Flew back home from Orlando to Houston today. Three bags.
One bag weighed 52.3 pounds, one weighed 47 pounds, one weighed 29 pounds. Now, a rational person would think that an overweight fee would apply if our total was over 150. But that apparently excludes people who work for United. Yes, they were really going to charge us an overweight fee for the one bag.
So I opened the bag, took out a pair of shoes and a box, moved them to the 29 pound bag, closed everything up and said there, now it’s under 50 pounds. The freaking moron tried to charge me anyway. I raised hell and got a supervisor over. At least the supervisor had a couple of functioning brain cells and said let it go.
I hate flying in general because of the TSA. We fly United because SWMBO gets miles for it. Next trip we take, we’re on Southwest. At least, I will be.
I don’t see why the total weight of your bags / the number of bags is the way you think it would be calculated. It’s 50# per bag, it’s always been that way unless you can shift the weight around between your bags.
Trying to charge you after the weight had been redistributed is weird though.
The last time I flew American I had 52.5 in my checked bag. The agent told me they allow a little slack but the cut off they use is 51.5. She had no problem allowing me to switch a few things into my carry on. I came in at exactly 50.
They’ve been much stricter recently than they used to be, but a United agent let me get away with 52.5 on my last trip. I’ve never had anyone not allow me to redistribute between bags, whether checked or carry on.
I’ve been told by agents that the 50 pound limit per bag is in part because they don’t want baggage handlers to have to handle heavier bags (unless its marked as overweight).
Frustrating though it may be, this is reasonable. Excessively heavy bags are hard on the equipment and staff, and slow down the process of loading/unloading the plane. The weight limit is per individual bag.
Basically the only airline no one in my family has ever had a problem with is Lufthansa. Somebody has a horror story for every US carrier. It’s pathetic.
I’ve heard good things about some of the Asian carriers, like Cathay Pacific, but my only experience in that realm is Air China. Yeah.
Three of the worst flights I experienced before 2005 were on United Air. Since then, unfortunately, I had a string of nasty Jet Blue flights that made United look good.
Since I retired, I have avoided flying like the plague. I suppose I’ll have to fly again sometime, but the longer I go without interfacing the TSA and US airline industry, the happier, I’ll be.
I never fly United, but I have had the horrible misfortune of having to call their customer service for my job on occasion.
Lawd a-mighty.
United’s hold music is a horrible, distorted, scratchy section of “Rhapsody in Blue” that plays over and over and over and is so loud and you can’t turn it down.
I once sat on hold for 45 minutes. I wanted to snap the space bar off my computer keyboard and stab myself in the eye with its pointy corners. Awful. And it’s been the same kill-yourself-now hold music for years.
Had a similar thing with Air NZ (Domestic - International still has a great rep AFAIK).
An early morning mist had caused delays in Hamilton, which had a knock-on effect to the whole bloody country so my afternnon flight was delayed - missing my connection.
Another person at the same conference had her flight cancelled completely and replace with a different flight, so I did the customer service hold the line dance for an hour while she insisted that the new flight didn’t exist and she couldn’t get me on that one anyway. At one point they had me on four different flights over eighteen hours to avoid paying for the hotel room I asked for if expected to stay overnight at the first connecting flight’s airport.
But by that stage, I was at the airport talking to an actual booking person.
She got me home an hour before my original flight was due to land.
I call them almost daily. It truly is horrible. I cannot grasp why the music has to sound like it’s being played from a broken phonograph. Their customer service is total crap. It used to be even worse, if such a thing is possible. They outsource heavily, all over the world, and around 5 years ago their main call center was in Central America. What a nightmare that was. We used to bribe each other to call. Now it has gotten a little better. I’ve actually talked to some very good agents in recent weeks.
My recommendation is to sign up for Mileage Plus and try 800-421-4655 instead of the regular reservations line. You might get routed back to reservations eventually, especially if hold times are high. But your chance of getting a US-based agent is marginally higher.
The sad truth is, though, that all of the airlines’ service is declining. Delta used to be great to work with, now they are incompetent and almost hostile. I say that as a traveler and as an agent.
Southwest is the only airline I am comfortable recommending. I have never had a bad experience with them. Literally never. I don’t know how they make their employees so happy. It’s like the Publix of airlines, but if Publix were cheap.
As bad as UA is, THIS is the worst airline hold music ever. Air France went on strike once and there were hour-long hold times, before a voice would come on and say “Sorry, we are not accepting calls” and hang up on you. You’d have to start all over again. This refrain would loop over and over. Just… brutal.
My group is now only two, but I’ve heard lots of stories about families being split up on other airlines, including kids being separated from parents. It costs more to have any control of your seats. On SW you can get multiple boarding passes when checking in if the tickets are reserved together, so if you are standing in the orderly line together and you aren’t way in the back you have a pretty good shot at sitting together.
So I think they win even in this.
SW also has family boarding, where any family with kids under some age - I forget the limit - gets to board right after the priority people and before the rest of the plebs. I’ve flown on Southwest with my kids several times and we’ve always gotten on early enough to get seats together.
Every truly awful flight I’ve ever been on was on United.
The time I was so rushed at work I had no time for lunch… got on board a direct flight at 4 PM from Washington to San Francisco… and they announced that the lift from the food prep / storage area was broken so guess what, no food. OK, the drinks and the movie were free but I was ravenous.
The time I was flying from Washington to Denver. Couldn’t reserve seats in advance. I asked if I could get an aisle seat, and would have been willing to wait to get a confirmed assignment. The attendant said “yep, how about this bulkhead seat”. Turns out, she did NOT tell me it was the middle of FIVE seats (and I’m not crazy about bulkhead anyway). Two colleagues who checked in after me - and paid less for their tickets got better seats. The one who paid the least: upgraded to Business class.
Flight from New York to Washington - flight so shaky they made the attendants sit down. I truly thought we were going to die. Single most terrifying flight I’ve ever taken.
The one good thing they ever did for me: I had a free ticket to/from San Francisco on USAir. I booked a flight from there to Honolulu on my own nickel. Allowed 3+ hour layover in SF each way. Get to the airport in Honolulu and find that my flight is going to be 3+ hours late. Egad. Fortunately they rebooked me on another airline and I made San Francisco in time to catch my flight home… which turned out to be 3 hours late as well, so it wound up being a moot point :p.
Mmmm, maybe. You have to pay extra to get a better slot (they’ll auto-check you in), or be ready to confirm THE MINUTE you hit that 24-hour window.
And even then, if something happens to delay you at the airport, you’re screwed. We were returning on New Year’s Day, from Phoenix, and the airport was such a godawful mess we didn’t get through security until they were boarding.
If I hadn’t had the foresight to break my arm while on vacation - thereby getting to board with the “needs extra time” group, we’d have been SOL. Or had to involve the flight attendants to ask people to move, which is a pain in and of itself.
I flew back from England on a Virgin flight. After a 2 1/2 hour delay because of problems with a plane they announced they were bringing out the spare plane. After only another hour we could board this derelict. Two rows of seats were taped off. Carpeting and upholstery was torn. The overhead compartment doors wouldn’t stay shut. Pieces were shaking and vibrating the whole trip. Several atheists became believers before we landed.
But that stuff is under your control. And I’m quite fanatical about getting to airports way early, especially on holidays. Now that SW has a nice app to check in with the 24 hour limit is fine, and the paid option is fairly cheap.
United on the other hand is mysterious. When I flew it for work I often got somewhat decent seats. When I flew it with the government paying, I always wound up in a middle seat in the back row, no matter how far in advance I booked. And half the time they claim they can’t give you a seat assignment - probably to keep you from bothering them asking for changes. I suppose if you fly 100K miles a year or more you get taken care of, but I don’t.
Our family just did Las Vegas to Orlando roundtrip on Southwest…excellent pilots, on-time, stewards(esses) friendly, new jet. I don’t think I’ve had any problems with Southwest ever.
Hawaiian Airlines was decent the two times we used it…unfortunately, the third time was United.
United? Cancelled flight from LAX to Kona…next flight…13 hours later…LAX is ballsucking boring after 1 hour, let alone 13.
Yes, because one bag was overweight.