I’m not immune to clickbait, but a recent United Airlines video review titled, “DON’T fly UNITED: America’s WORST Business Class” really leaves me shaking my head.
A Misleading United Airlines Review
The review is done by Trek Trendy, a vlogger who travels the world reviewing luxury airlines and hotels (wow, what a concept). In his latest review, he directs his ire toward United Airlines after a “first class” trip from San Francisco (SFO) to Los Angeles (LAX) on a Boeing 767-300 with lie-flat beds.
His review is eight minutes long and quite professional in terms of quality. I like the B-roll footage and the British accent provides immediate legitimacy. But I do take issue with the content of the review.
My thoughts:
- He uses Using Polaris/1K check-in at SFO – but this isn’t Polaris and he is not a 1K status passenger. Ok, fine. We’ll overlook that, but he knows it and uses the check-in anyway. Not sure what that was about…
- He complains there is no priority/premium security. Wrong. He just didn’t look for it. SFO has it.
- Next he complains that the United Club is closed in the international terminal where his flight departs from. In the next breath, he admits (and proceeds to complain) that even if it was open, he would not have access anyway because United does not allow lounge access on domestic first class itineraries, with the exception of premium transcontinental flights.
- Onboard, he complains about a swap from a Boeing 757-200 to a 767-300 featuring the old 2-1-2 configuration. I’ve got news for you: same seat. Identical. He complains it is not a “real” Polaris seat when United never sold the flight as “Polaris” in the first place.
- Remarking on foot space, he says the foot cubby is so small “you literally can’t fit your feet side by side.” While true, American (A321) and Delta (757) use the same seat in their forward cabin.
- He then complains that “in between eating your bites while eating a packet of pretzels, you must re-mask” and is offended that a flight attendant reminded him of this. I agree with him that the policy is absurd. But that is not even United’s policy, but a TSA directive that airlines are obliged to enforce. Granted, he did not record the interaction, but I bet the flight attendant could have been nicer.
- He complains that he only received a packet of pretzels and stroopwafel and would have received something more substantial on Alaska Airlines (he cut to a picture of him enjoying a sandwich on Alaska Airlines). Not true. Alaska Airlines serves food on flights over 670 miles. SFO-LAX is 337 miles.
- Last, he complains that the cabin was full of “free” upgrades while he paid for his ticket. While he did not disclose the price of his ticket, paid first class tickets from SFO-LAX are often under $200. I’d argue a United 1K who spends $15K+ per year is a far more valuable customer than his $200 ticket…
CONCLUSION
There can be reasonable reviews that tear United apart. For example, One Mile At A Time’s review of his Maui – Chicago flight is damning, but extremely fair (though it cracks me up he always gets the worst crews and food…my experience on United has been very different this year). But this is not a reasonable review. This is a nit-picking review that gets a lot of things wrong and ends up being quite misleading. Do better, Trek Trendy.
He clearly should have chosen JFK as his destination instead to be guaranteed the new United seat.
“ There can be reasonable reviews that tear United apart. For example, One Mile At A Time’s review of his Maui – Chicago flight is damning, but extremely fair (though it cracks me up he always gets the worst crews and food…my experience on United has been very different this year).”
Seems like there is an interesting blog post in there: why would experienced travelers get such wildly different experiences from an airline on a regular basis? Especially compared to both of your experiences of Lufthansa (see: your reviews of LH F)? What does this say about the airline? About the reviewers?
But hey, dunking on a bad review that gets some facts wrong gets clicks and engagement too…
Ben’s (OMAAT) reviews of UA always need to be taken with a grain of salt, because by now the entire FF world knows of his past behavior (in his youth) and subsequent smack down by UA for ‘taking advantage’ of UA MP.
I think that is long in the past and Ben is not the type that has a chip on his shoulders. His reviews are reasonable and I just don’t see any sort of unconscious bias in them.
What kind of a total moron reviews a 50-minute first class flight?
I’m not offended he would review a 50-minute flight. It is absurd that he did not set his expectations accordingly and compared apples and oranges (vs. Alaska).
The reason “Alaska Airlines serves food on flights over 670 miles.” is because SEA-SFO is 679 miles. SFO is ever more important for AS and UA.
Frequent flyers know the details you mentioned. Trek Trendy doesn’t.
It is a nonsensical review – an international business class review of a short domestic flight that, for a short domestic flight, seemed fine.
On the other hand, I remember how misleading all of the advertising around the original rollout of Polaris was, and don’t feel too sorry for United. You live by the misleading advertising, you die by the misleading review.
I agree on how misleading United was with Polaris, but they never sold this flight as Polaris…
He walked by the Centurion lounge, Yankee pier, and Peet’s coffee. Sounds like he needs better credit cards.
Yep.
Brits love to complain about everything. Watching the video, I didn’t take the criticisms the same way you did.
I find it funny that you bring up OMAAT. yes – I admit I read it. But Ben is such an inherently unlikeable person. Whiny, entitled, and arrogant. I think he could find a way to complain about anything. Every post is basically the same: Mom, Mask, Ford, Diet Coke, Mask, Winston, Miami, Mask. And my reaction? Yawn…
I’ve known Ben for 15 years, traveled the world with him, and respect him more than almost any other person. He’s an introvert, but a very likable, generous, kind person.
TrekTrendy’s hit piece may have had professional production values for the video but the content was beyond amateurish. It did convince me to avoid one thing: any further reviews from Mr. Trendy. Taking travel advice from him would be like going to Obama and Trump for advice on how to get along with each other or Charlie Sheen for advice on moderation.
This isn’t the only review of his where the title was overwhelmingly negative and expectations were out of line- he also did one for Turkish Airlines and another one for Delta Airlines.
I’ll give him another chance. We all need second chances!
Watched some of the video, mostly agree with your comments. What I will say is that the parts where he references these same seats being used on long-haul international, and marketed as Polaris, is dead on. United has been pulling this for 4.5 years (Google says they introduced Polaris marketing in December 2016). At that time it made some sense that not all the planes were converted, if they had a strict program to convert within say 2 years or some timeline like that. It’s obvious now how ridiculous it is to set long haul consumer expectations (here is our BEAUTIFUL NEW SEAT called POLARIS!), and then the passenger on board a Polaris marketed flight gets on and sees 2-2-2 or 2-1-2 seating.
Same issue with the Polaris lounges- Dulles probably won’t open until more than 5 years after they started marketing Polaris . They should have put off the marketing push for 2 years until they had more planes converted and more lounges in process.
But yeah, in general, the lack of apples-apples comparison is ridiculous. You can say the US air market is confusing in terms of the minute differentiation, but it’s not like someone used to the European market is gonna get on a Munich-Paris flight and expect an aisle access lie flat seat.
I mostly felt sorry for his seatmate as he t0ssed and turned and complained and went to the lavatory and came back next to the poor guy who was just trying to take a nap. The flight’s less than an hour and you got lie flat seats…I consider that luxury.
I disagree that airlines and flights attendants are obliged to enforce that directive. They can easily ignore enforcing an abusive/extreme/unconstitutional/nonsensical directive if they choose. Whoever issued the directive would be none the wiser if it is not enforced. Airlines and flight attendants deservedly should be called out for being mask NKVD in between bites.
No, they didn’t market this as a Polaris seat, but how many non-Polaris seats on TATLs did I sit in for years that were marketed as Polaris? Couldn’t number them, but it was enough to be 1K. (At least I got some bears.)
Is English your first language?
No, I speak click.
Errors aside, this was a pretty good review. It’s simply absurd that airlines do not treat those paying for F as the top priority, even for a $200 ticket. F should mean F, not some pale pink F ‘light’, with a lesser experience than those with ‘status’
As a foreigner , probably he finds it hard to follow the weird nomenclature and byzantine products offered in the US ( not to mention the likelihood of encountering some sourpuss dragon-like FAs), and the lunacy of the different boarding priority groups). Perhaps these things become matter-of-fact with regular travel, but I’m still mystified by them.
His video presentation, voice-over, editing are very good. Plus it’s very snappy, unlike many those tedious, pretentious, dull and interminably drawn out YouTube reviews. But it was ill-advised to draw these conclusions based on a 57 minute flight.
I think Chiflyer got rejected by Ben and is lashing out lol
Uh … do you even read this blog? Matt mentions OMAAT a lot and it is always on jovial terms. They may have different perspectives, but it is completely acceptable for professional colleagues to disagree.
I don‘t understand how you don’t get the problem with no lounge access or priority boarding?! I am not from the US and don’t fly there frequently but if I do, you are basically saying I just have to accept that when I pay a premium price for a ‘premium class‘ ticket… I will get less than the frequent flyer next to me. To me it makes no sense! If you are not from the US, you won’t have a US credit card (or even any credit card), so obviously you won’t have access to any of those lounges. Furthermore, how is rude staff EVER acceptable
Frequent Flyers also get the same (priority) security and do not get lounge access (members only). The only difference is boarding.
My complaint with United is their absolute refusal to refund a ticket for a Hawaii flight THEY cancelled at beginning of COVID.
Credit card dispute?
So it’s not just me who notices Ben gets the worst United flight crews?
Bit of a stretch to call any OMAAT review of United “fair”. He’s been a UA hater since he got blacklisted from MileagePlus and certainly slants his reviews as such. Granted, everything is subjective but what would be a glowing review of equivalent DL service is subpar in his words on UA.
Correct, the black listing issue taints a lot of that person’s critiques and hence, is less than reliable and or reputable. The person needs to recuse themselves themselves and their US comporation from examing any UA airline because of that black listing.
How many viewers did you send him?
This vlogger does annoy me from time to time.. Complains he’s trying lose weight- yet will have a double steak breakfast (lounge and on board) He needs to lose the skinny jeans and man titties and practice what he preaches. The self entitled misleading baby he is. This flight was just over 300 miles, I could have driven this in the time it took him to whine about literally 40 minutes of serviceable air time.
An ad hominem attack such as yours is classless & offensive. He is entitled to his opinion based on his own lived experience, you attacking him for his ‘titties’ is cringeworthy.
Agree, let us be respectful and not comment on body morphologies and or eating habits as poor or as great as they may be. Let us focus on the realities and truths about UA and their embarrassing poor products in premium classes, and the US airlines in general–and how poor they are especially in premium classes. Thank you Sir, Madame.
I have a suspicion that Will (Trek Trendy) has had a very privileged upbringing and has some pretty annoying personality traits. Every time he brags about his latest Timberland shoes it makes me want to slap him, or when he refers to Laurent-Perrier Grand Siècle as “LPGS”…
He mentioned that having a sink in the room on a train (Caledonian sleeper) reminded him of Boarding School shows that his parents must have been fairly wealthy to afford to send him there.
You have no idea about his background, his upbringing could have been a real struggle for all you know. He strikes me as pretty middle class and not part of the British hierarchy who would send their children to boarding school. To me he seems pretty down to earth and not entitled.
Another westerner–entitled, elitist, and another trustfunder from wealthy families. No thanks.
Wow such negative, hostile and rude comments about someone you don’t know anything about. I watch his videos and find them entertaining and humorous. I don’t care about his background as it’s none of my business, I only care about the videos. I am sure we have all had a bad day and complained about things that may have been minor in the long run but felt major at the time. I won’t be visiting this site again as I don’t like negative sites, but I wish you all the best in life, and hope yours is filled with love, prosperity and joy.
Bye Felicia!
I agree. I’ve tried watching lots of YouTube travel videos, and I keep coming back to the Trek Trendy videos. And as for the other commentator who complained about his penchant for Timberland sneakers — I actually thought they looked nice. I didn’t know the company made anything other than hiking boots…and I’ve purchased a few pairs of “sneaker boots,” and received more compliments on them than I ever did for Nikes, Reeboks, Adidas, et al. 😀
Please don’t think this guy is in any way elite. His accent is that of a nouveaux riche more money than sense essex boy brat. He’s a total snob and bragger and can’t even pronounce a lot of the food he’s boasting about eating.
As we brits say..’what a total tosser!’
That’s an awful review, I had to watch it out of morbid curiosity. I must admit though, I do watch Trek Trendy’s rail journeys, because I am curious about the long distance sleepers.
The reviews are pretty boring though, full of clichés and they use a heavily scripted, written review style shoehorned awkwardly into video. The guy also reeks of entitlement, and his use of “DC” for diet coke, “Tims” for Timberland boots and other forced language just breaks the already choppy flow.
That being said, he caters to a demographic and it seems to work. Other trust fund kids, I suppose.
I was kind of stunned at this review simply because of the amount of snobbery in it. The upgraded, riff raff passengers really irritated Will for some reason, probably because his seat mate was wearing a plain, brown fruit of the loom tshirt.
He showed his upbringing and privilege more than any time I’ve watched, as if those people weren’t fit to breathe the same First Class air as he.
Trek Will Trendy spot on. USians are offended by reality and truth. Their airlines are laughing stocks like their empire.
Check your expectations – his is the sort of clickbait that is truly destructive.
Mr Klints-He’s definitely tosser as Brits woud say and appeal to certain USians and others. Most US airlines are bad to mediocre. However, the awful, or horrible titles are click/clack baits for monetization techniques-hustling. Yet, if it is indeed truly poor, then reality is reality. Many US airlines need to vastly improve and also stop acting so overly casual in conversations especially on the premium classes, heh yous, dees, deems, does, hi ya, heh buddy, first name calling, etc..it reflects very poorly on the US person/corporation.
He was at it again later – this time on AA domestic. Look up “Avoid American Airlines first class to Hawaii”.
I’m no AA fan – I’m stuck with them living in Charlotte, but it was all misleading bordering on flat out lies.
To save typing out everything again, here’s a comment I replied with:
“A few points: firstly, please stop calling this “first”. This is J.
AA domestic business doesn’t get lounge access. Never has. If you’d added your BAEC to the booking, you’d get lounge access, but you used BAEC anyway, so cool. Even in economy you’d get the lounge with BAEC. As for paid food – DFW have flagship lounges you can get into with just BAEC silver. No need for a business ticket. Free food. Not flagship dining admittedly, but you get food similar to say a BA galleries or first, but with Concorde room drinks. Again – free.
AA 777s are a crapshoot. You got the rockin coffin. It happens. If it was advertised as a 773 then yes – equipment change. That route is 772 though, so not an equipment change. You just got an old 772. I wouldn’t call getting old club world instead of a club suite on a BA 772 an equipment change. It’s just luck.
As for first – AA only sell first on 777-300 international flights – this is probably marketed as flagship business at best, but it’s still J. It would have given you the code when you booked.
I’ve done this flight from CLT-HNL when we had the route and it was the same. Nothing fancy. Just an 11 hour domestic J flight on a 772.
Love your videos normally and I’m no AA fan given I’m stuck with AA here, but felt this was overly critical for no real reason and should know by now what J vs F is and about lounges on domestic US flights”.
My own experience with All US airlines is not positive. We always travel first class/business and the service standards in the US are consistently low without fail – maybe Americans are used to sub-standard service. The flight attendants are rude and unhelpful, with the attitude of “if you want a drink… dig a well” Regardless if you pay full price or upgrade with miles you should be treated courteously and with respect whether you’re in economy or business/first. US airlines can learn a lot from other carriers who offer exceptional service something that is alien to them.
The idea that having a British accent gives legitimacy is absurd, and a strangely American idea.
I find Trek Trendy extremely annoying and a little bit creepy…..