Review: United Airlines


I’ve been quiet for the past week and a half and a lot of that had to do with me fgoing to SXSW this past week. It really was the worst trip in my life but it wasn’t all bad. I am home now and catching up on a large list of to-dos that have accumulated in the past week. Maybe I’ll be up to speed by tomorrow afternoon. I still haven’t recorded the Suicide Fan weekly podcast, and that was due today. Maybe tomorrow.

Instead, I’ve got tons of reviews from the past week – some products, some companies, some people, some positive and some negative. This is open ended as I’ve really found out a lot and have a lot of thoughts. So I’ll probably do these reviews for a little while until I get bored. :-)

United Airlines is the airline I choose, if possible, to fly. Particularly their cross country flights are great – and entertaining too. They have XM satellite radio piped into the plane so I have the ability to really listen to the music I want to on the flight and since my iPod is smashed, this is a good thing. In addition to the XM, I think it’s very cool in a very geek way to be able to listen to the flight deck speaking to air traffic control. Did you know that the tower does not bring a plane in on it’s landing path. In fact, it is not until final approach that Air Traffic control, which is generally regionally based, passes the plane off to the airport tower. Cool stuff.

Anyways, United is what I flew on to Austin. As usual, great friendly people who are more than happy to accommodate. My flight went through Chicago O’hare where I transferred to a regional jet for the flight to Austin. Smooth as usual, and I’ve had some non-smooth experiences (Can I hear someone say Continental Airlines at Newark Liberty?)

I had a bad luck trip all around, so when I arrived back at the Austin airport to fly home on Monday, I was alarmed when the flight from Chicago to Baltimore was canceled and they had to put me on an American Airlines flight. That was scary as I was positive my luck would continue to play out and my bags would not arrive in Baltimore. Fortunately, I was dead wrong.

So I give a rating of Remarkable to United Airlines. Customer for life.