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“Better late than never but you end up paying more.”
Review of United Airlines


Reviewed 7 December 2022

Second time this has happened. The flight from XNA to Houston was either late or cancelled. This last time, I was forced to overnight in Houston which the airline comped but since I didn't know if they would, I had made a quick reservation on booking dot com who tells me there is a $150 cancellation fee. This on top of losing a day I paid for in Panama City. Last time, my ride to the airport had already left so I ended up getting an Uber back to town and driving my car out the next day. I'm out $115 there and AIG Travel Guard says I didn't provide proof (which I both emailed and snail-mailed to them). They're a scam

Date of travel: November 2022
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    • Legroom
    • In-flight Entertainment
    • Value for money
    • Check-in and boarding
Thank phardog
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
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388 - 392 of 53,111 reviews

Reviewed 6 December 2022

We live in San Francisco so we end up on United flights often. Overall it's so so and I've learned to live with it. However post Covid19 it seems that profits has really overruled everything.

Our worst experience has been surprise flight changes. First time it happened was last year. We have a 4 year old so we paid extra for the nice 10:30am flight vs. the 6am / 6pm flights. A month later we were told that the 10:30am flight is cancelled and we've been rebooked on the 6am flight. We called, they offered to move us to the 6pm flight (arriving around midnight which is no good for a 4 year old). There was no refund for the extra we paid for the better time flight and ending up on the crappy time flight anyway. Another month passes and my husband noticed that the 10:30am flight is now back! We call and ask to be put back on our original flight. Ha! What naivete! We were told that "unfortunately" they cannot move us back to our original flight, and if we wanted to swap for the new 10:30am flight, we can pay $300 per person to switch since the new 10:30am flight prices are now higher. We were appalled. This was clearly a bait and switch to extract the most ticket $$s out of passengers. We hoped that this is a one off.

Then it happened again. We paid extra for a direct flight from LAX to SJO (only on Saturdays), and booked a separate SFO to LAX ticket on different airline for the short haul. A month later I checked my United app and noticed that that direct flight now has a stop in IAH. I called and was told that the change just happened and I should receive an email notification in 24-48 hours (never got it BTW). The unfortunate thing is that the stop over lengthened the flight times on both ends, which means that there wasn't an early flight from SFO to LAX nor a late flight from LAX to SFO that was reasonable, so we had to add a hotel night stay on both ends. We asked about switching our flight to start at SFO instead of LAX if they both had to stop at IAH anyway, and was told that United cannot change my tickets to another airport further than 200 miles. The agent offered to change my flight to depart from SFO for over a $1,000 additional. We were so pissed that we said no. Subsequently when we added up the SFO to LAX short haul flight costs + 2 hotel overnight stays the incremental cost is similar and would've saved us some time if we made the switch. But we were angry at yet another United bait and switch.

I won't get into the delays, too short connections, no plugs nor screens on long flights, etc. Those are consistent with a corporation focused on maximizing profits.

Two stars because the agents we dealt with at the counters were polite and helpful, and the flight attendants have been lovely. Even the agents on the phone who were not able to help us were polite and did their best - they just had their hands tied by corporate policies that gave them no leeway.

Please United, do better. Give your agents more leeway to do the right thing. If you're going to change someone's flight from a non-stop to a flight with a layover, offer more flexibility with rebooking; if you're going to move a flight from 10:30am to 6am departure, at least offer to refund the fare difference, and put the passengers on a priority list if the original flight comes back. Or better, don't bait and switch and keep your original promises instead, that's what we wanted and paid for.

Date of travel: November 2022
    • Seat comfort
    • Customer service
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    • Food and Beverage
    • Legroom
    • In-flight Entertainment
    • Value for money
    • Check-in and boarding
Thank MinjiaM
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Reviewed 6 December 2022

My children (3) and I travelled from Auckland to London via Chicago. The first leg was with New Zealand - flying in behalf of United. The 14 hours flight was great, but we had 2 hours in Chicago to get our connecting United Airlines flight to London. In hindsight, there were SO many reasons why we were never going to make the connecting flight. Arriving in Chicago was like entering a third world country, no transit lanes, having to collect our luggage. It took so long in customs, with no absolutely no provision for transitioning customers that so many people missed their on-going flight.

United’s response was outrageous - they blamed customers. I told them they sold a flight with a 2 hour stop over, which was totally unrealistic, considering the archaic requirements of entry. Most people in the same situation where put on a flight for the next day (24 hour wait) and told to organise & pay for their own accommodation. I overheard United allowing for a well dressed couple to take a British Airways flight leaving in a few hours. I insisted on the same & they reluctantly put us on the flight. The couple after me where told they could only take the United flight the next day. On the British Airways flight, there was a lot of room - at least 20 seats free - if United had really cared about their customers we would have all be put on that flight. Appalling service.

Date of travel: December 2022
1  Thank D4636UBsharonh
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Reviewed 6 December 2022

First off, we are loyal United members. Only fly United and have a United miles credit card. We have never had any issues and have enjoyed United until this trip. The cancellation of the flight was not the issue. It was everything that took place afterwards.

We spent hours on the phone with customer support trying to get on a different flight. I work in a hospital, have two school aged children and needed to be home that day. When passing another passenger in the elevator of our hotel, she revealed that United had moved her to an American Airlines flight. When I requested the same, they told me they needed the name of that passenger in order to do anything and continued to tell me the same thing over and over, put me on hold and then repeat themselves on booking us on the flight the following day. It’s almost as if you all make it extremely difficult and get your customers to just agree to your terms.

My family and I got to the airport and booked a flight with Southwest to get us home. We went up to the counter of United and told them what we had done. They provided us with food vouchers and $350 per person to use for future flights with United within 2 years.

When we went to use the vouchers, they got declined. My husband had to go to a United team member and get new vouchers.

We got to our layover in Denver. We have 4 United club passes and decided to feed our children and relax in the United club during our layover. We waked, towing our two children and luggage all the way through the Denver airport only to be met by an extremely rude receptionist at the United Club. We we’re not aware that we could not use our passes since we no longer had boarding passes for a United flight. Which we would have, had our flight not been cancelled. We we’re turned away, tired and frustrated.

We had a great experience speaking with Delta, American, and Southwest who were extremely accommodating and their customer service was wonderful. We expected more out of your airline. It’s so unfortunate and hope that this isn’t what the future for United looks like.

Date of travel: December 2022
1  Thank S4735UIbeccab
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Reviewed 6 December 2022

A morbidly obese passenger was seated next to me squeezing me against my armrest for the entire flight. The staff was rude, there were no snacks, and we even had to wait an extra hour on the runway because they couldn't move the plane to the parking spot. This has been my worst experience traveling so far.

Date of travel: December 2022
    • Seat comfort
    • Customer service
    • Cleanliness
    • Food and Beverage
    • Legroom
    • In-flight Entertainment
    • Value for money
    • Check-in and boarding
1  Thank johnkX280GE
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
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