A tale of two airlines
 

Last night a colleague and I had to be in Raleigh. I flew , as I normally do, PIT-RDU nonstop on the last flight of the day at 10pm. Get upgraded no sweat and even arrive early to the airport at 11pm. In the nice new Airbus -- very quiet and uneventful ride.

My colleague, coming in from Albany tries to connect with my flight but the ALB-PIT portion is sold out. Travel agent puts him on United. I warn him to expect the worst and send him my sympathies.

His connection was supposed to arrive at 10:30pm. Turns out he arrives closer to 1am due to a 2 hour delay during which United refuses to say what the problem is.

Moral of the story? I will keep telling my travel agent -- anything but United. And my friend is happy he's flying American on the way back.

:-)

What's the point of this post? Just to bad mouth UA again? We all have had experiences like this with every airline. AA stranded, yes stranded, me twice at the gate because of strikes, causing me some inconvenience. So what? It's just a part of too many people in too many planes in a system that has not been modernized, thanks to the FAA and people like the dreadful Crandall. But so what?

Keep the petty gripes at home; post comments that are interesting or helpful. Delete this one which is neither.

I don't see Nathan the moderator as your name, so keep your comments on what belongs to yourself. No one asked you. If you can read, you'll see it's called 'FlyerTalk Trip Reports' of which I reported on two separate trips to the same destination. Hence I am on topic, unlike you.

Everyone has their own experience with different airlines and I have found UA to be substandard. Every airline I've been on has problems, just UA has more in my own experience and of those I have spoken to. I had two "Trips" to compare of and hence I posted on Trip Reports.

I do make it a point, as I told United in my letters to them, to tell people about my dreadful experiences with United and how to avoid them at all costs. They replied to my letters calling me a liar. I know I have cost them business in the past and I will be happy, as others will be, if I cost themmore.

If you like them, by all means post about your good experiences. But don't bad mouth my opinions. Everyone is free to take the contents of this public forum at face value.

Now I suggest you delete your reply and I'll be happy to delete this one.

Nathan Detroit: I'll see your Crandall and raise you a Lorenzo.

I can understand wanting to spread the word about bad experiences, and you've obviously had some in the past with UA. My brother's UA flight from BKK-SEA was actually delayed 2 DAYS...your friend's two-hour delay was nothing compared to that! But these things do happen, and statistics are kept, and guess what? All the major domestic airlines are pretty close in terms of on-time arrivals over the last year. Delta was worst with 77.5% and Northwest was best with 79.8%. Not much difference.
http://www.dot.gov/airconsumer/996delay.htm

HOWEVER...if you're flying into PIT, UA's record is absolutely abyssmal: 58% on time for June as opposed to 72.2% for AA. So United clearly has a problem there. And you're not only justified in telling your friend "anything but United" for flights into Pittsburgh, but I'd dash off a letter to Dave United, Jr., asking what he plans to do about this problem.

QuietLion

Ummm ... it's one thing when people level legitimate complaints about DL, but I'm going to have to step in here ... where do you see that DL is the worst in ontime performance over the last year?

According to the DOT report that you linked to they have been number 2 over the twelve month period ending 6/99 behind only Southwest ... As a matter of fact as I had pointed out elsewhere, DL is consistently highly ranked in all categories tracked by the FAA this year except for the problems they've had with involuntary denied boardings.

dg1: Since you flew a nice, new Airbus from PIT to RDU, and were able to upgrade.... clearly you flew US Airways!!! http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

I know plenty of (and some at this site) flyers who love United. Good for them. Here's the low down on my experience with United.

Thanksgiving weekend a few years ago
PIT-JFK (I believe, one of those New York airports)
1 hour delay as they hold up the whole plane for an elite level member since no one wanted to take their compensation (someone in the end took $700!)

JFK-PIT
8 hour delay because we had a flat tire. Mechanic had to fly in from Dulles. Union thing I bet. Then it turns out he forget the REPLACEMENT tire! When we finally got on the plane they forgot to FUEL the plane! ANd when we got off the ground we found out we had enough fuel all along, the pilot just calculated wrong! Wasted another 2 hours that way.

COmpensation: 3 $25 certs, that cant be used together or transferred to anyone else. They weren't signed either like required, so USELESS and sitting in my desk.

A couple of weeks later,
PIT-ORD, ORD-AUS
Ok flight with decent meal. I was going to give United a second chance after sending off a letter complaining about the last flight.

AUS-ORD No problems. Bad food this time.
ORD-PIT
1 hour flight with 2 hour delay. Agent refuses to give any reason. Gives another $25 useless certificate, but not to me since I dozed off on the plane and then refused to give me one since they don't believe I never got one.

Afterwards I got my letter with the complaints about the 8 hour delay due to mechanical difficulties, and they responded telling me according to their records the flight left 10 minutes late!

That was the last straw. After that ... 'anything but United'.

I have had similar problems with Continental (but they gave me free champagne to make up for it and said WE'RE SORRY) USAirways (but they gave me free confirmed upgrades to make up for it and said WE'RE SORRY) but on United (you're a **** liar, go to hell). So... obviously you see why I feel strongly on the issue.

My only issue with the first response to my post is about 'postworthiness'. My post is as worthy as any other. And if you choose to fly United you do so at your own risk http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Thanks...

Beckles: You're absolutely right... I misread the tables. Delta was actually the best! But the point remains the same, that they're all very close.

And I too remember back in the mid-80s when I ditched United for almost 10 years due to horrid customer service. They sure have improved.