From reader comments, traveler comments and my own experiences, I know that the United Airline brand is having a hard time. Although I will be flying with them on Friday, I often recommend avoiding the airline unless the airfare is a bargain passengers can’t pass up — like the deal I am getting on a flight from Boston to Dulles, the day after Thanksgiving, for $80.
United Airlines, it is reported, is trying to change its image. The airline is planning on sprucing up planes for the first time this decade. United is changing seating and decor on every aircraft in its fleet. This is all part of a corporate effort to restore its public image that has been bashed in YouTube videos and the Onion.
As turbulence has buffeted the airline industry, customer satisfaction has dropped for every major carrier except Continental Airlines and Southwest Airlines, researchers at the University of Michigan have found. But satisfaction rates have fallen furthest for United, which ranked last among the largest airlines in two of the last three years as measured by the school’s American Customer Satisfaction Index.
The airline began their efforts towards respectability with an push to get planes to take off and land on schedule. They went from being last among the major airlines in 2007 to ranking second in recent industry figures.
With timeliness back on track, United Airlines is now turning to refurbishing their planes, gate areas and Red Carpet clubs. These are welcome by many loyal United passengers and those who have no other choice but to fly United because of schedules and destinations.
United Airlines also elected to make some unsung customer-friendly changes to their contract of carriage that now allows passengers, too sick to fly, to change their tickets without change fees. This is not an insignificant clause that can save travelers between $150 and $250 should they be forced to change travel plans because of illness such as the flu. No other major airline makes such a provision in their contract of carriage.
Other changes such as the FAA clarification of the seat pocket rule will ease some of the tension between flight attendants and passengers by eliminating the once contentious cleansing of seat pockets prior to landing. Flight attendants didn’t like doing it and the passengers couldn’t understand why they had to take paperback books, etc., out of the seat pockets.
This all bodes well for the airline. Friends of mine, with thousands of United frequent flier miles, are cheering United’s efforts. They say they may return to United after defecting to Southwest, but are waiting to see how these improvements pan out.
(Robert Durell/ Photo for the Tribune / October 16, 2009)
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Great Article!
The planes aren’t the problem. On my recent trip to China, I flew United. The flight attendants were uniformally rude and unhelpful. They could not give a flying leap about the passengers and treated them as giant annoyances. Contrast that with every flight I took in China (and believe me, it was a lot), where the flight attendants were friendly, helpful, and generally made the travel experience as pleasant as it could be.
Chris Sloan November 24, 2009 at 12:57 pm
The planes aren’t the problem. On my recent trip to China, I flew United. The flight attendants were uniformally rude and unhelpful.
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Interesting Chris. I’ve flown internationally to the Far East and I found the ASIAN passengers were polite, had wonderful manners, and well behaved. In contrast to the AMERICAN traveler with bad hair, bad breath, bad clothes and bad attitudes.
Charlie:
From you mouth to United’s ears. I am locked into flying them and generally have found the planes to be dirty and “tired” not to mention crowded unless I have upgraded to business class using miles and having lots of luck.
Unless the business seats have been reconfigured to “flat beds” the old seats frequently have one problem or another.
I do hope United will treat the flight crews better. They have many reasons to be cranky which does not give them the right to do it on MY time.
Karen Fawcett November 25, 2009 at 7:53 am
From you mouth to United’s ears. I am locked into flying them and generally have found the planes to be dirty and “tired” not to mention crowded unless I have upgraded to business class using miles and having lots of luck.
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NOT TO MENTION, CROWDED?
so, apparently, United flights are full? crowded you say? meaning, people are booking on them to travel? United is filling it’s planes? Wow, in the business world, that’s GOOD.
Frank, maybe the planes are crowded because they’ve succeeded in their goal of slashing flights and routes to keep up with declining business. If that’s the case, I suppose the executives deserve an extra bonus for their heroic efforts.
Hapgood November 25, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Frank, maybe the planes are crowded because they’ve succeeded in their goal of slashing flights and routes to keep up with declining business.
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matching CAPACITY with DEMAND. Yep. Already knew that.
We recently flew United from Seattle-San Francisco-Maui and back and found everything just right, especially the crew’s attitudes. Great customer service on the ground too.
Notwithstanding these efforts, United’s service is deplorable. My daughter, a freshman at the University of Washington, was to be home in Albany, NY, for Thanksgiving this morning at 9:20, having taken a late flight out of Seattle. As I write this, she is still in Dulles Airport, where she has been since before 6 a.m. Her flight from Dulles to Albany was canceled, for no stated reason, and she could not be accommodated on the next flight. The last flight out, at 6:30, has been delayed several times. I’m not counting on seeing her today at all. With this kind of service, United’s reputation will remain, and deserves to be, battered. Certainly we’ll be looking to put her on other airlines’ flights from Seattle to Albany for the remainder of her college education, and when I fly on business, it certainly won’t be on United. My expectations for airlines’ performance are pretty low, but United is failing to reach even that modest threshold.
As a low-level elite flyer (Mileage Plus Premier) I have never had a problem with United and have noticed a definite improvement in their customer service over the past year or so.
I just arrived at Dulles on a United Airlines flight from Boston. The plane was immaculate and the flight attendants did a great job. If every flight could be as nice as this one, it would be a pleasure to fly.
My flight on United from San Francisco to Shanghai in October was more fun due to the witty, fun flight attendants that served my sister and me. September 8th, I flew a Maui/LAX coach flight that I’m still sorry I didn’t report the unnecessary rude and downright mean flight attendant we had on the evening flight. Incognito in the back of coach in order to fly with friends and not taking advantage of the perks I could have had with my flight status, I found an arrogant attendant with a bad attitude that obviously should long have retired. I’m sixty so I don’t give age an excuse for being crotchity! Her remarks to a tired mother traveling with three small children had everyone’s mouth dropping open!