PBIGuy

I live in South Florida but not MIA and fly a lot to the southeast. Other airlines connect in the northeast or midwest - I'm not flying north to get back south. I will NOT use my own money to purchase a ticket on Delta. Driving to MIA for direct flights on AA just isn't fun.

And I usually sit in the front of the plane.

And even though I run across a few bad apples, the front line employees are still wonderful from my experience.

DanHag

You probably have not flown DL lately then. I switched about 50% of my flying out of Phoenix to DL from US and another 40% from US to WN and AA. Since April My GM upgrades on DL have been 80%, including to ATL and JFK. It is a remarkably better carrier in all measurable ways than US. Perfect?? No. But focused on getting better, and a lot better than US?? Unquestionably. So is AA and WN.

joshua-bwi

I have been quiet for the past few week around here but this thread is prompting me to chime in...

My travel this year has been a bit reduced from previous years. (I may not re-qualify for CP unless US gives it away for Flower purchases again this year or gives me a soft landing in return for my 8-9 years of continued CP status). But, the travel that I have completed this year has been a pain in the a** when it comes to US. The standards (if you can call them that) have gone so far downhill compared to others (UA for example) that I am seriously considering switching to UA for the new year. All that being said, the reason I have remained loyal to US is as follows:

1. The CP Desk (The CP Angels in Winston Salem there are the absolute best in the industry)
2. Free upgrades that are fairly easy to get on Domestic Routes (although you get what you pay for)
3. I used to have a 3rd reason but it no longer applies
4. I used to have a 4th reason but it no longer applies
5. I used to have a 5th (well you get the idea)

The reasons that I am considering leaving:
1. Next year I expect my trans-atlantic and trans-pacific flght to increase greatly. I believe a different carrier (UA or Other *A Carriers) can serve my needs better.

2. I do a lot of flights from BWI - FLL / PBI. There are other carriers, WN & Airtran that offer the service NON-STOP! with much better schedules and with Airtran I can sit in a big seat up front for pennies. The service on Airtran in F is on par with US in this regard and for a short flight why should I continue to change planes in CLT or PHL? When I had a reason 3, 4, and 5 as shown above I could justify the plane change but now free upgrades and the CP Angels are just not enough compensation for the inconvienence.

gsoflyer

I continue to fly US for several reasons.

1) From GSO, I can connect thru CLT for 99% of my flights; I avoid PHL at all costs. UA, NW & AA just don't work based on their limited number of flights. DL does offer multiple flights but see reason 3. Plus the ladies at the GSO club are wonderful!
2) Upgrades. As GP, I've been upgraded on 95% of my flights; will make Platinum by the end of the year. All my flights out of GSO are RJ's but I can stand the 20 minute flight to CLT in the exit row.
3) Fares. I've looked at Delta but they are not competitive out of GSO. Connecting through ATL or IAD with UA is not something I care to do. I love CLT as there are very few delays and the US club and ladies that work there rock!
4) Apparently I'm in the minority but I just haven't experienced the horror stories with US that I read about in this forum. My luggage has not been lost and I've had one flight cancelled in 64 segments to date; sure there have been ATC and weather delays but that comes with the territory. My flight to ZUR in July was on time, excellent FA's and yes the Envoy cabin was a little shabby but it beats coach every day of the week!

micfly

Within the last year I moved full time to FLL and have rejoined US for all my travel (having been a PE on NW for years and still have 500K miles in WP). In the past I flew US sporatically in and out of Philadelphia and now have logged approx 50,000 miles on them this year. I must say, I have yet to experience the poor service or issues that I have read on this site. To the contrary I've had good service on all flights, had 3 delays this year...LAS 4 hour delay/PHL 3 hour delay (changed equip from 757 to 767 and upgraded to first) and SEA rebooked on AS to connect in PHX to FLL. The AW equipment needs interior refurb; other than that the equip is clean and airline comfortable. FC meals are comparable to all others (chicken parm in August and it was very good)drinks, IFE and the US rag is pretty good. Compare to NW..NO IFE, FC meals poor and overall a less than friendly flight crew. As far as PHL, granted
B/C concourses are cramped but the rest of the airport is pretty nice. Always clean and plenty of places to eat and drink, although expensive once you pass through security. I'm hoping after writing this its not a downhill spiral...next week its FLL-SEA on US.

carolinaflyr

I don't

last 10 trips for me and my family - 9 were cxl'd - with offers of rebooks a day or two later. All were completed on other carriers, in rental cars or on Amtrak.

Nasty people in PHL and nasty airplanes everywhere.

TATL service below third-world standards

CO and DL serve the same markets. So why would I go through the exercise of even booking on US?

It's a shame for some of the surviving Piedmont / Old US people who work in GSO, RDU and CLT (and elsewhere), many of them were class acts. Now, they are class acts working for clowns.

jonslow

Reasons for taking US and using my UA MP number:
1) When I fly US with my UA FF# I get the same benefits as flying UA except:
a) I don't get credit toward 500 mile upgrade certs, but since I am Ted-locked in Vegas, I don't much care, and
b) I don't build toward 1,000,000 UA miles, but I don't think there is much chance of making that milestone before either I or UA expire
2) US often gives me exit row seats as *Gold so UA's E+ advantage disappears, especially during summer travel when middle seat blocking in E+ is unlikely. Instead, US holds out the possibility of a paid upgrade to First at small cost and I do like the wider seat.
3) US offers many routes non-stop. In 9 flight segments with USAir this year I have not experienced delay problems of any significance.

phillychuck

Well, I'd like to eliminate US Air from my portfolio, but since I can get UAL miles and since my home airport is PHL, it is hard to do so. I really do wish we could persuade the powers that be in the City of Philadelphia to re-auction some of the gates, and to give bonus points to air carriers with better performance and consumer satisfaction records.

ECOTONE

Would bringing in a new dominant carrier at PHL really change much?

Fraser

Took my first non-RJ/short hop flight on US today, SFO-PIT and it got me chuckling when I saw this thread because I was thinking exactly that. why do you still patronize US!?

Cockups/Things I didn't like:
1) Two agents at F check-in, one did nothing whilst the other just sat at her desk ignoring everyone. The other agent was with his passenger for about twenty minutes so we were in for a long wait.

2) Got to agent in the end and I said, 'I'm checking in for the 11.55 flight to Pittsburgh'. Her reply verbatim, 'We don't have an 11.55 flight to Pittsburgh, what are you talking about?'. I check my confirmation and it reads 11.50am FFS! I then asked her to change my wife's FF number, I had it written on the confirmation with code and everything. Despite tapping away for about two or three minutes she still didn't manage to do it. It wasn't until the flight was boarding I noticed the number was wrong.

3) No lounge at SFO.

4) Hawking of credit cards, not once, not twice, but three times! The spiel over the PA was only done twice...

5) Playing of 'travel infomercials' through the PA system for the last 30mins or so of the flight.

6) Advertisements on the tray tables???

7) Only saw the FAs twice on the flight, once for drinks at the very beginning of the flight, and once at the very end.

I really got off the plane in PIT wondering how you regular travellers deal with these issues, especially the lousy frontline staff and overall cheap feeling of the product. I guess when the company's ticker symbol is LCC this is what one expects!

So far my only US flights in the last 5yrs or so have been RJs and super shorthops on bigger aircraft (LGA-BOS, PHL-RIC etc) and I stick to UA for all my other Y travel within the US. We flew out on UA in E+ (IAD-SFO) and it was a world apart; even the UA groundstaff were helpful and chatty, the FAs were really on their game (remembering drinks etc). Left US in the dust...

phillychuck

I don't think a new dominant carrier would help -- but reducing the fraction that any single carrier has might. Yes, I agree that there are some difficult problems beyond that -- i.e., two parallel runways that cannot both be used in bad weather, and being heavily influenced under the BOSWASH ATC.

shinbal

OP, I think what you'd find is that many long-time elites and dedicated US ff'ers dropped US after hanging on for a long, long time. I began flying them in 1980 and was an elite, including CP for a number of years. I complained about downgrades of service, surly GA's, PHL, crappy treatment, etc. - but I continued to give them my money. I finally couldn't take it anymore and earned 1K with United the hard way - starting at zero (no comp). I found that, for me (and YMMV), they did a better job balancing benefits to FF'ers without over-promising (i.e. unlimited free upgrades).

I still fly US while crediting miles to my UA account, on trips to Florida when I have time to connect; and on the DCA-LGA-BOS shuttle routes. However, what I see today is a long way from what kept me with them for so many years.

Jon Maiman

Being based in PIT and wanting to stay with Star Alliance, it is hard to totally avoid US. As much as possible I fly UA. For trips where US has direct service or is priced significantly lower than UA, I'll fly them. I almost never check bags for business trips, so I haven't run into any luggage problems. UA's customer service isn't particularly great either. However E+ and good service to Hawaii (e.g. family vacations on award travel) keep me sticking to UA. Most of my travel is on the east coast with occasional trips out west. Sky team doesn't work well for that travel pattern. Otherwise, I would consider switching to Delta.

--Jon

joshua-bwi

Remember when US was all but dead.... WN moved in to PHL FAST!!!! WN did the same thing at BWI years ago and US al but disappeared. I'm sure it could happen again.... but then again, US isn't all but dead anymore.

ElmhurstNick

I am actually flying US more these days (1-2 segments a month instead of 1-2 segments a year) as I'm spending more time in DCA and UA/US codeshares often are a better solution than IAD/BWI. But I must admit I try and limit myself to segments under 400 miles. Thus I don't care about First Class, although I was disappointed that UA denied US elites E+ so now I can't get exit row in advance.

For all the bashing of US (and I had a horrific experience at DCA in June with a GA and US Club agent who messed up my codeshare e-ticket), I find them no worse than United Express. Faint praise indeed.