Flying from Texas

[AggieDiver]

United is not very different from any other airline, including those higher rated like SW. Without question, all airlines are going to screw up things on occasion with cancelled/late/oversold flights, lost/delayed/damaged/pilfered bags, etc. We have all been there! However, you have a significantly reduced opportunity for problems on a non-stop flight, and I can say that with certainty having had to do a two leg commute to domicile for many years.

Yeah, I totally agree that any airline will have their share of screwups, but United among all the ones I have flown in the last 5-10 years just seems to really have terrible customer service, and their public facing staff (flight attendants, gate agents, ticketing counter personnel, etc.) seem to have uniformly terrible attitudes and customer service skills. I often describe their cabin crews as seeming to look at the customers the same way they would look at gum on their shoe...general disdain is kind of the default setting it seems. At least with Southwest, the cabin crews will give you a smile and try to help if you ask for it, even if they hate their job or are having a crappy day.

And when I call Southwest, if I am not getting the answer I need, they will pass me to somebody else until I get the issue resolved. When I was dealing with the United baggage issue I mentioned above, it was clear that the overseas telephone support folks had no ability to do anything constructive to help me. They had the information that was in their system ("the bag was last checked in in Houston"), which was well known to me, because I was there when it happened. What they could not tell me at any time over the next 3 days was 1) where was the bag now, 2) what was the plan to get it from Houston to Grand Cayman (since United only flies that route 1/week on Saturday), 3) When did they expect to implement that plan, and 4) how would United plan to get the bag from Grand Cayman (where they fly) to me in Little Cayman (where only one airline flies). When I asked to be transferred to somebody who actually knew anything about how the bag would be found and transported to me, they simply refused and told me to call back later to see if there was an update to the information in their system. They basically left me completely blind on whether the bag was simply still on the ground in Houston, had been accidently sent to some other airport, or had been stolen and was no longer in their possession. Their plan expressed over the phone was to "put the plane on the next flight to Grand Cayman" (which would occur on the day we were flying home) and then "have a driver bring the bag from the Grand Cayman Airport to our hotel" (across 75 miles of open ocean).