G'day guys,

Looking at heading to Montana in late October for a deer hunt. What are peoples views of traveling with United Airlines both internationally and domestic?

Cheers,
Mark.

Quantas Clubs are FAR nicer than Red Carpet/United Clubs.

If flying coach, get Economy Plus. You get it free if you are Gold or higher.

I personally had a bad experience with United Airlines. I was headed to South Dakota with a group of pheasant hunters, and they lost some of our bags. On the way home, they left 30 minutes earlier than we had booked our flight for I were supposed to and left us at the gate. Also on my way home they again lost bags. I kind of have a bad taste in my mouth for the airlines, so I try to stay away from them. Others might have had a great experience, but one bad flight ruined them for me. This took place about 6 years or so ago.

If you're going to Montana you likely don't have any other choices in airlines. Small markets like those in Montana are typically only served by one carrier, and that carrier will most often be a much smaller contractor which flies under the name of the larger airline whose hubs it serves. You'll be on a "commuter" airplane, which is usually a small jet with three to four dozen seats, or sometimes a turbo prop.

Airline service in today's U.S. can be characterized as ranging from just barely tolerable to totally abysmal. Flights have been cut to just below demand so that every plane is full or virtually so. Most airlines will charge extra for any checked baggage, and the small planes have little room for carry-ons, so you're screwed and will have to simply pay whatever they ask. Once on board, you will be marketed everything from beverages to food to pillows to internet service for an extra fee. If you're lucky, some of the airlines will still give you a half a can of flat Diet Coke, provided the flight attendant makes it back to your seat before the descent for landing begins.

So your question about United (which is usually in the lower half of customer satisfaction surveys) is somewhat academic. You can either go or not go, but in all likelihood you'll have to go with United if you do. Just don't count on getting there when the schedule says you will, plan to buy something to eat and drink at the airport to take on board with you so you won't starve, and prepare to pay for extra baggage fees. And welcome to America, the delightful land of deregulation!

I never flew Quantas but United served me well many times.

I'm one of those guys that flies from 30-40 weeks out of the year. On my rating scale, United lies just slightly above US Air and I absolutely detest US Air! To give you an idea, I live 80 miles from one of United's major hubs (Denver, CO) and I am either a Diamond/Platinum member with Delta dependent upon my previous year's travel requirements. I might fly United once a year, if they are lucky! I would look at Frontier airlines out of Denver before even considering United.

I'd suggest going via Delta thru either Salt Lake City or Minneapolis. Delta services many of the Montana smaller airports that you are likely to fly into. Even though I can get a direct flight on United out of Denver to many Montana destinations, I still commute via Salt Lake on Delta flights.

Good luck!

quote:

Originally posted by graybird:
I'm one of those guys that flies from 30-40 weeks out of the year. On my rating scale, United lies just slightly above US Air and I absolutely detest US Air! To give you an idea, I live 80 miles from one of United's major hubs (Denver, CO) and I am either a Diamond/Platinum member with Delta dependent upon my previous year's travel requirements. I might fly United once a year, if they are lucky! I would look at Frontier airlines out of Denver before even considering United.

I'd suggest going via Delta thru either Salt Lake City or Minneapolis. Delta services many of the Montana smaller airports that you are likely to fly into. Even though I can get a direct flight on United out of Denver to many Montana destinations, I still commute via Salt Lake on Delta flights.

Good luck!

To put it in context, I am Platinum on Delta and live in Phoenix. US Air isn't even close to United in terms of being bad. I am Gold on United and get upgraded about half the time. MsAZW is gold and sometimes Plat on USAir and never gets upgraded.

Delta puts a CAGPT sticker on your guns; they personally hand carry it to you. Other than a 25 minute connection in Europe on a Zurich to AMS flight (stopped for biz on the way back from Africa), they have never lost a bag.

I don't care for United. On one trip to AK they charged me for an extra bag $80 because I had a locked handgun case inside a larger suitcase. We spent months trying to get a refund. Run around every time we talked to them. They gave me a reduced cost ticket, never admitted they were wrong. I've only flown once with them since, because work booked the ticket.

I fly Alaska Air, but mostly fly to and from AK. They are gun friendly and I've never had an issue with them.

I'd think hard about flying into SLC and renting a 4WD Suburban to drive the rest of the way. It would make a nice little road trip and offer a better set of choices for airlines.

Now that I think about it, I flew Northwest Airlines once from Glasgow, stopped at Wolf Point and from there, on to Billings.

I don't fly very much, but we did fly United last fall to a hunt in Canada. We had a connection in Chicago with a two hour plus wait...plenty of time for those slugs to get our bags on our next plane. We had to wait in Winnepeg for two more flights in from Chicago. Our bags came on the 1st one, and our rifles on the second. We missed a day of hunting. I like TomP's advice....get to a major airport like Salt Lake City, and then depend on yourselves to complete the trip on the road.

Thanks for the relies fellas.....

Cheers,
Mark.