United Airlines

During the most recent Christmas holidays I booked a round-trip ticket that consisted of four flights on United Airlines. I booked several months in advance to get a cheaper price and to obtain the travel dates I wanted. To my annoyance as the departure date approached United canceled my outbound connecting flight not once, not twice, but thrice. Each time they did so they automatically moved me to a different flight, but do you know how I found out about these changes? Did United tell me via an automated e-mail that my itinerary had been altered? To my disgust that's a big fat negative - despite having signed up on United's own website for e-mail notifications. I only found out because I happened to book my flights via Travelocity, and Travelocity, not United, sent me e-mails informing me my itinerary had changed, again. Ugh.

That's not all. On my outbound trip, my original connecting flight was canceled due to mechanical problems (the plane never even arrived at the airport). On my return trip my connecting flight was also canceled - during pre-flight the captain took the plane out of service because the brakes didn't work properly (I should express my appreciation for the captain's decision, and once United found a replacement aircraft to applaud an extremely smooth landing in very turbulent, windy conditions - I've had bumpier landings in perfectly calm weather).

Anywhoo, 2 out of 4 United flights were canceled - that's 50% - due to mechanical problems on the aircraft. This does not exactly instill me with confidence. Is this a normal failure rate for United aircraft?

I'm not sure whether I'll fly United, again. On one hand I consider a 50% failure rate very troubling. On the other other hand, United did identify the problems before the flights took off - gotta give them that much, right? Also, I was impressed by the service on United. The flight attendants and crew made the trip pleasant. They didn't do anything drastically different like offer free food or more leg room - it was all in their attitude towards the passengers. I felt like they sincerely wanted the passengers to enjoy the flight as much as possible. I'd forgotten what that was like, and I don't recall ever feeling that way before on a North American airline.