Thanks for sharing your examples from the front line. The impact is real, and it's not pretty.


Why am I not surprised that your example passenger is also a cocktail?

Is that what SHARES had done to you? ;)

It's been a rough, rough summer.

Sunday was the first day I've worked since 3/3 where each of the flights I was working left on time.

The system has huge, huge limitations, and I cannot help customers the same way I used to.


Is it better than 3/3? Yes, absolutely. While SHARES is no Fastair, I'm pretty darn good in it. It still takes me twice as long to do things, but I can do them. Usually. If the system lets me.

CheckIt is useful for me for standard check-in, nothing more. I don't use it to rebook, work the gate, anything. It's simply slower than native for me.

Operationally, things seem to be worse. See above. Flights are full, planes are constantly overbooked, late for MX, WX, etc. From my point of view, the aircraft are all stretched too thin, flying too many cycles, so they break more frequently. Last summer we had scheduled 40 minute turns for most RJ's, so that, even if the aircraft was 30 minutes late, the actual departure would be 10-15 minutes late. This summer, we have the 24 minute minimum service time on almost every turn. Leaves very little room for error.

Well at least this is a step away from TOD. Would have been $99 before!

That has been my experience on AA so far this year.

That said, things aren't as bad as they were immediately after 3/3, but their reliability worries me. Right now I have four trips on tap for September. I've purchased one on UA, but I'm leaning to AA for the other three because I need to arrive on time for the other three trips.

As long as UA sticks with a user unfriendly PSS, I don't think things will ever get back to where they used to be. I still cannot fathom why UA chose a tool that makes their employees less efficient. :confused:

Yup...implying that things are amiss without real data to back it up. Perception driving reality, but not in a rational way. By showing the waitlist the company has actually created a system where customers can take the small amount of data intended for a very specific purpose and extrapolate/imagine it out to cover lots of other things.

When CPUs now hiccup on a out of sync reservation, we observe "pricing errors" that charge an elite 4x that of a GM for an upgrade, same-day TODs offered at 14 day V-up prices (if not cheaper) - it's wholly rational to see waitlist movement that rarely seems to work in one's favor and think something is amiss.

And, furthermore, to experience the same thing repeatedly, and to realize others are experiencing the same thing. That's what has been so amazing about FT. It allows us to connect the dots. We are all fools? I don't think so.

My impression is the poster was not making any overriding conclusion, just expressing frustration over issues which are--most likely--justified by his/her experiences, deep data analysis notwithstanding...

Everything you describe is part and parcel of the CO management approach which was highly lauded going into the merger.

SHARES: It is not user-unfriendly by accident. They spent a lot of money and effort to make it an unwieldy tool. In know that sounds strange, but the whole point of SHARES is to keep the line personnel as unempowered as possible. The idea is to keep HQ is control, maximizing revenue.

Aircraft utilization: Flying their a/c as much as possible has always been a CO trademark. Nothing wrong with getting as much value as possible out of the airline's most expensive capital investments, but it only functiors as long as the planes are actually in working mechanical order and the domino effect of delays is not too severe.

Nice to be back on FT. Been flying a little less lately due to some work stuff but I still have 30+ flights since 3/3 to report on. Generally, as others have said, the things that are supposed to work are. Service in the air has been excellent and I have very little contact with ground staff so no problem there for me. The open issues as I see them are:

1. On time %. Not good. UA has done something with the padding on flights that is causing just about every flight I take to be late. Not hugely late but just enough to make the connection/my appointment very close and on a few occasions missed.

2. IROPS. I continue to "luck out" but I am very aware that it has been luck. I have had 3 IROP issues and I made it where I was going all 3 times but not once because the system "fixed" it for me. I had to call the 1k line and tell them how to get me home/ whatever.

3. Capacity. I know Wall Street loves high load factors but there is a point of diminishing returns and they are there IMO. They lose business from me on certain routes because they are so full the prices are crazy. In those instances I shop because I fly enough to not "need" PQMs/EQMs on any one carrier but I do see UA (my primary) losing MY revenue. If it is happening to me it is happening to others. At some point they need to add back capacity to grow the airline. This will limit UAs success over time if they continue to run the airline on the edge of capacity. Balance is the key to making money AND growing share.

4. Mileage usability. Fantastic. I have burned more "low FC awards on UA in the last few months than the entire last 5 years on DL. Yes I burned PLENTY of miles on DL but at rates 2-3 X what I pay on UA. I seem to always hit a great deal on UA and I am very happy with the miles program.

5. Compensation. What gives here? I have had 3 or 4 issues I felt I had to say something about and I have not been offered 1 mile as an apology. These were significant delays and even a full MX cancel. I went to the "apology" site, filled out the form, and got nothing...I would much rather NOT need an apology but this goes to a mindset that can be dangerous to their long term relationships with good customers.

5. Upgrades. I am still getting my upgrades between the gate and the window for the most part and I even had a few at the gate that I was sure were misses. Very happy here.

So things are getting better but there are some (IMO) corporate blind spots that UA needs to get through. UA can be the best and most profitable US airline EASILY. The two are not mutually exclusive BUT they need to want to do both. The current senior team appear to only care about the "most profitable" side of the equation and that can be very short sighted. The board pay these guys and gals BIG cake to think 3-5-10 years down the road. If they only focus on the balance sheet they are mailing in half their work day IMO.

Operationally, I think United is currently at its worst. However, overall I think the airline hit rock bottom about 5 years ago, around the time they tried to institute buy-on-board for transatlantic flights. Management was singularly focused on cutting enough costs to make the airline attractive for a merger while every other consideration was secondary. It wasn't until after UA was rejected by both US Airways and Continental that things started to improve. At that point they really had no other option.

So while the situation is bad now, I'm fairly confident that it will ultimately improve. 5 years ago, I didn't have that confidence, and was seriously concerned for the airline's survival.

It could be worse..... like if those were reversed.

Hold times on the phone have improved. Nothing else has in my experience. I took a connecting flight from LAX to home via DFW and still made it home before the nonstop from LAX made it (it was mega delayed).

One would argue that you are if you continue to stick around. It's like banging your head against a wall hoping for a different result.

That ultimately is the point of this thread. To determine whether or not things are improving and therefore to determine whether or not those who are still here should stay and those who have gone to the sidelines should return.

Seems clear that we can't see any light at the end of the tunnel.

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Yes, and it's always two drinks after work - 'cause you can't fly on one wing'.

All kidding aside (I am only a social drinker), SHARES has done nothing for my nervous system. United employees with decades of experience feel the tremendous stress. Ex-CO employees are not exempt either - I've had many of them say "we've never worked so hard in our lives". Well, when you now have hundreds more flights and thousands more (maybe tens of thousands more) elites, what did they expect ? Really, under very tight time constraints, limited ways to solve problems and reliance on third parties for things we can't do (and then needing to get their "permission" or denial) is a burden, to say the least. It's not going to go away, we can only hope by year's end "Check-It" will have more enhancements, bells, whistles, mountain movers, whatever.

p.s. - my drink of choice is Canadian Club and ginger - I hate Rob Roys.

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Thanks, you definitely hit the nail on the head.

If it works out for you, that is great! It is not that all of us want to leave UA for someone else, but when it comes to things not working you are left with no choice.

1. I tried to use my bump voucher online and found out that my credit card was charged for the whole amount. Had to call the 1K desk 3 times to get it sorted out and each time it was 45 mins for them to do their analysis and promise me it will be fixed right away.

2. The last time I sent a family member on United it was horrendous. It started as a simple DEN-LAX connecting with SQ. The DEN-LAX went on mechanical and 3 hours of working on his ticket they sent him the next day DEN-IAD-DOH-SIN. The next day DEN-IAD was on time but the IAD-DOH was cancelled. Now another 4 hours of working on his ticket they sent him IAD-FRA-SIN. Since the rest of the legs were all on Star Alliance carriers he got to SIN without any further delays. Checked in bags? They got to him 5 days later after much calling and follow-ups.

With that kind of track record, I would be a fool to pick this carrier to even connect to another Star Alliance carrier. Things are definitely not getting better. I reckon it will be another 12 months before they sort out their problems.