About 15 years ago we eagerly accepted a ‘bump’ with confirmed first class the following morning, hotel, drink and meal vouchers. Changed our car rental and saved some $$$. In 50 years of flying commercial, domestic and international, that was the only bump we’ve ever been faced with.
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I go out of my way to fly on United.
Any flight longer than 1.5 hours (i.e. not Southwest friendly), more often than not my first and only choice is going to be United.
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As do we. Especially if I can book their Dreamliner. What a wonderful airplane.
I can’t criticize Uno’s pizza cause I can’t remember if I’ve ever had ANY deep dish pizza, much less on an airplane. We reheat pizza GREAT but it involves a stone, a little more oo, etc.
I have flown UA approximately 1.2 million paid miles, plus at least another 100-200K of award travel. I have flown UA 338 miles total since late 2012. I do not expect to “enjoy” this pizza anytime soon.
That said, this pizza product, reheated to kitchen specs in a properly-operating oven, and then served promptly thereafter, is a fairly airplane-friendly foodstuff. I would expect Row 6’s pizza product, served over Denver, to be quite a bit better than row 33’s pizza product, served over Des Moines. Nonetheless, both rows will be enjoying the same Chatow Barfum Le Vomit NV.
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Global Services Member?
Then they will offer you catered, non-menu items for your flight. Reheated, yes. But not from LSG Sky Chefs.
I’ve had Junior’s Cheesecake on a flight back from EWR to SAN provided by UA. Not reheated, of course. But chilled. Nicely.
Nope. Former 1K, when it really meant something (and better than GS now). Started flying a lot in the waning days of Beluga up front, and then having to settle for the Sevruga (still served with Dom, and Vodka kept chilled in a sculpted ice ring, poured into crystal stemmed shot glasses).
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The indignity…
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In 2004 United bought my loyalty when they sold me a $500 open ended ticket which allowed me to get to my father’s deathbed from the time I called them to the time I walked through the doors at Mass General Hospital in 9 hours. They have since lost it. I’m not sure I could have that experience again. If you buy a ticket in the cheap seats, they don’t care about you. I realize the competition is not much better, but they seem particularly egregious.
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We’re always in “steerage” and get treated very, very well. Always. I’ve sometimes wondered if it has to do with how well I treat them. ???
Funnily enough (well, maybe not so funny, actually) American similarly bought my loyalty for a number of years when my father was on his deathbed and the nice lady on the phone allowed us to swap our tickets we had for the next week to the next morning, and everyone was able to be at the house and such.
Now, everything is a cattle car. I don’t fly enough to accumulate miles in any sort of timely fashion, so unless I want to shell out some serious cash, I’m in the back with the plebes.
For an hour hop down to Sacramento or SFO or Oakland, or even LAX (ugh) that’s not so bad. Schlepping out to Chicago, though… That gets exhausting, and United/Air Canada is essentially my only choice unless I want to have a three hour layover somewhere ridiculous.
Honestly, if the airport were a moderately more pleasant/comfortable place that didn’t nickel and dime (or, these days, $5 and $10) you to death for water, food, a power outlet, and wifi, then I could handle a couple of hours in a crappy seat.
And there ain’t anything they could serve me on a plane that isn’t a cashier’s check that would make up for the mind-destroying security theater that is the airport checkpoint.
I have always found it entirely appropriate that, when asked to step into one of those big ol’ backscatter scanners they have now, you are asked to turn and put your hands up. Surrender, citizen. Your human dignity has been temporarily suspended. Any inkling that you attempt to understand policy as opposed to blindly obeying orders is grounds for detention and invasive search.
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Our ‘home’ airport is Reno so not big at all. Every airport I fly from, through or to has free water (water fountain for my previously emptied bottle), McDs-equivalent food, free power outlets and wifi. I’m sorry that’s not been your experience.
Regarding security I thank one or two TSA agents every time we go through there. It’s a thankless job. I don’t joke with or criticize them. I’m through in well under a minute. And I’m a ‘senior citizen’ so I’m not always the most pleasant person around 
I learned on my Air Canada flight back from Vancouver to SFO, which I accidentally booked at 6am instead of 6pm due to booking system software problems, that weekend early-morning flights are often way underbooked. There was probably room for every passenger to stretch out across three seats and take a nap. The steward said that might not be true for long-haul flights e.g. to Asia or Europe.
It wasn’t personal interaction to per se. There we’re several years where every time Dommy! and I would fly anywhere with United, her baggage would get lost and find us three days later. I overheard stewardesses who were disparaging another airline which had an incident that week, in front of passengers. It was vicious. Also I believe they were the first to break the Economy Class in two with Economy Plus. Those things plus many other little observances in my years of flying United left a bad taste in my mouth. So for right now, I’m not flying them.
I totally believe you and guess I should kiss the UA logo and every other airline I’ve flown on over the last half century. We’ve had bags 2X IIRC miss connections but got delivered to our door the following morning. Never lost forever. Never damaged or missing items.
Regarding Economy Plus or its equivalent I actually like it. I have occasionally splurged and gone for EP on a long international flight when the middle seat gets booked. (That’s a little trick I learned many years ago. That middle seat will generally be the last one booked so I book an aisle and a window and hope for the best. I keep monitoring the flight and if that seat DOES get booked, I’ll look to see if there’s another three across. It’s held me in good stead more often than not.) Yes, I did work for an international carrier a few lifetimes ago.
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I don’t remember which airline it was, but when I flew from SF to London for $99 round-trip in 1978 there were five classes. We were in the worst. The main course in the meal was some sort of beige goo. I asked the stewardess what it was, she went to ask, came back, and said “croquettes.” Croquettes of what? She went to ask, came back, and said “cheese croquettes.” You couldn’t really tell.
LOL. That’s really funny.
At least the cheese didn’t have to stand alone. In 1979, it was probably the fanciest cheese-like product that most United Statesians had ever eaten.
At least you had enough leg room to prevent arterial thrombosis.
Venous thrombosis, right? (sorry)…
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