United (United Airlines)

Member Name: hazycakes

Product:	United Airlines
Date:	08/10/08 (213 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: part of star alliance so link with other airlines

Disadvantages: preallocate seats not together

Flew with United earlier this year to America, drawn by the free connecting flight from Glasgow to Heathrow (they are part of the Star Alliance so our flight was with BMI)

The planes are in reasonable condition and there is Tvs on the back of every seat of the uk-usa planes so you can choose what you want to watch, a choice of 6 movie channels, a kids channel, some comedy and dramas and also the radio channels. A nice thing is that you can track the planes progress on a map and sometimes listen to the captains chatter if he switches it on.

Despite having booked our flights 8 months before our trip on everyone of our 11 flights over 2 weeks my friend and I were seperated when we received our tickets so we had to keep going to customer services to get this changed which was a pain, why could they not just put us together in the first place. On our last leg of the tour (miami-washington-heathrow) we mentioned at checkin about our problems and they checkin assistant must have put a note on our records as when we were allocated our seats in Washington we had been upgraded 2 levels to Business class (there are 4 classes on transatlantic - economy, economy plus, business and executive). What treat - massive chairs which recline right back with a foot rest, proper pillow and blanket, adjustable tv, pre takeoff drink, mini flight pack. There was also a proper menu for food, which was a bit too fancy for me but there was an option for a meal you could have at any time which was a lot nicer.

The food in economy was nice, but then I seem to be one of those odd people who actually like airline food. On the domestic flights over a certain length you could buy snack boxes which cost $5 and they are sooo worth it, the one i chose had bagel bites and soft cheese, fruit, pretzels, packet of mint and a mini pastry. Drinks are free and on the shorter flights they dont have a full service but will provide glasses of water.

Out of the 11 flights we took the only one that was delayed at all was the return flight from Heathrow to Glasgow, no surprise there. All in all I cant really fault United and would definately fly with them again

Summary: good experience