Actions speak louder than words. That was the message from United CEO Oscar Munoz in an email to customers last week in which he continued to apologize for the incident in which Dr. Dao was forcibly removed from his flight. The airline also revealed a list of ten policy changes that they believe will help…
Continue reading: Customer Friendly? United Drops Interline Agreements With 5 Middle Eastern Airlines
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This is not creating problems for the ME3; this is creating problems for UA customers. Having to go thru immigration, collect your bag, recheck it, then go thru security again, along with having to allow several extra hours to do that, is a giant imposition. What's worse, for those that don't read travel blogs, and thus most likely won't hear about this, they will only find out when they go to check in for their initial flight. At that point it may very well be too late to change their flights to allow for the extra time. Especially for anyone with a non-changeable ticket this is going to be far more than an inconvenience. It's going to be a huge problem.
And United is only giving 4 days notice of this! So anyone already booked past that point with a non-refundable ticket for a combination of ME3/UA flights and a short lay over is SOL.
Is Munoz actively trying to put UA out of business?
Well, this sounds as having about the same consequences about trying to transit through the US: go through immigration, hope to get your bag, and check in again.
I think it is consistent to subject US citizens now to the same treatment as foreigners receive.
The whole purpose of an airline is to connect us to the world. This is a huge step backwards.
What do I think about it you ask. It is really bad. It means you have to leave about 4 hours for a connection, just in case something goes wrong.
I agree with Robert it's hurting US traveler's more so than the M3 I have been flying non US metal International for 10 years now and do not miss it. I would prefer as an American to do so but what's the point, it's not like your flying on metal that's not in the Smithsonian, friendlier cabin crews, eatable food nor convenient.
The US carriers are spoiled and it's all about their returns to investors not the flying public. And of all people UA, really?
Ah for the days of PA and TWA
More reason to Fly Alaska Virgin america and Jet Blue when possible. I try to avoid delta since they dont even interline on partners when a separate ticket is booked and now united. When are they going to realize that customer in the know avoid airlines that do these things and those who don;t know will be angry when they show up can they cant check luggage all the way through. And then airlines wonder why passengers are so rude...shove them into seats as small as possible and take away an convenience.
Maybe by doing this, they are playing nice with 'Mom'. This is political, just like the electronics ban. This is just part of the protectionism the US3 paid good money in campaign contributions to get.
It's not exactly the same. I transit in the US sometimes and even if it's true that I have to get my bag, I don't need to re check it. I just need to drop it somewhere else, very close to the place where I got it, after picking it up.
Having to get it, go past security, go from arrivals to departures, go to the checkin again, wait your turn...it's a whole different thing.
I think people here are making a mountain out of a molehill. United knows exactly how many pax and how much revenue is associated with these agreements. Since united dropped Dubai, there probably was nowhere near as much demand for this anymore. I don't think this is a big deal at all, and thinknthat some of the responses above are just people looking for another reason to bash united.
I think this will primarily affect United airlines customers. Furthermore, this shows you how much United Airlines cares about their customers. Zero zilch. I for one would never choose to fly to connect with the Middle Eastern carrier. I would simply start with the ME carrier and be done with it. United sucks no question about it
Dear United,
Hello? Are you morons?
About 10 years ago (yes, it was a different world and the ME3 had nowhere the reach they do now) I was flying a revenue first class ticket IAD-UA-FRA-LH-JNB, leaving IAD Friday night, arriving FRA late in the a.m. Saturday, long layover over in the FC terminal, and then LH Saturday overnight to arrive JNB Sunday morning. This would ensure I would be able to be at work and attending meeting in Johannesburg on Monday. Yes, I give myself a full day due to both the possibilities of delays and trying to acclimate a day ahead.
It looked like the outbound UA flight IAD-JNB was going to be delayed ~2+ hours. No big deal, but if it cancelled, I needed a backup.
I went to the UA first lounge at IAD and the agent booked/protected me onto a Saturday morning BA flight to LHR, giving me a 90-minute connection to make the late SA flight into JNB, all while keeping me on the UA flight.
30 minutes later, the UA flight to FRA started boarding, thank goodness. I was very thankful to the UA agent in the lounge for so quickly protecting me.
Now, with SO MUCH MORE info. at our fingertips, had I found flights that would get me somewhere that included a ME3 carrier and was told "Sorry! We don't like them so we refuse to get you to your location with them!" would make me seriously reconsider my loyalties to UA. Of course if all the US carriers plus their global partners do this, then I'll be stuck, but that would likely be collusion at that point.
United, don't forget that you have paying pax that need to be where they need to be, irrespective of your bad mood.
In any case the easy solution here is to just travel end to end with the ME carrier. They anyway provide a much better service so I would not see any reason why anyone would even consider flying United.
@TravelinWilly I know but this was in regards to Lucky's post earlier this year about Etihad/Star Alliance.
https://onemileatatime.com/etihad-star-alliance/
I don't see Etihad on the list and why are flydubai, Jordanian and Saudia included?
This doesn't sound to me like something that has to do with the subsidies/open skies saga. There must some other explanation.
In any case though, it sucks.
I doubt this will affect United that much. UA is a member of star alliance and has partners Turkish Airlines, Egypt Air, and Ethiopian covering most of the airports in the Middle East in case they need to reroute you.
This actually might be bigger problem. What if the passengers do not have the visa to clear the transit point immigration?
@aziiz The only reason I can think of them not including Etihad is due to the LH partnership and/or rumored entrance to Star Alliance. The fact that they didn't include Etihad might also mean they wouldn't veto Etihad's entrance.
I.....can't.....believe.....it.
Seriously, how much more screwing up can United do? Granted, this will affect a very small portion of their customers, BUT to those it affects, the results can be huge.
@ghostrider5408: I'm right there with you -- foreign metal as often as possible. Not all foreign carriers are great, but United's starting to make Air Koryo look good.
How would you even book an multi-airline itinerary on airlines without an interline agreement? I don't think they'd show up in OTA results.
How many United passengers are actually connecting to Emirates or FlyDubai on the same PNR?
OMG, who cares? Sure, interline agreements are useful when it comes to checking bags through to your final destination, and occasionally when there is an operational snafu. UA no longer really flies to the middle east, which means there won't be so many situations when they'd have to rebook a passenger on a middle-eastern carrier (perhaps flights to Africa? But there would be many other options to be rerouted via Europe). Still plenty of other carriers UA will rebook you on if necessary. Domestically, UA has a bigger number of interline agreements than DL does and has often rebooked me on DL and AA. So I doubt there will be more than a couple of passengers who will care about this, but by all means, let's all jump on the bash-united bandwagon and/or tell each other anecdotes of how we almost missed a UA flight once and almost got rebooked on BA...
@augias, I've long since learned that making light of customer unfriendly policies just because I don't think I'll be personally affected is a bad idea. I doubt I will be affected by this one, since I avoid checking bags at all costs, except when flying Southwest. Yet every time a carrier does something that harms the customer experience needlessly, I think we should push back. Let them know people are paying attention. They will do everything they can get away with. This time it's unlikely to affect me directly, but next time it will. And to those who say to fly only foreign metal, that's very difficult where many people live. I'll always need to make a domestic connection first, or drive many hours.
I don't buy the idea that they were "arrogantly believing that they don’t need any assistance" in this case during the Delta meltdown. DL cut the AA tie mostly because AA dumped passengers on Delta when they needed assistance, much more so than Delta. That removed all the benefit of the interline agreement in the first place, so it was cut off there.