If United Airlines wants to be, as Jeff Smisek puts it, “World’s leading airline,” treating international first class passengers like they are flying in steerage (or worse) is not going to cut it.
This recent account posted on Flyertalk of an experience in United First from Washington Dulles to London nicely illustrates my point (if you don’t feel like reading the whole thing, I’ve highlighted the key parts):
It started when I boarded and opened the mini-bin above my seat. It had one very small bag in it–the size of small woman’s handbag. An FA immediately came over and shut the bin and told me I could use any other bin than that. She then walked away–having had enough time to close the bin but not enough time to take my coat whilst she was there. If you’re going to make personal crew use of a bin, why not take one from over the crew rest? This FA accessed this bin and grabbed the small bag once after take-off and one other time before landing.
PDBs were served immediately upon boarding, the usual 45 minutes before take-off. There were no refills offered and nobody came through and cleared out the used service items. Then we have a ground hold while a mechanic comes on board. Instead of offering refills to FC pax or clearing the service items, both FA’s took their seats and pulled out reading material. Only when the mechanic left and we were getting ready to push back–now over an hour since we boarded–did they come through and clean-up. They did, however, miss me; I handed over my plastic cup when they came through later with nuts.
Meal service was efficient and accurate. No complaints. They weren’t mean but they certainly weren’t friendly or smiling.
With my sundae, I typically hold it in my hand and put away my tray table whilst watching my movie. Same thing last night. As is often the case, I fell asleep, since it was now after midnight.
When the captain made his “good morning” announcement and we were 40 minutes out from landing, I woke up to find my half-consumed port, linens, flatware and sundae bowl from the dinner service still with me at my seat. Noticing I was awake, I was asked if I wanted breakfast. I asked for a diet coke with lemon. When my diet coke with lime arrived, the FA realized she had nowhere to put it due to my dinner dishes. She cleared those away without so much as a comment, apology or acknowledgment.
The whole experience only served to remind me why, when I get to buy a FC ticket instead of use a SWU, I don’t bother with UA. I’ve been a 1K for over a decade and this was truly a new low.
United–please don’t dismiss this account. Please understand that I hear stories like this all time. Understand that when I flew in United First from Washington to Frankfurt I also experienced subpar and unprofessional service.
The sad thing is United can be amazing–simply amazing (like on my flight with Terrence from Dulles to Las Vegas), but they are consistently inconsistent and that is why people have a negative connotation of United Airlines and why it is difficult to justify purchasing a first class ticket.
Take the anecdote above. Clearing aways dishes and leaving the overhead space for passengers are such simple, elementary things. There is no excuse for slip-ups, especially as so many of UA’s FAs have been on the job 20 years or more. No matter how slick the seat or IFE is (and I do like UA’s seat and IFE), people will not pay for first class when they they are treated more like an annoyance than a valued guest.
Is anyone willing to defend this type of poor service?
I must agree with you. Too many senior FA’s on those int’l. routes just want to sit around & chat about what they did the day before (neglecting the valued, loyal flier). I so wish UA would hire trainers for inflight service from Singapore Air or Thai Air, and provide new direction & vision for their premium cabin service. FA’s need to adapt to changes, or just resign. Fliers won’t pay for C or F class til service level improves.
from the same FT thread, this poster sums it up nicely …
“F on US based legacy carriers is nothing more than a bigger seat and a couple of free drinks. Nothing special about the experience.”
United wants to play on the world stage their premium cabins needs a lot of work. First should be special, the best service possible, the finest dining and imbibing available in the air and impeccable service. All airlines have off days sure but in my experience of flying UA F this is closer to the norm than the exception.
Start with the FAs but also they need to fix the lacklustre food. Certainly they should stop serving ‘sparkling wine’ in F, if I’m paying $9k for a plane ticket I expect Champagne and a decent one at that.
Compare UA to any European or Asian carrier and in almost every case they fall short. As I said, flying in first class should be a memorable and special experience.
Isn’t it just so sad? Totally ridiculous and the new United absolutely needs to retrain/insist on improving service in premium cabins internationally. Some FAs have gotten so used to doing the bare minimum, as Ken 747 says, that it would be a tough challenge to retrain. If I were running the airline, I’d have mystery shoppers onboard to document this stuff to eventually show cause for termination. The union thing, though, wouldn’t allow such a scheme.
Like the story from IAD to LHR, I have a similar disappointing tales on UA. This was FC from Sao Paulo, Brazil to ORD then onto NRT.
If you think UA has disappointing service try them out of Brazil, it is MUCH worse. The crew really don’t care, no matter what class you fly in.
On this last flight in FC at best it was ‘service with a snarl’, no niceties at all. Never once did they refill the water glass while sleeping, had to keep ringing the call button. Breakfast – they did not even offer juice, I had to FA back. Part of me thinks that the crew is simply just too old and lazy. The flight from ORD to NRT was better, but still at best felt more like a LH Business class. United really has no idea whatsoever how to deal with international FC and should perhaps move to a 2 cabin aircraft.
As I live in Brazil I have decided to change to: AC for North America and LH for Europe and either for Asia (I think both airlines are so much better). I am just debating if I keep Mileage Plus or move to LH Miles and More.
One interesting exception is the service on IAD-LHR (the day flight) is VERY good. I have flown this route many times and always had GREAT service. Why the difference…? In general they use European-based crew on this flight. I have written several times to the 1K voice pointing this out, and suggesting they try to copy this service but have always received a standard reply.
I honestly believe the best way forward is for me to change my airline of choice.
Completely agree with the above. In my experience, United First international can’t hold a candle to Singapore Air business. Not even the same league. Just flew united first from SFO to Frankfurt, could barely tell the difference from united business.