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NEWS Fuck You United Airlines

JIMC5499

ex-Mech
I've found that it is easier and cheaper to send my luggage to my hotel by UPS. I usually stay in the same hotel every trip. If I let them know when I make my reservation there is no problem. Last time I checked in, I was told that my package was already in my room. My employer has a UPS account number and has no trouble with it either. I can carry one outfit in my laptop bag, just in case and it fits nicely under the seat.
 

LET73

Well-Known Member
What the airlines need to do is actually enforce the size limits for carry-on bags. They could take a page from Ryanair's book and have an employee check the size of passengers' bags while they're waiting in line to board... then charge double to check an oversized carry-on at the gate.

I'm also OK with adding people to the no-fly list if they put their bags sideways in the overhead bin, or if they put coats up there, but maybe that's a little extreme. ;)
 

Pags

N/A
pilot
I've found that it is easier and cheaper to send my luggage to my hotel by UPS. I usually stay in the same hotel every trip. If I let them know when I make my reservation there is no problem. Last time I checked in, I was told that my package was already in my room. My employer has a UPS account number and has no trouble with it either. I can carry one outfit in my laptop bag, just in case and it fits nicely under the seat.
In Japan I used the Japanese version of UPS, Black Cat, to ship our luggage when traveling within Japan. It cost $15/big bag and 1 day to ship from Sasebo to Kyoto and 2 days to get to Tokyo. It was awesome to ship your bags, walk unecumbered to the train station, hop on the Shinkansen, and show up to your hotel to find your bags waiting for you. The hardest part was finding someone to write the shipping labels in Kanji.

If the US had something like this with a similar price point I'd use it every time.
 

nittany03

Recovering NFO. Herder of Programmers.
pilot
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
I've found that it is easier and cheaper to send my luggage to my hotel by UPS. I usually stay in the same hotel every trip. If I let them know when I make my reservation there is no problem. Last time I checked in, I was told that my package was already in my room. My employer has a UPS account number and has no trouble with it either. I can carry one outfit in my laptop bag, just in case and it fits nicely under the seat.
I don't know why I've never thought of this, but now that I've heard of it, I'm not forgetting it.
 

nittany03

Recovering NFO. Herder of Programmers.
pilot
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
I'm also OK with adding people to the no-fly list if they put their bags sideways in the overhead bin, or if they put coats up there, but maybe that's a little extreme. ;)
Hey, hey!! Easy there, tiger! :)
 

jmcquate

Well-Known Member
Contributor
When I was flying to LA on a regular basis a few years back, I always shipped my luggage. It was always waiting in my room. The only way to go, especially if you have a connection. UPS doesn't lose your bags, and no TSA bullshit.
 

Farva01

BKR
pilot
In Japan I used the Japanese version of UPS, Black Cat, to ship our luggage when traveling within Japan. It cost $15/big bag and 1 day to ship from Sasebo to Kyoto and 2 days to get to Tokyo. It was awesome to ship your bags, walk unecumbered to the train station, hop on the Shinkansen, and show up to your hotel to find your bags waiting for you. The hardest part was finding someone to write the shipping labels in Kanji.

If the US had something like this with a similar price point I'd use it every time.
Did that with our snowboards when we went up Sapporo for the ice festival. Friggin awesome
 

sevenhelmet

Low calorie attack from the Heartland
pilot
honestly, maybe this will let the rest of us get off the airplane and make tight connections a little more quickly, when we don't have to wait for the masses to grab their 18 oversize carry-ons evenly distributed across the entire cabin. Sorry, but it has gotten ridiculous. No skin off my back if they do this.

Agree. If they'd make the boarding order more intelligent, it might help. I flew commair this week on Delta, and on all four flights I was in an aisle seat and boarded in a group before the folks sitting in the window/middle seats. Seems ridiculous to me. There's definitely a more expeditious way to do it. Overall though, Delta wasn't too bad, and everything was on time or early. Most of the time, my problem with commercial air isn't with the airline, it's with other people.
 

picklesuit

Dirty Hinge
pilot
Contributor
Flew United all the way from KSEA to Naha, Okinawa, via SFO and Narita.

24 hour travel day, on a weekend. I’d give UAL a B- overall.

Flights themselves weren’t bad, SEA to SFO was ontime departure, early landing. I got the free upgrade to an exit row when I checked in at SEA with the military ID and asking for “more legroom.”

Layover in SFO was about three hours, which was just enough time to get one of my two bags on the plane. I’m not a translog guy, but I always kinda thought the bags would pretty much go on as they came in and reverse order out, staying close-ish together.

Regardless, the majority of my flight gear/uniform stuff is still in the USA as I type this from Kadena.
Luckily I packed my khakis and a flight suit, unluckily neither set of footwear to go with. Cramming the size 13’s into a pair of 11.5’s for the day today.

SFO to Narita was around ten hours, winds were fairly light. I had the option to take my window seat at 40A, or get more legroom in economy plus in the middle seat. I opted for the window, which was the right call. Ended up next to a couple of fluffy Americans, one of which was a a YNC on his way to Guam that was waaaaay out of regs for size.
Immediate neighbor on the right was a plump 25 y/o midwestern girl in a pair of Lululemons doing yeoman’s duty (see what I did there?) holding in years of processed food attached to her thighs.

Those thighs repeatedly encroached on my side of her armrest, which, in her defense, may be a direct result of the size of the barrel-assed YNC to her right.

Either way, I was able to escape to my wall and window, and she didn’t seem too upset when I used my “man space” legroom to stretch and squished up against her rolls.

Thankfully she was well laundered and bathed, and had appropriate antiperspirant applied, as there was no malodorous contributions to the flight from her.

Can’t say the same for me, after eating the meals United provided...I had ramen or chicken/rice for “lunch” (at 14-1500 PST?) so went chicken/rice. I was missing MRE’s by the end of that meal.

Free beer/wine was nice, but due to the location outboard of two beefalos I did the tactical dehydration, only had to pee once the whole flight.

Movie selection was the best part of the deal, managed to see 4.6 good flicks. The content editing on Kingsman 2 was a little heavy, though, enough to be distracting.

Breakfast (at 2100 PST?) was an omelette that was actually decent.

Got to Narita in fine shape, and in a good mood, which I lost along with my bag between immigration and customs.

Japanese were helpful, UAL baggage lady walked me through customs with my paperwork for the missing bag. Supposedly it is arriving tonight, so may take the duty driver to retrieve it...

Domestic terminal at Narita is a throwback to my days riding Greyhound out of Bakersfield. Crowded, hot, with TV I couldn’t understand. Are my noodles and Kirin in peace before it got really crowded, then hid out to watch videos on the iPhone.
AC would go a long way to make that terminal respectable.

Flight to Naha was about half military and half locals, but of course I got to sit by the Indian/Bangladeshi guy with swamp-nuts. We were an hour late off deck, of which we spent thirty minutes waiting on the little bus from terminal D to the plane.

Thankfully we had an empty seat between us, so I discretely pointed my vent and the middle vent at him and launched his odors across the aisle.

767 seat is about as comfortable as the ejection seat in the T-6, and baggage handling in Naha was almost as slow as my lost bag.

Thankfully I had a good buddy picking me up, so I got in at a reasonable time.

Now I get to start hinge-ing.

UAL needs to get their translog side working better, the customer service part was solid.
Pickle
 

HokiePilot

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
Thanks for the awesome review! Have you ever thought about starting a youtube channel to share your airline flight review?
 
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