Virgin American: best Airline, United: Worst.

numl0ck

numl0ck

Line Up and Wait
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Steve
I don't think there are many surprises here. Virgin was rated the best, United the worst. Funny thing for me is I've flown United exclusivelyfor the past 3 years to Hawaii and back (PVD-EWR-HNL, the old Continental route) and haven't had any issues with delays or poor customer service. Sure is sucks to pay $9 for a cheeseburger but to me that's part of the games that all airlines play. I've been delayed on Southwest or JetBluein years past a lot more than United.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/08/us-usa-airlines-qualityreport-idUSBRE9370I620130408
 
I hate to fly united so much, I drive to avoid them quite often. USAIR is a close second, IMO. I used to love flying Delta but not so much, anymore.
 
Being from the DC area, I fly United an awful lot, and I've honestly never had a problem with them in terms of customer service. They canceled our flight back from London once, but we gave them a call and they booked us onto British Airways. What a tragedy.
 
The United 757 seating is probably the worst I've ever experienced.
 
I fly UA a lot. Seems that to get where I need to go from SEA they are the major choice. Of course, my employer having negotiated rates with them might make a difference, too. Oh, and 1K status on their frequent flier program helps, too. :D

On the other hand, my wife and I just got back from Cabo San Lucas last night on Alaska and I have no problem with their service.
 
Well... I'm on United, USAir and Delta (occasionally). Can't say there is a big difference with any of them.. But, they do all share one charateristic - it is a very uncivilized way to travel - particularly if you don't have "status" in one of the frequent flyer programs.

Gary
 
ditto, and the united 747's to australia, are equipped such that you expect to see a speech by president reagan come up on the shared big screen at the front of the cabin. I take virgin australia almost exclusively to sydney. More broadly, I try to avoid US-flag carriers in general. They are all poor compared to many other alternatives.
 
I always ignore these rankings since an airline can be best or worst depending on what the rankings consider.

I just keep my elite status on DL & AA and go with the flow. :D

Cheers
 
I used to fly United quite a bit and found them no worse than the others, and better than some.

I once made the mistake of booking a flight on Spirit, for example. That is not a mistake I will make again.

-Rich
 
Yeah ! Let's all just boycott any U.S. based air carrier. Let's send a strong message that we want only foreign airlines to handle our travel needs. That'll show em !!!

The USA - what do we bring to the table anymore ? Answer - Nothing !
Cheaper Information Technology, Cheaper engineering consulting all can be had from abroad. Let's all just move in with our parents and smoke dope all day.....
 
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Art VanDelay said:
Yeah ! Let's all just boycott any U.S. based air carrier. Let's send a strong message that we want only foreign airlines to handle our travel needs. That'll show em !!!
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I suppose you advocate choosing an inferior product because it is made in the same country in which you reside ? What does that do for the competitiveness of your country ?
 
RJM62 said:
I used to fly United quite a bit and found them no worse than the others, and better than some.
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I truly don't see much of a difference between any of them.
Frontier used to be great, but now I can't get seat assignments and half-miles because I can't book corporate travel through their website.

Delta's personnel are generally a little friendlier, but not enough to make a difference. And coach seats in all airliners suck equally, as far as I can tell.
 
Depending on the flight, sometimes the upgrade to first is like $30. I've done that a few times. Makes it much more bearable.
 
JHW said:
I suppose you advocate choosing an inferior product because it is made in the same country in which you reside ? What does that do for the competitiveness of your country ?
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There is no competitiveness. There is flat out nothing we make outside of a small handful of defense related products that can't be made or purchased for less elsewhere. Why do we even try to kid ourselves anymore. Whatever it is that you do Jeff can be done for way less by a guy just as capable as you. Why should I pay the price you ask for your services. It's just a matter of time until we all start seeing this.
 
I wonder about how the complaints were scored. I really haven't come across anything horrible about UAL.

I was on a flight a year or two ago that was delayed about six hours because of a tropical storm, and some of my fellow pax were downright obnoxious to the airline employees. They threatened to complain to the FAA, their congressmen, the Pope, whomever, as if the airline had some sort of control over the weather. Some people will complain about anything.

But then again, I guess the chronic complainers are distributed across all airlines, so in the end it probably balances out.

Incidentally, while waiting for that weather-delayed flight, I brought up aviationweather.gov on my laptop and quieted one of the loudest and most obnoxious pax by showing him the weather situation and explaining it a bit. I think someone from the airline took notice because I got my Jim Beams for free on that flight.

-Rich
 
Art VanDelay said:
There is no competitiveness. There is flat out nothing we make outside of a small handful of defense related products that can't be made or purchased for less elsewhere. Why do we even try to kid ourselves anymore. Whatever it is that you do Jeff can be done for way less by a guy just as capable as you. Why should I pay the price you ask for your services. It's just a matter of time until we all start seeing this.
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Not at all. I work for a major exporter and all the projects I work on are export. There is all sorts of industrial equipment made in the USA for export. If we can continue to develop domestic oil and start exporting natural gas, you might be surprised at what America's balance of trade can look like. Otoh we suck at service industries like airlines.
 
Although I'm an airline pilot, I spend too much time sitting in the back of the world's airlines. I chuckle when folks say that the foreign carriers are better than the home team. Maybe true if you're sitting in the front, but in the back I see few differences. Just my two cents. Service seems to ebb and flow with the times.
 
My wife flies with United exclusively. I think it started when she booked with them for a trip to Russia. There was a typical brutal winter, massive power failure, airport shutdown, riot and riot polite "OMON" beating up rioting passengers, piles of poo in every toilet stall. United was the only airline that tried to keep anything working. They dispatched flights despite the chaos, so she only came back 2 days later, even with luggage.
 
I figure any airline is better than flying across the pond in the back of a C-17 or other MATS/MAC/ AMC airplane.

Only slightly better than that is a DoD charter.

Cheers
 
JHW said:
I suppose you advocate choosing an inferior product because it is made in the same country in which you reside ? What does that do for the competitiveness of your country ?
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Starting last year I opted for a true competitors of the airlines, rail. I took 4 trips on Amtrak. Most were between Chicago and Kansas City, a 7 hour ride. Airlines it is a 5 hour flight when considers all the extra hurry up and wait. Plus when I am on the train I get still work. I did take one long overnight trip to/from New Orleans. Yep it was longer, cost wise was about $50 more than the airlines and zero hassle factor. Very relaxing and I had a great time. So far this year I have already used Amtrak once and have another trip to New Orleans booked for later this year.
 
ScottM said:
Starting last year I opted for a true competitors of the airlines, rail. I took 4 trips on Amtrak. Most were between Chicago and Kansas City, a 7 hour ride. Airlines it is a 5 hour flight when considers all the extra hurry up and wait. Plus when I am on the train I get still work. I did take one long overnight trip to/from New Orleans. Yep it was longer, cost wise was about $50 more than the airlines and zero hassle factor. Very relaxing and I had a great time. So far this year I have already used Amtrak once and have another trip to New Orleans booked for later this year.
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Those of us that are on the east coast find Acela to be a very good ride on the DC-NY-BOS corridor - it's the best way to go.
 
wsuffa said:
Those of us that are on the east coast find Acela to be a very good ride on the DC-NY-BOS corridor - it's the best way to go.
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Coast to coast is really hard to do economically and timely on Amtrak. But being in the Chicago area makes using it for some trips really great! Quick overnights to NOLA, DC, NY and Dallas mean that it can sometimes be a better choice. Chicago to St Louis has been upgraded to high speed rail. Well US high speed rail. Which is less than half of HSR used in just about every other country. But it still makes that trip easier, faster and cheaper than driving or flying on the airlines.

I can really see how the NE corridor can use rail travel and Acela to get around much more efficiently than death tube travel.
 
ScottM said:
Coast to coast is really hard to do economically and timely on Amtrak. But being in the Chicago area makes using it for some trips really great! Quick overnights to NOLA, DC, NY and Dallas mean that it can sometimes be a better choice. Chicago to St Louis has been upgraded to high speed rail. Well US high speed rail. Which is less than half of HSR used in just about every other country. But it still makes that trip easier, faster and cheaper than driving or flying on the airlines.

I can really see how the NE corridor can use rail travel and Acela to get around much more efficiently than death tube travel.
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Unless I am making an airline connection in NY, I take the Acela. I know Lord of folks that do the same. Much harder to get to the Midwest/South from DC by train.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
 
wsuffa said:
Unless I am making an airline connection in NY, I take the Acela. I know Lord of folks that do the same. Much harder to get to the Midwest/South from DC by train.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
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I think you guys get the auto train to Florida which is very cool. The nice thing about Chicago is that all but one Amtrak coast to coast train comes through here. So getting around is pretty easy. Well unless you want to go to the southeast. That is hard. They really need a Chicago to Florida train.
 
Art VanDelay said:
There is no competitiveness. There is flat out nothing we make outside of a small handful of defense related products that can't be made or purchased for less elsewhere. Why do we even try to kid ourselves anymore. Whatever it is that you do Jeff can be done for way less by a guy just as capable as you. Why should I pay the price you ask for your services. It's just a matter of time until we all start seeing this.
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Don't want to let facts get in he way of a good rant, but ....
US population = 314M/6,973M = ~5%
US GDP = $15T/70T = ~ 23%
US exports = $1.5T = 10% of our GDP

Hey, I love a good rant. I'm a manufacturing guy so I even like to rant about how "we don't make anything anymore" - what you'll hear me complaining about over a beer. But, take a step back and we're the world biggest economy, we have very few people but generate almost a quarter of the value of everything done in this world and we export $1,500,000,000 a year ... that's a LOT of widgits. One of my favorite fat facts is that US manufacturing, taken as a single entity, would be the wolds 10th largest economy.

Yeah, we could do better, but don't break out he doobies quite so quickly.
 
The one area that domestic airlines excel at over foreign airlines is executive pay;)
 
I flew United for a couple years between DC and Cleveland and hardly had an issue.
 
I'm surprised no one has mentioned how awesome Lufthansa is?

Free premium German beer, from Chicago to Munich! That's 12+ hours of beer, my friends. :cheers:
 
ScottM said:
Most were between Chicago and Kansas City, a 7 hour ride. Airlines it is a 5 hour flight when considers all the extra hurry up and wait
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Average historical United block ORD-MCI is about 1.2 hours.
 
taters said:
Average historical United block ORD-MCI is about 1.2 hours.
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Door to door time is what I was referring too, that is why I mentioned the "hurry up and wait" line in my post that you quoted. The hurry up and wait of airline travel these days, along with an airport for Kansas City that is located somewhere near Iowa make for that trip to be a very long one. Door to door time on Amtrak results in almost the same amount of time, but without the junk grabbing, long lines, and aggravation that comes with air travel.

The best part was that in really bad WX Amtrak still goes. Just a couple of weeks ago in the bad April snow storm that hit Kansas, MO, and southern Il, Amtrak went, they were late to St. Louis but held the train for us. We made up time and get to KC only 5 minutes late. I pretty much have stopped using commercial air travel for that link and see no reason to start using it unless I have a one day meeting there.
 
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