United Airlines

bobo the clown

I was just wondering has anyone flown with united airlines before. Ive recently booked flights and from the reviews i've read it doesn't sound too good.. Whats the story with in-flight entertainment, food etc, are they any good...

jahalpin

I've flown with them twice from LHR - SFO and found them to quite good.

The planes are reasonably new and comfortable and they have seat back screens and a reasonable selection of films etc, they are not AVOD though.

The flights from London to San Francisco are crewed by UK based crews and so the on-board service is quite good.

As usual the food on the US-bound flights is quite good and is usually chicken in sauce or pasta. They provide a very frequent drinks service and several snacks during the flight.

When checking in it might be a good idea to pay the bit extra to get the Economy-Plus seats

GeturGun

I've flown internally with them in the US; ORD - SFO - ORD and LAX - SFO and they were absolutely fine.
The crew were very nice, a few funny quips as well. (not as funny as Southwest though )

I'd fly with them again, although I've no idea what they are like long-haul.

(you can also listen to the air traffic control communications on channel 9 on your headset, it's really cool if - like me - you are into that sort of thing )

andy_g

moved to travel and holidays may get more answers here.

Andy

rossie1977

have flown with them a few times, as recently as march from lhr-dulles, dulles-san fran and san fran back to heathrow

the planes are really nice inside, 9 channels in the seatback as someone pointed out, food is ok nothing brilliant in economy, drink service is plentiful

would recommend no doubt

bobo the clown

rossie1977 wrote: »

have flown with them a few times, as recently as march from lhr-dulles, dulles-san fran and san fran back to heathrow

the planes are really nice inside, 9 channels in the seatback as someone pointed out, food is ok nothing brilliant in economy, drink service is plentiful

would recommend no doubt

Thanks for the replies. Whats the story with bags? When i check in in dublin do they go straight to my destination as it is a connecting flight? I assume they do but i only have 2 hours connecting time so just making sure

helimachoptor

I have flown transatlantic and internal (US) with them and, found them extremely good.

trakeena

I flew with them in January from San Diego to Chicago and found them quite good. There were a lot of extras though but were possible to avoid. You have to pay extra to choose a seat so you were left with the middle seats. The flight was comfortable and on time so I was happy.

GeturGun

bobo the clown wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. Whats the story with bags? When i check in in dublin do they go straight to my destination as it is a connecting flight? I assume they do but i only have 2 hours connecting time so just making sure

Are you connecting onto the United flight in the US?
We connected from Aer Lingus to United in Chicago. The bags were TAGGED all the way to San Fran but we had to collect them in Chicago and walk through customs with them, and put them back in the system again.
Coming home we dropped them in San Fran and collected them in Dublin, very painless.

2 hours should be fine, but I wouldn't hang around if you have to change Terminals etc. We also had to collect our boarding cards for the United flight in Chicago, they couldn't print them in Dublin for some reason.

If you are connecting onto the United flight somewhere like London, I guess they will go straight thru - as long as it's all on the one booking etc etc etc

Savman

Flew LHR-LAX with them and thought they were pretty poor tbh. That said, I've flown with them a few times for US domestic and each time was fine.

trakeena

I had the opposite situation. My bags went directly to Dublin and I got my boarding pass when I got my original flight in San Diego. In Chicago, there was a massive queue for security so don't hang about but they were doing work when I was there so the only place to get something to eat of shop was before security. If you buy stuff in the dutyfree they keep if for you and you pick it up the other side of security so don't worry about buying liquids.

dudara

bobo the clown wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. Whats the story with bags? When i check in in dublin do they go straight to my destination as it is a connecting flight? I assume they do but i only have 2 hours connecting time so just making sure

If you're connecting through an airport in the States, you will have to collect your bags at the first stop and check them in again (They will be tagged with your final destination). This is for security reasons.

However, once you're returning to Ireland, they will go straight through.

bobo the clown

dudara wrote: »

If you're connecting through an airport in the States, you will have to collect your bags at the first stop and check them in again (They will be tagged with your final destination). This is for security reasons.

However, once you're returning to Ireland, they will go straight through.

How long will that take as i only have 2 hours..:(

bobo the clown

GeturGun wrote: »

Are you connecting onto the United flight in the US?
We connected from Aer Lingus to United in Chicago. The bags were TAGGED all the way to San Fran but we had to collect them in Chicago and walk through customs with them, and put them back in the system again.
Coming home we dropped them in San Fran and collected them in Dublin, very painless.

2 hours should be fine, but I wouldn't hang around if you have to change Terminals etc. We also had to collect our boarding cards for the United flight in Chicago, they couldn't print them in Dublin for some reason.

If you are connecting onto the United flight somewhere like London, I guess they will go straight thru - as long as it's all on the one booking etc etc etc

Im flying to chicago through newark. Heard queues in newark are bad. Hopefully I'll make it. Not changing terminals though...

bobo the clown

trakeena wrote: »

I had the opposite situation. My bags went directly to Dublin and I got my boarding pass when I got my original flight in San Diego. In Chicago, there was a massive queue for security so don't hang about but they were doing work when I was there so the only place to get something to eat of shop was before security. If you buy stuff in the dutyfree they keep if for you and you pick it up the other side of security so don't worry about buying liquids.

Thanks for that about about the liquids because I will be buying a lot

rossie1977

bobo the clown wrote: »

How long will that take as i only have 2 hours..:(

i can only describe our experience in dulles, its probably similiar in newark

we got off the plane and had to go through customs (the line was long), straight after getting our passports stamped our bags were waiting for us in the next room, we took the bags and walked through another security point where they just took the white immigration form and put the bags on conveyor belt, all in all collecting the bags didn't waste any time for us, the drop-off was on the way to our gate so no time was lost

Todd Gack

I flew on a 747 trans-pacific with them and found them awful tbh. Only tv's from the ceiling every few rows which was rubbish. Obviously from what others have said this isn't the case on every United plane. Look up the aircraft type on seatguru and you should be able to know for sure. The food wasn't the best, i've had better but airline food isn't known for it's deliciousness.

BuffyBot

Im flying to chicago through newark

If you're flying from Dublin to Newark, you're most likely flying Continental which United codeshare on. You could them be transferring on to another codeshared continental flight, or a United plane for the Newark to Chicago leg.

If you do a search here for Continental, you'll find plenty of threads discussing them, the inflight entertainment, meals etc.

bobo the clown

BuffyBot wrote: »

If you're flying from Dublin to Newark, you're most likely flying Continental which United codeshare on. You could them be transferring on to another codeshared continental flight, or a United plane for the Newark to Chicago leg.

If you do a search here for Continental, you'll find plenty of threads discussing them, the inflight entertainment, meals etc.

sound thanks man..but never heard of codesharing. I was thinking they might of only had flights during the summer as there flights arent on dublin departures at the moment

adamski8

jahalpin wrote: »

When checking in it might be a good idea to pay the bit extra to get the Economy-Plus seats

whats so good about these?

BuffyBot

3 - 4 extra inches of pitch (space between the seat and the one in front), depending on the aircraft.

mockingjay

Thread quite dated but wondering has anyone flown Dublin-Newark-Orlando with United recently, if so what was the plane, experience like. Are the extra charges still in place? Travelling with two kids so want to make sure there's inflight entertainment and no charges at airport. What are the baggage allowances?

mockingjay

Anyone know the baggage allowances on United Airlines, would also like to know if you still have to pay to reserve seats or is it like a transatlantic Ryanair scramble?

ScottSF

The flight to Newark should have the seatback entertainment as these planes were from Continental Airlines and now they are fully merged into United Airlines. United Airlines is the best for flying in the US if you can get into Economy Plus. These seats with more legroom (definitely helps on a trans-Atlantic) can be upgraded for a small fee or you can get them by being a frequent flier.

As for the flight to Orlando it is likely to be shared entertainment (you might get lucky as they are upgrading planes over time) but at least that is a short flight. I always visit SeatGuru to find out about flights I'm booking. Check your flight to see what type of plane it is.
http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/United_Airlines/United_Airlines_Boeing_757-200_I.php

United doesn't charge to reserve seats. You probably already have a seat assignment which you should be able to view and change by logging in to United.com and viewing your itinerary.

I believe bags are free for international flights (first bag at least) and your bags will be checked straight through to Orlando. For domestic only flights (not part of an international itinerary) bag fees may apply. Unfortunately their check baggage page is a mess of rules and fee charts.
http://www.united.com/CMS/en-US/travel/Pages/CheckedBaggage.aspx

mockingjay

Thanks for that, seat guru was an excellent link, have found out type of plane, baggage allowances etc. Very grateful for your advice.