My vote for least favorite airline: United

You are really making me dread my upcoming flight on United. Guess I better not let the kid wander around too much, she might start playing with one of those critters or accidently pick up one of the poison boxes. I guess since their filing of bankruptcy. Their employees or formal employees have a website www.untied.com which addresses some of the many problems both passengers and staff members have experienced over the past 10 years. But as Watson said on the other forum, "don't they eat wires and things?" that was my thought.
Having said all that, I really did not enjoy the Continental service the last time I went. The best airline I have taken to America has been Air Nippon. I would have taken them again, but it takes too long and even more expensive...but very comfortable and good service. Have to say that Virgin Air was great also when we went to London a few years ago.
Anyway, thanks for the headup and we will be careful.

Well, just back from our trip to the States, via United and thought I'd report in on what happened with this questionable airline....

...drum roll please...

I am more than relieved to announce they were great! Had no problems at all and in fact, most of it was even a pleasure.

Check in, seats, kids meals, all smooth and easy both ways. In fact, they were very organised and fast.

Aircraft left on time both ways. Arrived on time too.

On the leg over, we were even given a large bottle of champagne after mentioning to a hostie this was our first visit to San Francisco (we took it with us and drank it on our first night in this gorgeous city).

Leg room was fairly good.

The meals were actually quite good for airline food and the drinks were plentiful and frequent.

The kids received more attention than expected and were always acknowledged and smiled at and a little spoiled.

Sure - there were plenty of hosties who really should consider a job change (but then, wouldn't you be grumpy if you had spent 25 years serving 300 people who are caged in like animals? traipsing up and down the economy cabin ad infinitum - a 747 is awfully long!) but overall it was a very pleasant experience. We even had (our one and only) call bell answered almost immediately. Shock horror.

So admin - looks like you had a run of bad luck that day!

If I do have any criticism, these United 747s are a little ancient and crusty. I flew for 4 years and I know my aircraft... this one creaked and bowed a little too much for comfort at times, and I am fear-of-flying free, trust me.

And what's with the inflight entertainment? Golly - the worst international airlines had better in the early 90s! It was virtually ONE huge pull down screen (do those still exist) for the entire bulkhead section of economy, with a dodgy choice of films (only one movie for kids on one leg) and crackling headsets.

After being spoiled by Qantas for so many years, I can honestly say I would pay the extra money and fly with them to the States next time. With 12 to 14 loooooooong hours in front of you and 2 small kids, you want as much help as you can get, and the entertainment system Qantas offers is glorious. Individual, adjustable tv screens on the back of every seat (yes, in economy too) and a huge range of fab movies in many genres, including kids. Also tonnes of tv shows, also for kids. TWO channels for kids, actually. AND video games. Lots of them. AND they give you a Wiggles backpack with 2 hours of junk inside. Perfect. (No, I do not work in the marketing deptartment at Qantas.)

The last time we did a 12 hour leg with them, my daughter was 6. She sat for 9 hours in front of that screen without moving. Not a word of a lie. Not even to pee.

It's GOOD.

So - all said and done. For the price we paid and the expectations I had, United were an ok to good experience.

Now, if I could just shake off the jetlag. Cursed firecrackers...

What I hate is when you book a flight with one airline, only to find out that it's actually being "operated" by another. I flew back to the UK with Virgin - paying a little extra for the joy, I might add - and it turned out to be the same old Air China plane and staff.

In my eyes, Richard Branson owes me least one free flight into space on his new spaceship.

As I am leaving on a United flight in less than two weeks, it was reassuring to hear good news although am kind of disappointed about the entertainment options. Hoepfully the little one will sleep most of the time on the outbound trip.

Hmm, looks like I might run into some troubles in my return flight to China. For some reason they cannot give me a seat selection even though I am a Mileage Plus member. They have requested a bassinet for the child and indicated that should not be a problem, but cannot confirm that we will be in the bulkhead. I am guessing that means that maybe my wife or I can sit there, but not both of us but can't get a direct answer. The Beijing office says I can call the Chicago office and ask and when I suggested that perhaps they can call as well, they said they can't. Obviously that makes no sense that I can call and ask and they can't.
In mentioning sense, I changed two adult tickets with no charge, but to change the infant ticket who does not have a seat, I needed to pay 80 kuai. Of course I paid it, just could not understand the point of it. They told me that I need to pay 10% of the change fee for the adult tickets for which there is no charge. So, 10% of zero is now 80.
Anyway, hope that is the biggest problem I encounter.

Well, we are back from our trip to the USA and back on United and my comments are as follows:

Trip from Beijing to Chicago was excellent. We had bulkhead seats all to our own, thus 5 seats for the 3 of us, so the baby was able to stretch out and sleep most of the flight.
In Chicago the trip changed drastically. They put us on our connecting flight at around 9pm, then told us at 9:30 that they needed a new crew to fly us. Then at 10pm, they told us the plane had mechanical problems and followed that up with the bad news that the crew was illegal because of hours worked and that the flight was no cancelled.

Then they sent 150 people out to be greeted by just one Customer Service representative, not a good sight. They then added another who announced that the flight was cancelled due to the pilots being illegal and accordingly no free hotel rooms. Then 5 minutes later after all the confusion, they said they would provide the free hotels which was great except for the fact it was no after 11pm and the new flight was at 6am. They said we can take the hotel shuttle which will only hold about 15 people and their luggage and will return every 20 minutes or so. Quickly calculating that we might get to the hotel in about 2 hours, I opted to take a taxi..best $12, I ever spent as we got to the hotel before the others.

Flight to Florida that morning was fine, however they do need to improve their service.

The return to Beijing was pretty much uneventful except for the feeling that the staff does not care that much about the passengers. For example, I was told that since the baby did not have a seat, she was not entitled to any food. No food for 13 hours? We did manage to get some though after complaining.

Overall, I cannot say I was totally unsatisfied except for the Chicago problem which I guess was not their fault.

So, if the price is right again, I would use them.

Anyone fly from Beijing to New York recently? Any suggestions on which airline?

Many US flight attendants are an ornery lot - I'll take Air China's flight crews any day

beijingkids wrote:Many US flight attendants are an ornery lot - I'll take Air China's flight crews any day

Sorry to break the bad news, now Air China is taking some Code-sharing flights with United. So make sure to double check before you book the flights when you specially want to avoid Nasty US airlines.

The United flight we took this time is UA897, also bare the Code CA8897. means if you book a CA8897 flight, you actually get on UA897 plan.

We'll be flying JetBlue from NYC to LA in Sep. Looking forward to seeing if any more of their flight attendants will have a breakdown on the job ...