The cars often have both a ramp-services driver and a Premier Services agent riding, leaving only the back seat available.

Not quite sure what all the fuss is about. In the 2 to 3 years that I was GS with United I never experienced a car transfer once. I actually believed it was an urban myth.

Why is a compensation needed when this is not a guaranteed benefit?

Which would not be legal since technically you can only fit the number of passengers based on number of seatbelts.

I’m pretty sure the next complaint is “How come were the ones who have to wait for the second car?”. UA should just cut it back to just those on tight connections. Too many fragile egos just waiting for a disappointment to happen. Offer too many rides, too much xposure.

I very happily waited for the next car. No complaints.

my post must not have come through......

I have always wondered about this service - and as a 1K/1MM, I doubt I will ever get the opportunity to experience it - but it does have me wondering.....

on a recent MXP-MUC-SFO flight, our (me and my 1k companion) our MXP to MUC flight came to a stop at a remote spot waiting for a bus at 11:10... the problem is the MUC-SFO started boarding at 11:00
... I was hoping (ha ha) that maybe UA would pick us up and save us from the bus (and running through the terminal/passport control/etc)... we barely made the flight, they GA said they were calling out our names and waiting for us - I think we were the last (or close to it) to board (a similar experience on a LHR flight back home a few years back in 1L)..... would it not have been faster/easier/cheaper to pick us up rather than hold a TATL 777/787 or risk a misconnect?

has any non-GS ever gotten a ride?

Reviewing this thread, you will see a few (very few) instances of 1Ks alone getting the service. Not something that 1Ks should expect.

sorry - my bad

but the point is I wonder where the practical economics of this come in the 1K and GS flyers who are at risk for missing a tight connection (especially for once a day INT flights) booked all on UA in which UA has some ownership in the consequences.

As a 1K, when I reconnected IRROPS in 2018 EWR-BDL-ORD as the last seat option in United First for EWR-ORD, due to severe east coast weather, GA was on the jet bridge upon arrival BDL with my name displayed on a device to escort me the 200 steps across the concourse to the ORD flight to make sure I made it expeditiously. Aircraft door closed just about when I sat down and secured my seatbelt.

UA has never talked about this in terms for 1Ks, only for GSs and even GS availability is limited.
The rare 1K cases have been speculated to be when the team had "free time."

It's never something I expect but always something I appreciate but I'm not sure it's rare. I've been averaging around 5-6 times a year, mostly on the East Coast and usually in the 3rd and 4th quarters which gives me false hope of impending GS-ness.

(Outside of IAD/EWR it breaks down to a handful of times in IAH and DEN; never in LAX, SFO, or ORD... Though LAX and SFO are typically O/D instead of connections, and I only fly places where DEN makes sense as a connection rarely).

While it has saved my but on some very close connections (memorably one each in IAH and IAD in 2025) it's also happened where I have enough time that the premium services agent has ask if there's a specific club I'd prefer to be dropped off at.

There is a way for certain agents (at any airport, not just the hub) to lodge a request for the service but even then it is far from guaranteed (of the two times an agent has told me that they've submitted a request there was a car waiting for me once -- but on the downline connection, not the one I was worried about, so not sure if it was coincidental, submitted incorrectly, or what). It is not a SSR in the PNR as I would have guessed (I would have thought it would have been a SSR MAAS or similar).

The exterior stairs leading from the jetway down to the car are not good for people with mobility issues. Unless they have access to a nearby staff elevator I don't suggest it for people with disabilities.

Maybe they could try the luggage chute and send them down like a slide? (That's an attempt at humor.)



I think it is airport dependent. I have never had a tarmac transfer in DEN despite needing it multiple times recently. Like running to the gate and getting there minutes before the cutoff and being downgraded to a middle seat at the back of the plane.

I've had transfers at IAD when I needed it and also at IAH, LAX and SFO when I did not. Don't connect much at EWR so no experience there. But more recently things have changed, in the last 7-8 years I have only had a tarmac transfer 1, maybe 2 times. And as I stated above never at DEN.