United Airlines review by Carmen

My last trip on United Airlines left me feeling angry, tricked, cheated, humiliated and disrespected. The new Basic Economy fair offered by United appears to be a marketing trick to make their lowest fair seem competitive with other airlines' basic fares. They are not when you consider the grab for further dollars one experiences at the airport kiosk by attendants stationed there for no other reason than to hold one's boarding pass hostage until they can very strictly put one through a bag measurement process almost certainly designed to fail most bags. When I made my airline selection for this trip, I had three acceptable airline choices for what seemed to be comparable economy fares, with similar measurement maximums for one's allowable personal item. I selected United for no other reason than their fare and bag seemed to match the others, but I liked the flight time slightly better. I could have just as easily chosen either of the other two airlines. Had I known the ugliness and embarrassment they would cause me in front of my daughter due to their extortion of further funds at the kiosk, I would certainly have chosen one of the other two. United seems to continually hate and disrespect their customers with policies and procedures designed to humiliate them for needing to fly on a budget due either to family or other commitments. When I left home, I carefully measured both my and my 11 year old daughter's personal items. Aside from the wheels on her very small child's size suitcase, both items fit the measurements. I put my purse inside my personal item, such that between the two of us we had exactly two items. The Basic Economy fare does not allow one to check in online before arriving at the airport. One is forced to print one's boarding pass at the airport kiosk. When one arrives at the kiosk, one cannot complete the boarding pass process without having an attendant approve final printing of the pass by checking the size of the personal item, then scanning his/her badge to unlock the system. The attendant had no problem with our personal items when we left our home airport. We arrived at our destination without incident. United immediately sent me an option to review my leaving flight, but I wanted to wait until we returned home. Returning home from Dallas international airport a few days later was a completely different story. I had to get up in the middle of the night to return our rental car and make a 6am flight. When we arrived at the kiosk, the attendant put us through a rigorous bag measuring process. A zipper on my personal item kept catching on the metal, thus causing a bit of struggle, but I was able to get the bag into the box easily once it loosened. I was VERY tired from having gotten up in the middle of the night, and forgot to put my purse into my personal item. I had to struggle to stuff it in at the last minute. My daughter's very small suitcase fit exactly, except for the small wheels. Her small suitcase fit under the seat if front with plenty of room to spare on the way to Dallas. Regardless of this fact, the kiosk attendant stated that the measurement requirements had nothing to do with whether or not the item fit under the seat, meaning they were in place solely as a justification to get more money for baggage fees. Once I paid for the bag, the attendant didn't even finish printing our boarding passes. I had to go back to the kiosk after checking the tiny suitcase to get another attendant to finish printing our passes. The attendants are stationed at the kiosks for no other purpose than to collect more money by scrupulously measuring bags. They are not there for any benefit to the customer whatsoever and could care less about the humiliating them to get more money. Feeling intense despise for United.