Advantages: Biggest airline in the world, and one of the best
Disadvantages: lost property services could be better

...I recently flew with United to Florida via Washington, over the course of the trip I flew on two different 777's, a 757 and a 727. I found the all of the aircraft to be very clean, the new increased seat pitch in economy was very welcome and for me a being a shade short of six foot, comfortable. The cabin crew on all flights were great, nothing was to much trouble for them at all, can't praise them highly enough, the flights despite the best efforts of the american air traffic control services arrived all arrived on time or early. One reccomendation, if you don't like cheese, tell your travel agent, and the airline before you fly, because at some point you WILL get the dreaded cheese. The check in staff are also ver yefficient and polite, another reccomendation would be, check in early, flights on popular routes may well... Read review

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Advantages: They get you where you want to go
Disadvantages: not mum and baby friendly

...I’m sure that I’ve flown with United Airlines in the past and that it had been a good experience (I’ve just flown so many times, I can’t ever remember with whom) but so much changes once you have a baby. A few months ago I booked a flight with Lufthansa, the German airline, to fly from Edinburgh to Chicago, via Frankfurt, Germany, along with my husband and then 5-month old baby daughter. We were on our way to visit my baby’s grandparents who live in the US, so we were not really going on holiday, as such. I was really excited to be flying with Lufthansa and I booked the flight with them because they seemed to be very child friendly and because they let me pre-book a bassinette for my baby to sleep in (which is meant to take a baby up to age 6 months), bulkhead seats and baby food ahead of time. I even phoned 48 hours in advance... Read review

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Advantages: Cheap, You can listen in to to Pilot
Disadvantages: Food is terrible, customer service could be better

...A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of taking a holiday to the West Coast of America and Hawaii. (Excuse me while I just pick up that name I just dropped). While the holiday, as you can imagine, was awesome, there were certain aspects of the United Airlines customer service that were certainly not awesome. Actually the title to this op is slightly misleading. They weren’t that bad. (Certainly better than American Airlines, but then that’s not difficult. I think I would be better than American if I offered people piggy backs to wherever they wanted to go.) However, there were a couple of incidents that could have been handled better by the United staff. I’ll get them out in the open early and then talk about the good things they do. The first annoying habit they have, is holding a number a seats back... Read review

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Advantages: Lots of avaiable routes all over USA
Disadvantages: Not as friendly staff and general 'old fashioned' design interior of aircraft

...I flew on United airways 4 times over the USA and from the UK in August 2004 and found it to be a very pleasant, relaxing flight each time. Cost Well everyone cares about cost! United are not a budget airline, although my family found them tp be the cheapest of all the carriers we could find in the USA last summer. As far as I am aware, the flights from the UK to New York cost under £500 each return, with additional internal flights within the USA free (a maximum of 2 free flights, from £80 after this). My family thought this was a bargain and so we chose to fly United. The Flights Well it has to be comfortable aswell! On the flight from Heathrow to New York, everyone had a seatback television with a seat pitch of 31" (quite generous apparently). I'm a bit on the short side so this doesn't affect me but on European flights my... Read review

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Advantages: read it
Disadvantages: read it

...: "Stand at the ramp at ((London's)) Heathrow and you will see all those new Boeings with foreign airline markings, and then in comes old Pan Am chugging along in an ancient machine." The average age of British Airways' fleet is 8 years; Air France's, 8.5; Swissair's, 5.5. Industry executives and many other experts counter that a plane's age can be almost irrelevant to its safety. Said United Airlines President Stephen Wolf last week: "I don't think the issue is age. Aging fleets are no problem provided maintenance is diligent." In fact, United boasts one of the oldest fleets (average age: 13.6 years), which includes the first 727 ever built, No. N7001. Yet most experts give United high marks for the reliability of its planes, which is the result of its painstaking maintenance program. To show how planes can last indefinitely, aircraft... Read review

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Advantages: Very easy to earn points, without flying
Disadvantages: mediochre airline

...or Horizon Air. The point totals build to 20-40,000 for coach flights, and finally 40-80,000 for first class. I would just recommend that you save them for first class, because Alaska Airlines has the most uncomfortable, tight coach flights around, with absolutely no arm or leg space. Blackout Dates Within the United States on Alaska Airlines there are only 3-4 blackout dates per year. However, when you start traveling outside of the United States and on the other airlines there can be quite a few blackout dates. These blackout dates are dates that you cannot use your mileage plan points to purchase a ticket. This is generally because those are popular flights that generally sell out. American Airlines and a few other airlines that are partnered with Alaska Airlines have no blackout dates at all, so if you can't fly during one... Read review

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Advantages: Very good business class, good meals and service
Disadvantages: few east-west connections

...flaws, though. Czech Airlines' main problem is the small number of flight connections. Although CSA fly to almost every city in Eastern Europe, most destinations are only served once or twice per day, often with missing connections to and from Western Europe. Thus a flexible Business Class ticket can be pretty useless, if there is no alternative connection that you can change your booking to. And because of the dumping prices on CSA flights, most other airlines won't except an endorsed ticket from Czech Airlines. The timetable deserves a major revamping to allow for better east-west connections. Many routes between Prague and Western Europe are operated in codeshare with Lufthansa, so you can collect miles with the frequent flyer programmes of any of the Star Alliance airlines (British Midland, Lufthansa, Austrian, United, etc.). However... Read review

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Advantages: Food, service; clean, neat planes; up-to-date in-flight movies; excellent seats/legroom; smooth landings; Mabuhay lounge.
Disadvantages: Sometimes late (due to small fleet?); minuscule presence in Europe, none in US east coast.

...Why PAL? Since embarking on my annual visit to the crazy, exciting, troubled, colourful and much-missed motherland last year, I chose to take the Philippines' national carrier, Philippine Airlines (PAL), once more for this year's trip. This, because of a most pleasant hop I had between Hong Kong and Manila. (The 17-hour flight from Chicago to Hong Kong was sheer agony in United Airlines' extremely tight seats and mediocre food in Economy class.) And its relatively cheaper fare (about $2430 for Business Class; ~ 2,000 EUR or 1,380 GBP) for a direct Los Angeles - Manila flight (with a brief stopover in Guam outbound for refuelling.) Yes, I chose to fly PAL again, despite last year's four-hour delay by PAL that ruined my entire return trip to the US, forcing me to languish for nearly eight hours in Hong Kong International Airport... Read review

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Advantages: price, service
Disadvantages: seat pitch

...415 aircraft Boeing 737 with an average age of 9 years (unfortunately there are still thirteen 737, 200 series, which age is 40 years). Southwest employees 32.000 people and for 31 years in row has closed the fiscal year with profits (meantime Alitalia, for instance, has lost a lot of money every year during the same period). Starting with such basis travelling within the 49 contiguous states of United States of America is not expensive (the price for one-way ticket starts at 39 USDollars with a top cap of 120). Southwest Airlines links 60 cities in the States, from north to south, from east to west. The cabin of the aircraft is always clean. The aircrafts are safe (Southwest applies a very updated system to control and monitor the maintenance process). The cabin crew is kind, attentive, competent and before, during and after... Read review

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Advantages: huge network of routes, part of the star alliance, some good pricing, self-service check-in
Disadvantages: have to pay for drinks in economy, some planes not the newest, self-service check-in

...Over the years, I have been on lots of trips across the Atlantic to visit the good old US of A, either on business or holiday. And I had a choice of plenty of airlines when booking. So far, I have tried British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, American Airlines and United. Once I even ended up on Air India - but the less said about that the better, I was too young to know the difference, then. Of course, from that fateful day in September 2001 on, air travel changed forever and what used to be a pleasant trip for most of us has now become reason to think twice what airline we actually chose on long haul trips. I have always tried to book United Airlines to the USA, on the odd occasion I was offered a slightly better price by different airlines but I always went back to United. I book with Expedia, an online company we use for most of our... Read review

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