs a year for intl. flights. What's it like to truly get an intl. BF upgrade on CO? CO may offer "unlimited free domestic upgrades" but lottsa luck getting one! 6. CO Pres Club vs. UA RCC vs. AA AAdmirals Club - A no-brainer here! For domestic clubs, the CO Pres Club is the clear winner! Free booze, better snacks, and free WiFi make them a clear winner! UA & AA domestic clubs are just plain sorry!!! So, pick which features are important to you. |
Originally Posted by SemiElite
(Post 8325021)
6. CO Pres Club vs. UA RCC vs. AA AAdmirals Club - A no-brainer here! For domestic clubs, the CO Pres Club is the clear winner! Free booze, better snacks, and free WiFi make them a clear winner! UA & AA domestic clubs are just plain sorry!!!
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Wait, wait. Doesn't RCC get you into USAir Clubs? :D
Not to mention that I can use my AMEX to get into the PC/CRC/WC, whereas I still haven't decided to buy the RCC yet. It would be nice to have access at BWI. Maybe a Priority Pass is the way to go.... |
Not to mention that the PC still offers Lifetime and Senior Lifetime Memberships, the RCC offers neither! :)
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