Wonderful flight! The crew was good, check-in was good and orderly and the flight was uneventful and good.
The international portion was good. Food and beverage options were good. The sustainable wooden eatery was less than desirable. Your Star Alliance partner ANA provided real silverware. I'm 6'3" & 198 lbs and felt cramped in the exit row. How can that be? Flight attendant all had a pleasant disposition which is always good.
Good flight. Efficient boarding and competent flight crew. No problems until we arrived at our destination gate. We were early so there was an aircraft at the gate that had to move before we could pull in. Then, due to the type of aircraft we flew, the cabin door could not be opened until some luggage from the cargo bay was offloaded to preserve center of gravity characteristics. So, that further delayed deplaning. Despite being 20 minutes early on landing, we ended up being 5 to 10 minutes late after all the delays.
United is an incompetent airline. They parked the plane on the tarmac for an hour after arriving because they “didn’t have a gate available” it was actually some sort of lie because as we de planed there were approximately 9 open and manned and empty gates that we walked past. Many people on the flight missed connections for the hour long sit on the tarmac. Utterly baffling and incompetent behavior from United flight ops.
Ot was overall fine. Left on time and had basic snacks. Weather was finicky but that’s not the airlines fault.
The plane pushed back from the gate on time. However, it stopped on the ramp, and we waited for over 20 minutes before the aircraft pulled back to the gate. Apparently, something of importance had to be removed from the aircraft by the gate agent. I found this to be odd. The delay was not significant, but I felt that whatever was on the aircraft that had to be taken off, should ’ve been done before we pushed back from the gate.
First flight of the day… MINIMUM FUEL! 15 minute landing delay at HOU due to fog turned into a 2+ hour delay! Rather than circle, they had to divert to another city to refuel! Sat on tarmac at Austin to refuel. We ALL missed our connections! The crew, including pilots, were clueless. Crew was really a mess. At HOU, Untied employees were exceedingly rude to all. It was pitiful.
The plane boarded and deplaned twice before the crew timed out. Flight was 7 hours late departing. Horrible experience!
Check-in was a little worrying cause we didn't get seat #'s until we asked the flight attendants at the desk. We were concerned that they overbooked the flight. But everything else was great.
Once again, flight was delayed from Houston to ELP by three hours. The last two-three times were flight crew scheduling issues causing significant delays and a stay over. After traveling internationally for business and needing to drive an hour home after landing close to midnight, this is an unsafe situation when exhausted. United has went from a preferred airline of mine to one of the worst due to reliability. As someone who had to get a new passport because I filled it up pre-pandemic, I still ONLY travel because I have to and not because I want to (leisure) because of the consistent subpar experiences. The United lounge closed at 9pm, so we had to sit in general boarding without working power outlets. Thankfully, the lounge had excellent service, abundant quiet space, and improved food selections.
