I certainly haven't flown lately as much as some of you, other than several TATL flights EWR-CDG or AMS and NYC-SFO. Other than a single PS flight which was fine, all the others were on PMCO and they were pretty much the typical good flights we expected: clean and newish aircraft, good AVOD or seat back video, nice crews, great food in BF, and adequate in Y.

As long as they have 1 flight attendant for a single seat and an additional flight attendant for each additional 50 seats (1-50 seat plane:1 flight attendant, 51-100:2 flight attendants, 101-150: 3 flight attendants...) then they are at what is required. Any less than this and no passengers can be on the aircraft. That is the FAA minimum staffing for safety (passenger count does not factor in. A plane with 300 seats and 1 passenger still needs 6 flight attendants to be at the required staffing.) An airline can set any staffing levels at or above this for their SOP levels.

I ordered ginger ale last month on a TPAC flight. I was not given the full can. Not to mention it was only HALF of the cup. :confused:

I wouldn't blame him. I've worked flights where a FA was pulled off and the agent explained the situation and I kinda gave her the "umm okay" look.

You got it :-). EWR 763.

I put my MIL on UA in 2012, using my miles for an F roundtrip. She was involuntarily downgraded, they lost her bag, and another flight was cancelled so she got home 12 hours late. Now my wife and MIL forbid me from burning my UA miles on her flights. She is not an airline savant or anything but she refuses to look at United again, even for free.

I had two UA flights last week (burning my miles for myself). Both ran 45-60 minutes late without explanation. On the first one (a 5-hour transcon) the dark A320's slimline seats were so excruciating, my back hurt before pushback, and numerous passengers got up and lingered in the aisle for long periods -- up to an hour -- because they could not stand the seats any longer. On the second one another guy and I were assigned the same exit row seat and it took the GA 20 minutes to sort things out even though the plane was only 60% full -- also, no service, the FAs remained out of sight takeoff the touchdown. Not even water or coffee.

It may already be happening. The operation appears to be unraveling even more.

"Great" food in BusinessFaux???? HAHAHAHAHA! That's a good one. Just flew TATL in Biz last week and the food was mediocre, at best. I could only take a few bites. Even the sCO FAs agreed the food has gone downhill in the last year.

And, "adequate" in Y? Give me a break! It's slop! For the last 18 months, if I'm flying Y, I bring my own. Vino Volo is my "go to" place domestically and I have my favorite places scoped out at my international airports.

(Bolding is mine.)

Me too,UA could not pay me enough to have to be a front line employee having to deal with the public over their corporate screw ups. :td:

I have not seen UA competing on price on any of the TATL routes and times I take, nor have I seen R class upgrades for miles at booking (I generally either buy business class, buy upgradeable flexible economy, or buy economy and upgrade with miles). Even before stories like this, I did not think the product was as good as most other carriers. Consequently, for about the last two years or so, my international travel has been LH and AF. Like the person quoted above, if the price on UA was significantly less for business class, or R space had been available at booking, I'd have flown UA, but neither has been the case.

I stand corrected. I was mixing this forum up with another forum on UA 122 and a debacle on that flight.

:confused:

eta: I see you commented before this. My bad

So? Before the merger, I personally was really happy with CO. There were many really happy with UA. I don't care what the reason, who's in charge, or what. Since the merger, the airline has gone downhill. Doesn't matter who's in charge. And has been shown many times, there are leaders from both sides

Well you know, it does matter who's in charge. Because for years before the merger, I heard just how great CO was and how terrible UA apparently was. I heard that CO management was going to turn UA around and that UA was going to have its assets bought about by the great CO management out of BK and blah blah blah.

Then, when the CO management team fails at running anything but a regional airline, the apologists come out in full swing, either blaming it on the United side, or saying it doesn't matter who it is. No. This is Continental at work and the vaunted Continental management team doing their best to make things worse. Even the people in charge are trying to blame it on the United side, I will not stand for that.

Oh lord :rolleyes: This combined airline is nothing like what CO was and I've been with the company for over 10 years. It's basically the Lorenzo era of CO and the worst years of UA combined into one rather then taking the best parts of both airlines and combining them together. Now both airlines were good, both of them also had their troubles as well.

So United offered you $800 to not fly on this frustrating flight and you didn't take it? What we call in law school "assumption of the risk" :p

These would have been welcome changes to me. I hate babbling on the PA and loathe sweaty cabins.
That is disgusting, I agree. Which meat lover eats chicken? UA does this a lot ex SIN these days and it one more reason for me to fly SQ and NH whenever possible. I hate these minimal cultural denominator dishes.
That is entirely unacceptable. I don't drink any of above on a day flight. I would have thrown a major fight about this one.

Nothing funny about points 8 and 10.

No soda on morning flight?!
 

Let me guess...as the OP stated the flight was understaffed by 2 fa.
Depending on load factor that would mean either 5 or 6 working crew for entire plane.
No matter how you cut it there would only be 2 fa working in the Y cabin, one in each aisle. You can either have a bar cart or a food cart going down the aisle at any one time with this sort of staffing. Remember it is a full Y cabin with no galley fa assisting to refill supplies or run special requests.
I think the fa did the best they could, thought to get warm drinks out with breakfast (in the freezing cold cabin) all on one cart and serve as quickly as possible bc of the delay.
If you really want something else to drink go to the galley in a case like this....the fa were probably doing the best they could.

Brilliant ^

Except that OP stated he was on a 3-Cabin 763 which is normally staffed with 8 FAs but went out short 2 FAs so only 6 FAs would've been working that flight.

As I said, on their own, none of the 10 things would have ever bothered me, but the combination of all of them was frustrating.

Sadly, I had to be in London early the next morning so it was impossible, but I was itching to take the $800!

send in a letter lets hope you get compensation and it comes from Jeff's pay.

i am expecting mariachi bands, pan flute players, and chickens picking grits to start showing up in united economy.

yeah that would be fraudulent.

Every employee I speak with (UA and CO) absolutely hate the CEO's guts.

No FA needed for flights under 20 seats as long as the payload capacity is under 7500 lb per 14 CFR 121.391 (a) (2).

Just as an update: I sent an email to United with the same list I posted here and just got 10,000 miles as compensation(without asking for it!).

If there were 6 f/a on the flight it would be staffed with 1 in GF, 3 B/C and 2 in Y....UA policy is not to understaff the premium cabins if at all possible....Y will always draw the short straw.

Congratulations to fiddlestickies in receiving compensation! That sort of situation should never happen, unfortunately it is all too common these days.

Of the employees I've spoken with, very few "hate the CEO's guts" but all feel something needs to change. But I speak primarily with mechanics and the occasional pilot, not FA & GAs, in my business. Actually, I'm sure I probably know quite a few UA FA & GAs, but they're unlikely to let it be known who they work for. :o

LOL. +1

Same with me. Granted, I rarely go up to an FA and say, "Hey, do you by any chance hate Jeff Smisek's guts?" However, they don't hate him. They don't like some of the changes and wish many things would change. Major distinction