Friendly Skies - Friendship Service

[hotelgulf]

Great images that you can actually see. Now advertising cuts images every half second so you never get a chance fully take in the shots. This UAL tv ad is great. Will never forget the Friendships!

[floooky1]

Is that Dawn Wells from Gilligan's Island as the flight attendant with the garment bags? I know another version of this ad has Angela Cartwright from Lost in Space.

[mstcrow5429]

Skies of your land?

[ImperialRetrovision]

I can see the point of the employees here. They have a very hard job, and anyone who has ever worked in customer service and just watched them doing their job for two minutes instead of whining about the seat space could see that. I worked for a bank for four years, at the front line. Day after day of people accusing you of running the bank incorrectly gets mighty old.

[MyleneJ]

Treat counter agents like human beings, and flight attendants as more than Boobs with a drink tray and you just maybe may see a better happier person there. Used to be, people had respect for Pilots, Flight Attendants, and even ramp crew, now many people don't even respect themselves much, Abuse is more prevalent than anything and a human can only take so much of it. To everyone else who knows how to respect a fellow human being, You are the people i wish there were more of in the flying public.

[MyleneJ]

First off, you have no idea what my career at United is like, and I don't feel threatened by Southwest or JetBlue at all, I have no reason to be. I miss when people respected the Privilege of air travel before they treated it as a God Given free ride. I don't hate seeing people who want the old days back, I do too, Back before the "greyhound bus" culture took over, before people acted Entitled to everything for Nothing. and for the record, I'm 2nd generation United, and God Damn proud of it.

[madnavigator]

Oh, look! It's the corporate apologist MyleneJ! How are things from the gleaming ivory tower of Chicago corporate?

[MyleneJ]

@madnavigator Also for the record, I'm a ramp service employee at a Line Station, I'm not corporate, I'm not management, I'm one of your so called "over payed" union workers.

[madnavigator]

@MyleneJ Thank you for answering my question. I hope you're happy that your corporate overlords still see value in you, when you can be replaced by immigrants and slackers with Menzies or Swissport. You are expendable in the eyes of those in the ivory tower.

[MEATYOKERRable]

ticket, it was the butt of countless jokes. The buy on board food now a days is over priced, but the quality and "quantity" is actually better than what the freebies were before. Flying Is a chore, and the system needs to be overhauled, but that said if anyone does complain about flying coach cross-country... just gas up the car and drive from New York to Los Angeles the next time. Try and see how much money you will save doing it that way.......

[MEATYOKERRable]

than it was in the 1970's. It's cheaper today. In a way you can pay $20 - $50 bucks for more baggage which seems fair. If airlines are going to give you transportation and drinks (those are still free) for a relatively low price then if you want more you ought to pay for it. It is really only fair. If you want to pack more, pay extra for gas. Also I find it hilarious that everyone whines about not being able to get free food on airplanes anymore. When it was included in the price of your

[MEATYOKERRable]

As far as I'm concerned just like MyleneJ said "Why do you think first & business class passengers don't pay baggage fees and their food and drinks are free?" Because they pay 3X what we do for the same flight. You get what you pay for most of the time, actually not really. Flying is cheap that anyone can afford it. I can imagine countless hours in a rental car driving around the East Coast on Summer Vacations when I was a kid. Now this was in the 80's when flying was supposedly cheaper.

[16924fps]

@MyleneJ - You're right. Deregulation didn't help, either. I'm old enough to remember when flying was enjoyable, people dressed nicely on the plane and knew how to behave. Now that it's affordable to the WalMart crowd, it's become a joke. The airlines charge fees since the cheap fares don't cover operating costs. Why do you think first & business passengers don't pay baggage fees and their food and drinks are free?

[TheMrleomartin]

somehow when the airplane took of into the sun it made me desperately want to be on the flight.

[MFfan310]

United is painting an A320 in the "Friend Ship" livery featured in this ad.

[70stvtool]

I wish they would bring back the middle folding down seat. that would be heaven when having to fly coach. Oh, the glory days of flying when it was fun and comfortable. Now airlines are like greyhound buses.

[MyleneJ]

@70stvtool They're only that way because people dont want to pay anything for a ticket anymore. Compared to even 10 years ago, with inflation. Airline tickets cost 10-20% less than they used to. Throw the outrageous cost of fuel in there and its amazing most of them can keep flying. You want this service back, people need to quit bitching and pay what a ticket is really worth.

[ThomsonAirwaysStaff]

@MyleneJ Quite a lot of people would pay! But it's the majority that has forced airlines to rip out first class, stop offering kiddie wings and cabin bags and forced airlines to charge for a ticket and then everything else seperately!

Ryanair and Southwest has ruined commercial aviation!

[RickMakesGoodVideos]

@ThomsonAirwaysStaff Southwest showed an airline could make a profit and compete with much larger airlines I think they are a great airline with happy employees good clean aircraft funny crews great service also!

[ThomsonAirwaysStaff]

@RickMakesGoodVideos The Crew at Southwest are excellent people! They make do with the limited resources they have and they offer excellent customer services. They'd be the best airline in the world if they offered the same people with British Airways and American Airlines style resources! And a better uniform!

[madnavigator]

@RickMakesGoodVideos They just don't like fat people; neither as potential employees nor as customers.

[madnavigator]

@MyleneJ How about not having to pay bloated corporate salaries nor the unnecessarily high union wages of lazy, surly employees who have now become de facto police officers behind the aegis of transportation security? Unions are corrupt, the guys at corporate don't need champagne and cocaine lunches, and employees need to re-learn people skills!

[MyleneJ]

@madnavigator Excuse me? High Union Wages, We make at 10 years top-out just a little more than your average Costco employee makes. Do some research before you start insulting people and their wages, Forgive us for wanting a wage we can live decently on. Plus I'd like to know how Airline employees have become "police officers" sounds to me like you've gone and crossed TSA with Airlines. Management has their faults, but it would help if frontline employees got treated with the respect they deserve

[madnavigator]

@MyleneJ There's nothing wrong with wanting a wage you can live decently on. Airline employees gotta have food and shelter. They just don't need more money to do less. There are non-union airline workers who do their job just as well with less money; who don't need to be represented by money-grubbing syndicalist criminals.

Haven't you been reading travel news? It doesn't take much for an airline crew to cry "transportation risk", for a captain to have cops sic'ed on a passenger for any reason.

[madnavigator]

@MyleneJ In addition (damn character limit), airline employees will be respected when passengers are respected. Passengers pay your inflated wages (as well as fat corporate salaries) through fares, fees, and charges. The old "cuts and charges in the name of fuel prices" excuse is wearing thin.

[MyleneJ]

@madnavigator Alright, before i go about pointing out everything wrong with what you've said. I've got a few questions, since your rage seems to be more a personal vendetta than anything. So, Which airline fired you, or which union screwed you over. because, like i said you seem to have a lot of uninformed misplaced rage and anger here, So, again wtf happened to you?

[madnavigator]

@MyleneJ No, you're not going to analyze me. You're just an empty pawn. To Corporate, you're a strong back and a set of numbers. Expendable. Easily replaced. An executive can swipe his or her pen, and you lose everything. Your house. Your car. Your cushy life in the suburbs. You and your family will live in a housing project, on welfare. Maybe you'll get to flip burgers if you're lucky? You don't know what you're fighting for.

[MyleneJ]

@madnavigator If that's what you really believe, then you have no idea at all how things in the airline industry work, and you have no grasp on any sane rationale when it comes to a Union. Sounds to me, once again, you've been fed anti-union Crap for long enough that you've begun to believe it. I'd say good job Republican Party, Except i know that's not true as i work with Several Hard line republicans. So your case seems to be just pure Ignorance on your part, and No one can fix that but you.

[madnavigator]

@MyleneJ Unions and their shenanigans are why Alaska replaced their ground crew at SEA with Menzies. Unions and their corrupt nature and bass-ackwards rules are why JetBlue and SkyWest doesn't deal with them. JetBlue is doing great actually serving and taking care of Joe Passenger while charging Southwest-esque fares. SkyWest is doing great because so many airlines farm out their service to them because they can't be bothered with troublesome syndicalists.

You are expendable.

[MyleneJ]

@madnavigator SkyWest is non-union, and doing well. One thing you fail to mention is SkyWest relies almost entirely on Express Contracts with major airlines and government subsidies for flying into small towns something that is going stop in the near future. JetBlue Is doing well for itself, to attribute that to being non-union is ridiculous. iam141(dot)org pick an airline look up the rules yourself. Trying to convince me that I'm any more expendable than any other job makes me laugh.

[madnavigator]

@MyleneJ How am I supposed to have faith in an organization that doesn't see people for their abilities and skills at a job, but how long they've worked at it (and thus paid dues upon dues)? That prevents workers from going the extra mile and being decent, helpful human beings because it's "not their department" or "not in the contract"? Where were the unions for workers of United, American, and many other carriers on September 12, 2001; when the execs made massive layoffs?

[MyleneJ]

@madnavigator Most of those Furloughed employees, at-least for united were -temporary- and most who wanted their job back, have it. A lot of airlines had to lay off people after 9/11, blaming the Unions for that is just ridiculous. All you're doing is bringing up instances of bad luck, poor economic conditions, and irrelevant information to try and make Unions the poster child for Evil. Based on your name, I'm starting to think you are former employee who got Fired and are just angry at that.

[madnavigator]

@MyleneJ It's unions AND executives that are evil. The bottom line is that you have your boogieman of the passengers making things hard for the airlines, while I believe the greed of executives and unions are alienating the common customer. All you airlines do is take from us, when we only have so much to give. On top of that, you don't even give anyone a smile and a thank you unless they're an F class passenger or a million miler. And even those customers are getting shafted these days.

[MyleneJ]

@madnavigator What exactly are airlines Taking from you? Ticket prices are 35% cheaper than 25 years ago. Bag fees? the bag fees make up for the Fare difference of "pre-fee" tickets. Go on look it up, a ticket Now, is about 60 dollars on average cheaper than before United enacted its baggage fees, and guess what, 60 dollars is the cost of checking two bags in Economy, Doesn't seem so "shafted" now does it, in fact its a bonus to those without bags and SAME for those with.

[madnavigator]

@MyleneJ What about squeezing in more seats to where even an average-bodied person feels crowded? (Don't get me started on big and tall people.) What about assigning regional jets on mainline flights, which are even more crowded? The lack of food? Fees to change a flight, carry on a bag, or interact with a human employee? What about corporate policies which make airlines address all consumer grievances with a form letter that's just a classy way of saying "Tough luck, kid!"?

[MyleneJ]

@madnavigator The only time United's "squeezed" more seats into an aircraft was the 757 "slimline" experiment. In fact with the induction of Economy Plus most UA mainlines have fewer seats than they did Pre-Economy Plus. As for the Increase recently in Express flights, you do realize they're pulling a lot of planes out for Re-painting and the -addition- of Economy Plus seats to Legacy CO's airplanes, also All flights over 3 hours still get food, Change fees have always existed.

[madnavigator]

@MyleneJ You work for United? I'm sorry.

[MyleneJ]

@madnavigator Also, how about the BS airlines have to put up with, for instance, did you know if your flight is Canceled, or delayed long enough, that the DOT (Government) forces the Airline to give you back DOUBLE what you payed for your ticket? So, That's fare right? No other industry anywhere has to deal with that sort of thing. You don't take your broken TV back to Wal-mart and get 2 to replace it, You don't even get cash back you get "Store Credit".

[madnavigator]

@MyleneJ You're being fined because the government sees that you're not treating your customers like human beings. It IS fair.

[madnavigator]

@MyleneJ I understand now. You work for an airline whose corporate culture would even make Pollyanna cranky. How do I know? 11 years ago, I was an RSSR at Seattle Rez. It wasn't so much a job as it was a hazing ritual; you had to work Seattle Rez for a year before you could do anything else with the company. Even if you wanted to be Ramp or an F/A. I resigned, for the record. But man, one would be better off breaking rocks in a Soviet gulag thank working for United. I see your anger.

[madnavigator]

@MyleneJ But also, I know you're in a pretty precarious position. You can't leave United. Even with your seniority, no other airline is hiring in this crappy political climate. Yet you've gotta pay mortgage payments, car payments, bills, and be able to feed your spouse and kids. You hate seeing travelers pine for the old days of free steak in coach. You feel threatened by Southwest, JetBlue, and the t-shirt-and-flip-flops crowd, because they could mean the end of your job.

[madnavigator]

@MyleneJ Still, it's sad to see that a legacy airline like United tries to stay competitive not by balancing customer service and amenities with profitability, but by partying like it's 1979 and buying out the competition. And all employees, union or otherwise, are seen as cogs in a machine rather than players in a team. Being dehumanized would trickle down into a contempt for your customers, wouldn't it? Especially those on YouTube with broken guitars? Or those who complain to consumer blogs?

[MyleneJ]

@madnavigator As for the merger, no one bought out any ones competition CO and UA merged equally, And before you spout off some anti-corporate hate speech it's an equal mix throughout management and so far all I've seen are good things throughout the Route system, but I'm sure you're going to have some inane nonsense to spout about things even though you have no idea what's really going on and why.

[madnavigator]

@MyleneJ Nah. For the most part, I'm done. The only thing I see of you now is that while you take pride in your work, you seem to alienate the very people who make it possible for you to earn a paycheck. That's an issue I have with airline workers now.

Talk about "Greyhound culture", I used to work for Greyhound. Even if my passengers were the self-entitled dregs you fear are putting butts in your airline's seats, I still went out of my way for them because they're the reason I got paid.

[MyleneJ]

@madnavigator The fact that you keep repeating yourself over and over again, proves you're doing no listening and just trying to force your opinion on someone else. So I'll repeat myself and hope that maybe it sticks though, I doubt it. I do not hate passengers, nor do I or any of my coworkers seek to Alienate anyone, however after hours of Snide comments and personal attacks you can only smile at the next indignant person so much.

[madnavigator]

@MyleneJ And I keep telling you that respect is a two-way street. Respect the consumers. They vote with their wallets. Didn't Corporate ever tell you that one customer who has a bad experience can tell ten people that the airline's bad, and each of those ten people can tell ten more people, and so on? A bad experience can be as simple as a mishandled bag or a surly agent. When they stop paying, you lose your job.

Yoju keep referring to passengers as the "Greyhound culture", you alienate them.

[MyleneJ]

@madnavigator You've taken what i said to the extreme, I am tired of the "Everything for Nothing" disrespectful passengers. The passengers who know how to treat others and show respect are just fine and I enjoy helping them and I'm happy to see every customer we get, but when someone comes up who payed 80 dollars for a ticket starts yelling at me because he has to pay 25 dollars for a bag before i can even ask if he needs help, THIS is unacceptable behavior no matter What airline you travel on.

[madnavigator]

@MyleneJ So you're no better than some retail drone whining and complaining on some "sucky customer" forum about the "stupid people"? I get it now.

[MyleneJ]

@madnavigator No, I'm a human being who's tired of getting needlessly treated poorly when personally, all i ever try do to is help people to the best of my ability, and if you can find fault with that. Then you're either just a pointless troll and I've wasted my time even talking to you, or you're just a sad hateful person yourself.

[madnavigator]

@MyleneJ Well let's step back for a minute and ask what we--not the airlines, not the passengers, but you and I--can do to change it all instead of projecting our misplaced anger?

[MyleneJ]

@madnavigator Or maybe you're just pissed because you don't get your free steak in economy anymore. Again, you're paying 35% less for your ticket, Operating costs have gone up, why should you get more for less just because it's an airline? You don't go to a restaurant and demand free stuff just because you're eating there. You don't have a right to Free anything on any airline, it's a luxury. So tell me why should anyone cut THEIR income Executive or Union employee, so you can get a free steak?

[madnavigator]

@MyleneJ I not only miss the free steak, I miss being treated like my business is appreciated. In the days of the old airline commercials, workers appreciated their jobs and went out of their way to make sure passengers were not only safe, but also comfortable and well taken care of. Today, we're all potential criminals (not just to the TSA, but also to gate agents, F/As, and pilots. We're like a hazardous cargo now. I would like to be treated better if it WOULD take a pay cut across the board.

[madnavigator]

@MyleneJ Furthermore, I tried your site. I couldn't find your "rules". Just a bunch of sappy propaganda. Please.

[MyleneJ]

@madnavigator alright fine, Our contract is public, since you seem to have failed to find it let me find it for you.

iam141(dot)org/docs/contract05­UAramp(dot)pdf Ramp Service / Store Contract.

iam141(dot)org/docs/contract05­UApce(dot)pdf Public Contact Employee Contract.

[MyleneJ]

@madnavigator Funny though, how you call it propaganda. I've got documentation, contracts, and -experience- to back up what I say. You.. have words.

[Longbeachliner]

@madnavigator I think you have this backwards. What you meant to say was managements' shenanigans are the reason WE NEED Unions. You must have lost control of your faculties for brief moment when you wrote that!

[madnavigator]

@MyleneJ But then you've got misplaced anger of your own. You seem to be mad at the hoi polloi, the great unwashed passengers, wanting more for less, and your execs and bean-counters have to play catch-up with their bottom line. At the same time, I'm not going to ask what passenger pissed in your corn flakes. Maybe they overpacked their bag and nearly wrenched your back. Maybe you killed their family dog en route and it turned into a messy lawsuit? It's not my place to ask.

[MyleneJ]

@madnavigator The only issue I have with passengers, are people who arrive at the airport with a lack of respect who are "looking for a fight". I know no Counter Agent for any airline who wakes up in the morning going "I'll screw with passengers today", but I see customers start ranting or acting indignant from the start like who's helping them is personally responsible for everything wrong in their life. Airline workers are human same as you, Good service starts with respect. From BOTH sides.

[madnavigator]

@MyleneJ You think maybe there would be no "looking for a fight" if passengers were treated better? They have to go through a gauntlet of government-sanctioned rape and scrutiny. They have to put up with onerous fees and policies, class conflict, and employees who act like they don't even want to be there. Stop treating us like live cargo, and maybe there won't be so much "looking for a fight"?

[MyleneJ]

@madnavigator And again, you're blaming the airline for -Government- employees. if you have a problem with TSA, then blame TSA stop blaming the airlines like they like it anymore than you do. Not to mention the fact that its a mostly invalid excuse, as you see a Ticket Agent well before you meet Security, So "it's securities fault people act that way" doesn't float. Like i said before, respect the people serving you and you'll get service deserving of respectful behavior.

[madnavigator]

@MyleneJ I keep telling you, your agents hide behind the TSA and the authorities whenever someone even so much as raises their voice.

[tonywestsider]

Awful stuff at that time. All of that gross branding got replaced by Saul Bass Associates orange, red, blue scheme in the mid 70s, which was streamlined and stylish.

[tiadaid]

I wonder why all the airline commercials back then feature black skycaps? Don't they have white skycaps?

[jodylax]

I remember seeing this commercial for the first time watching Johnny Carson. I was like 10 years old

[Longbeachliner]

Wow! The uniforms were groovy back then.

[jasoncrh]

this is PHENOMENAL!!! I love it - UA needs to bring something back similar to this - would be a morale booster. Naturally, the problem is that the flight attendants in this video are, more or less, the same ones they have today!