JSlo

The point of it (and bummer of it!) is that in the end all of us UA FT folks like UA. We want it to be better. We want it to be everything it can be. And when we put forward our "best" (cash or otherwise!) for exchange for what is supposed to be the best of United (an Int'l F seat) we have high hopes.

The bottom line, I've said it b4 and now again- no supervisors on board, FA routes picked based on seniority not skill or personality, etc. You get what we have. Hit or miss. IMHO it's mostly "hit", but it only takes a couple misses and most people "forget" the last ten "hits". This is an FA union issue that UA should figure out or it will be the end of them. FA's either do their job, and fo it well including both the safety and customer relations/service part or UA finds new employees who do have that skill and desire. Period. Treating customers well and with care whether in safety or service in itself IS the essence of the job description!

mlasser

Yeah, send feedback on nice stationary so they can wipe their butts with it. I've never even heard of anyone getting anything other than pat responses back from informing UA of their own problems. A) They don't want to know and B) They don't care.

jhcapps3

I transited through NRT from BKK-ORD. At that time there was a priority screening line for 1K,UGS,F & C.

I do think the NRT Elite lines availability is based on the number of security personnel. I have been thru before when I experienced the same as Braniff. They had only on station manned at those times.

AMRivlin

I was on IAD-NRT, in C, on dec 1. fwiw

The NRT transfer lanes had a priority channel open on December 1. They were labeled UA 1k, First, Business, so on... (HOWEVER, that day all the flights did come in at the same time and UA has more 1k's who clogged up that line.

As for not having the priority channel, it is possible the plane was put at a different gate that clears at a differing Transit desk.

I noticed in C on the long haul, the service on the top floor was terrible.

I woke up half way through the flight dying of thirst, it took 20 min for them to respond to a request for water, which came in a wine glass.

Not sure why they cant board 50 bottles of water for first.

GunsOfNavarone

The above quote is the best quote that describes UA. Leadership and Unions both could truly care less in the macro sense. Leadership is in place simply to manipulate stock for JPM and gets rewarded exceptionally well for doing it, Unions are protecting its senior ranks. Only reason UA is in business is because they own landing rights at critical locations.

We need to have a law that states when a carrier goes BK that it must liquidate, not reorganize. This would give a true incentive to both the airline Leadership and the Unions. UA- too big to fail.

uanj

I was growing very exasperated with SFO/LAX-SYD on board services and after UA (or rather their agent) forgot to load my luggage from a lengthy connection into SYD for my SFO flight I encountered the most uncaring and surprisingly incompetent luggage agent in SFO. Agent insisted we check the belt twice before she would enter the numbers in the computer. When she did she said of course you can't find your luggage, it was never loaded. Had a meeting later that day but she could not give me an amenity kit saying they don't do that (she even could not get one from Arrivals), input only one of three luggage numbers, and wrote the address for the wrong hotel! The luggage was flown back on QF not UA (?!?) at her request being the first available flight (45 min ahead of the UA flight), was not marked for special handling and sat apparently unclaimed for most of the next day before someone at QF punched it into the computer. The GS desk tried to help me but because it was sent via QF they had no visibility if it had even left SYD. They could only tell it had been sent over to QF in SYD.

I was totally peeved. After millions of BIS miles on United I wrote a letter for the first time ever and after a lengthy delay in the end I was surprised to get an answer from the UA's GM at SFO where they checked and corroborated each point in my letter (!) and included a travel voucher for $800. I was not asking for compensation, more important to me, however, was hearing the changes they would implement which he included in the letter.

So at least sometimes they do respond in detail.

Braniff

After reading all the responses, I'm beginning to believe that my experience is typical !

This thread and another one show general agreement that the flight attendants view the 744 F storage space as their personal space. That says an incredible amount about their general attitude.

The bottle-to-bottle pouring was so outrageous that I thought this had to have been a fluke. But responses indicated this was by no means an isolated case and would appear to be emerging policy/practice. Words fail me. And I had not even thought of the health issues because of course the tops of the bottles meet and spread germs.

And not bothering to heat my food on back-to-back flights (literally in one case, not properly in another) indicates very little attention is being paid to doing the job.

I had planned on using my remaining SWUs to upgrade from C to F and fly United on my trip to Australia later this month. I have switched my flying to Air New Zealand.

I have often had good experience with United in the past. A particular man on the Singapore/Tokyo flights was just fantastic. He would offer incredible service in F, introduce himself, make excellent conversation, gave me his business card so I could communicate any special requests (I flew that route frequently.) My last flight with him was several years ago right when United was closing the Singapore base and let him go. Supports many of the posts that have been made here about who United keeps and who they let go.

I used to think that UA flight attendants were ashamed of the poor quality of their hard product and this somehow impacted their soft service. I almost felt sorry for them. Now, that the hard product has been improved greatly it's obvious that was not the cause of the problem. Just a general attitude of couldn't caring less about their customers.

SeattleFlyerGuy

It sounds more like that there is no policy in place and the FAs aren't really thinking the whole thing out. From other posts, there are some people requesting that the small bottles be refilled to present spillage, so maybe some FAs are getting the idea that most passengers would be indifferent or positive towards refilling the bottles. IMHO, if a pax requests it... well, more bottles should be boarded in that case or else glasses. I imagine this is something that UA wasn't aware of and things only get fixed once they become a problem.

Actually, my last from in B from NRT-SEA was really interesting for that. 777 and I was in the center seat, so it was never really clear who "my" FA was. On the left, a clearly American older lady. On the right, a clearly Japanese middle aged gentleman. She wouldn't give me more than one scope of nuts. He offered to give me a little extra of the specific type of nuts I liked. She was generally unpleasant, he was just great. I was bothering her. He was happy to help. Neither myself of my companion got our meal choices, and it seemed like she was in charge of that. Some of that is small stuff and I don't care, but in all, he was GREAT and she was.. abrupt. SeattleFlyerGuy-sama or even -san, I was not.

treyrox

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8900/5.0.0.348 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

I always bring my own, wide-mouth, waterbottle with me on international C flights because I find it easier to drink from when lying down and at 24oz I am less likely to run out than the tiny waterglas.

Most FA's have been happy to fill it for me.

My last international C flight the FA made some rude comment about only being able to fill it half full because she did not have enough water. She was a really lousy FA in general, but it appears there may be a shortage of water on UA flights.

I guess I'm not really interested in hydrating with alcohol...
And to the OP, that international F "service" you got is deplorable.

embarcadero1

I'm with you on wanting UA to be better, but I don't really lay claim to any affection for the company itself. I'd just as soon see UAL liquidate and have another, better company take its place.

I've had quite a few "hits" (great service, genuinely nice FAs) but UA continues to devalue my loyalty (either by unilaterally changing the terms of its FF program in a way that makes my miles worth less and less, or by giving them out willy nilly to those foolish enough to think they're worth something). And given UA management's disregard for me as a taxpayer (e.g., sticking me with their underfunded, broken pension fund), I really have no sympathy for UAL.

I would love to believe that the airline that dominates the airport where I live (San Francisco) could offer service that I look forward to. I'm completely willing to offer my loyalty to ANY company that can offer reasonable flight schedules from SFO AND treat me nicely.

UAL accomplishes this about 1/3 of the time; 1/3 of the time it's indifferent, and about 1/3 of the time something bad happens. It's sad to hear that being in F doesn't change this much.

Do other airlines staff their flights in more reasonable ways? Seems like it should be some combination of seniority, recognized abilities in customer service and ability to lead a team. Is it really just seniority?

mlasser

That's how you were treated after millions of miles? Im agine how they treat regular premiers! Or even no status customers! In the "real world" of customer service, you should have received a call that week. Management should have weekly meeting where they go over customer issues and performance failures and address them. Service recovery should have been a comped flight in the future equal to the value of your ticket. (Anyone who wants to argue about the cost of UA doing this does not understand the math and EV of service recovery. Sorry.) GM should have given you his personal info and asked to meet you next time you were in his airport.

Two problems. More competition should result in improved service, but if all the competition is also horrible, it doesn't incentivize anyone. Loyalty programs and dribbles of perks like e+ and upgrades create disproportionate customer loyalty and apologists, further reducing the company's perceived needs for continual improvement.

roadkit

LOL. You are absolutely right.

I'd like to buy some video equipment and then channel my inner Michael Moore and do a documentary on UA.

A few screenings of lame-... FAs trying to refill used water bottles in First Class will be enough for UA to be the laughing stock of the industry.

xevious

You must be talking about David A. He was a purser based out of SIN. One of the very best UA ever had and he set an amazingly high standard. The NRT based FAs on NRT-SIN are a distant second in terms of service.

mlasser

When good stories become outliers, your company is not doing well delivering service. Good service is culture. There are many factors, but lower paid employees at other airlines deliver a better experience. Other airlines are frequently cited here at FT for superior hard and soft product and UA hasn't even figured out the 777s.

Look, even Walmart has it's fan base who think it's the best store in the world. I know consultants that swear by Holiday Inns. But there are some pretty accepted benchmarks of service delivery and this whole water bottle nonsense is indefensible except by the most hardcore UA apologists.

aCavalierInCoach

The tone of this thread feels a bit different than most -- we're talking about getting service issues fixed, not about compensation for lack thereof. I think that gets to an important point. Your high dollar fliers want to have confidence when they pay $8K for that ticket in C or F that they're going to get some modicum of service. At that kind of price, it is appalling that there isn't execution on this minimum level 99% of the time.