United Airlines is the worst

my dad is also an airline captain... and nobody understands what the airline industry is actually like. it's extremely fucked i don't even want to get into it because it will most likely piss me off.

this biggest misconception is that pilots are loaded.. which they USED to make good money. but they deserved it... now they make shit for what they do.
 
if they are already established in an airline, then yes, they probably are.

however, if you are new to the aviation industry (fresh out of college) you can look forward to years of terrible, terrible pay, awful hours, bad routes, and constant fear over your job.

fortunately, some good is coming from that crash in buffalo last year in that the govt seems to be taking some action to try to help young pilots. Often they have to commute across the country to fly their own route because they dont have enough money to live where they are based. I think the co-pilot of the flight that crashed in buffalo was living in seattle or something, and flew across the country before starting work. they get exhausted because of it, and errors happen
 
do you know them on a close personal level?

a lot of pilots have HUGE egos. even if they lost money they might try to make it seem like they still have lots of it.. i'm not sure about airlines in canada but some really messed up stuff has happened for pilots employed by airlines in the US causing pilots to lose a ton of money.

my dad got almost a 50% pay cut...they also took away 2 mil of his retirement. and let him see 300k of that, but they treated it like income and so it was taxed.

i had to quit ski racing because it was too expensive... it was the end of the world at the time, now i'm glad i don't race. but still.. LSS: most pilots aren't loaded anymore. the assholes working higher up in the airline are the ones with all the money and they're also the ones fucking everything up.

 
I live in colorado and my dad has to fly to newark as a commute...so dont complain about bad traffic on your way to work.
 
your first statement... is FALSE.

my dad has been a captain for delta for as long as I can remember and the airline started taking away retirement funds (he had a certain word for them.. i can't remember it) from the pilots who had worked there the longest. then a new policy came into play which prevented the airline from getting their hands on any of the newer employees' money.

i wish my dad could explain this for me and it would make much better sense..
 
fair enough. my info comes directly from a friend. Both of his parents have been pilots at AA and delta for i think 25 years each.

I remember when we were younger they made a lot more, but even after pay cuts its not like he's living in a slum. Still has a quite comfortable life.

but no, its not like the 50s anymore
 
i'm not going to say how much my dad makes... but he is underpaid for what he is required to do in my opinion. my was in the air guard, and then switched to commercial.

oh! and in NO WAY am I trying to sound like a whiny little bitch who wishes my family had more money. all i'm saying is pilots deserve to make a lot of money...

they are required to do all this other bullshit for the job, yet they only get paid once the cabin door shuts until the cabin door opens. depending on the commute/schedule... they can spend 100 hours away from home and only get 30 hours of pay (more or less)
 
yeah, maybe their money wasn't touched before the new policy or whatever. they basically took as much money as they could... so they targeted the people who had the most, which are typically the pilots who have been working there the longest.

 
i hate continental. they delayed our flight because of static, they turned a 1:30 hour into a 8 hour delay, then canceled flight on the way home, didnt put the people who ordered their tickets together, that would be me and my friends, overbooked their flight and had to have people stay in the airport, and the people working the deskhad no idea what to do, and no leg room.

/end mini rant
 
I'd have to say I prefer west jet over air canada- air canada wins out over everything except that west jet has much friendlier and easier service and DOESNT LOSE MY BAGS. air canada loses my bags almost every time I fly.

and get this- travelling home from vancouver with my ski team, air canada found out they had overbooked and had to move all 9 of us to a later flight, then everything was delayed a bunch. eventually they called us up and said

"sorry guys... uhhh we won't be able to fly you out tonight... you'll have to leave at 8 am tomorrow, we think we can fit you in."

well we calmly explained to the nice people at the desk that (at the time) 6 of us were minors, and we werent going to stay anywhere that we had to drive to, because we wouldnt make it back in time. so unless they wanted a shit tonne of trouble, theyd have to set us up with a in-airport hotel. and there's only one hotel that wasn't fully booked in the airport.... the fairmont.

they found us room on the next flight in 5 minutes after that.

 
United has messed up and lost so many of our bags and broke things. We still fly it. Who knows why. I've never flew on anything else except Boeing planes and i've flown luftansa airlines
 
United somehow managed to run out of fuel on a 1.5 hr flight from seattle to san Francisco, causing a two hour wait in San Jose..where we weren't scheduled to stop. They also did not transfer my luggage to American Airlines so I was in Baltimore with luggage in San Francisco...and this all was my first time flying, alone, from coast to coast.

BUT, they did upgrade me and a friend to first class fo freeee !
 
Ive agreed with much of what youre saying.

and its true, alot of pilots have HUGE egos (my dad doesnt)

but theres a funny joke: "3 guys are sitting at a bar, how do you know which one is an airline pilot"?

hes already told you.

lolz

the pay scale is, meh, its what it is, and what people dont get is youre right, they only get paid the money for engines on, so thats when it comes down to seniority being your life line. some people get the shitty schedules and are stuck with low flight hours and tons of time away.

BUT when you can pick up a day of overtime its quite easy for a pilot to take home more in one day than a healthy number of americans take home in a week.

my biggest beef is shit happens every 5 years or so that causes everything to go into limbo. like you said, post 911 my family took a MONSTROUS paycut. then DL bought NW (shits outa wack) then DL takes whole ownership of XJ. now DL sells XJ (fuck you delta) my dad doesnt know if hes gonna be flying outa MSP JFK DFW or MEM (PUKE)

like i said, im going to avoid the industry like its the plague
 
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i have had some really nice flight attendants, but the other day i was in the airport and they like confiscated my toiletries because of the 3oz rule. the only problem is that the dumb inbreed working there doesn't know the difference between liquid oz, or volume, which is what they limit, and net weight. I even told him this casually, like "o sorry, the sign said liquid ounces, and that numbers for net weight." i started to try to say that, but it became clear that he wasnt getting it, so i just told him to throw them out and have a nice day.

anotherr time was coming back from mt hood, and i hurt my shoulder on the last day, but at night so i figured i'd get it looked at later if it still hurt. it killed in the morning so i got the airport first aid to look at it. they lectured me on how doing flips is stupid and dangerous and couldn't believe that there were camps where people were allowed to do this. then thay asked me if it happened in the airport (after i told them it was from a tramp), to see if they were liable. after all that, she told me that i prbly tore my rotator cuff, and gave me some shit about repetitive motions leading to tears. at that point i got up and was jut like "k thanks." i told her it was from a single incident, and when i went to the doctors later they said that there was almost no way i tore it. got an x ray, waited a month, got an mri, then we found out that I knocked my right shoulderblade off of my ribcage, and stretched out all of the tendons connected to my scapularis muscle. pretty much done with pt, and i have full range of motion and am getting there on strength

so thats my story. if anything i would say that its better to let them go and just keep walking, because as much fun as it would be to go off on them, they can make your life a living hell, and some are to dumb to even get it
 
my family used to fly united, but they screwed up so badly with overbooking and cancellations that my mom and i were completely unable to get to new york one time. now we usually fly alaska which has been great, and i recently flew southwest for the first time and that was even better. everything they do is simple and cheap and efficient. it's great. but by far the best was emirates. they have all widebody planes, so when you're on lightly traveled route, you can just get a row to yourself, and they come around with hot towels at the beginning of each flight, and the food and entertainment is fantastic, but leg room in economy class is definitely not designed for a guy who's 6'2". also, dubai's airport is also probably one of the coolest places i have ever been.
 
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I also have delta and u.s. airways miles and it is ridiculous trying to book an award flight. United has roundtrip flights for 25k and one way for 12.5k (under 12k when they have sales) all the time. U.S. airways is insane and has all their high moderate low bullshit where you end up paying 32k for a one way ticket that you are booking 3 months in advance.
 
America West bought U.S. Airways not too long ago, so that's what happened to America West. I've always flown United because that's what my dad flew for business. Lots of mishaps, but every airline is like that.
 
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gate agents work for the AIRLINE. the TSA agents work for the government... so that guy taking your stuff away had nothing to do with the airline.

but TSA agents are dicks. always on a power trip
 
i dunno my mom works for them and i fly free and im usaly in first class. soo.. yeah.. united fucking rocks!!!..

but really i feel for all the horrer stories.. i have mine to.
 
i would be so annoyed if that happened on my flight. i just want to get home/to my destination, not get rapped to.

and what skiminnesota said. airlines will accommodate just about anything if they screw up, you just have to demand it long enough. cancel your flight? demand to be put on a different airline, 99% of the time they will. lose your ski bag? pay for rentals, they will. (a little tip, always carry on your boots, you dont want to rent those). just be calm and dont start yelling at the gate agent, the minute you start yelling they are going to ignore you. after all, they werent the ones that canceled your flight, they are just stuck dealing with angry people as a result. be friendly, but assertive, and itll get you what you want most of the time.

another tip. when you fly, have the customer service # for the airline saved in your phone. then if your flight gets cancelled, get in line at the customer service desk AND call the number. see which one gets you to a real human being first. youd be amazed how many people dont know the number and sit waiting in line for a customer service rep when they could have already rescheduled their flight.
 
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dont be a jackass towards them. but also dont let them jerk you around.

although, this one time, i nearly lost it. the guy tried to tell me i couldnt get on the plane even though there were open seats. i almost blew a gasket on him. i told him PUT IN MY CONFIRMATION CODE AND SWITCH THE RESERVATION or step aside and let me use the computer.

the guy was a 25 year old gate agent on a power trip...

the other thing you do is pick a gate agent of the opposite sex roughly the same age as you, and flirt your way into anything. but this works best if youre non revving. bumped up to first class whaaaaatttt?
 
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