Ever feel powerless?
Here's an (unfortunately) highly typical conversation between a passenger trying to straighten out some issues with the airline, ever so patiently, and a completely unhelpful UAL help agent, who has obviously been given zero authority to help resolve such problems. You can just see the frustration level climbing higher and higher.

Frequent Flying 101 - Know Before You Go!
Untied.com introduces a new guest column, providing general travel advice to passengers. The first column deals with in-flight dining on economy flights within the USA.

What others are saying at FlyUntied:
Check out what other passengers are saying about United at the Fly Untied page, which collects any mention of United Airlines from Twitter feeds. (HT: Stephen Michaelson)

Updates from Airline Employee Whistleblowers:
The Airline Employee Whistleblowers are keeping up the pressure on a number of important issues including the leaked TSA secrets and proposed passenger rights legislation. Stay tuned for updates.

How to get the satisfaction of a response from UAL:
There are a few options: The first, as demonstrated by Dave Carroll's well-known Broken Guitar Song (listen to it here) is to use your talent to get some media attention. This also worked for James Daniel, who tried to heed widespread calls for those who are sick with the flu not to fly, was given the usual United treatment until media exposure compelled the world's most unfriendly airline to do the right thing. Another way is to use plastic: if you purchased your ticket with a credit card and feel that United didn't deliver the contractually agreed upon service, dispute the charge with your credit card company. Although the airline may prevail in the end, they will be forced to send a formal reply to your charge dispute, and you can usually counter this with further documentation if you disagree. The other option, long advocated by Untied.com is small claims action, which has been successful for many former passengers, such as this one.

Compensation ruling on lost or damaged luggage:
A colleague in this "business" has won a victory against United's partner, Air Canada regarding their policies on delayed or damaged baggage. This ruling could well have important implications for the US airlines as well.

Know your rights:
A former UAL employee provides several important pointers regarding the Workers Compensation Act and the unsavory "scorecard" used by UAL's pet bulldog, Gallagher Basset, when investigating employee claims.

Two new resources for UAL employees:
Untied.com would like to direct UAL employees to two sites of interest. First, Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association, headed by former United captain Dan Hanley, is a grassroots advocacy site, which documents systemic suppression of whistleblowing activities (such as those we've described, below) within the airline industry. A frightening example can be found in the recent Washington Examiner article. This describes how Hanley was prevented from informing the members of a Senate subcommittee investigating factors behind recent deadly airline crashes how United retaliated against him for speaking out about pilot fatigue! The second site, Ex-United on-line is a new blog, slanted toward the experiences of United's employees, past and present, with focus on issues that affect quality and customer service.

How UAL treats its own:
UAL is not known for rewarding its best, but rather, for punishing them, in particular, anyone who dares speak out, especially whistleblowers. Some of the many examples contained in our employee feedback section include current employee who suffered on-the-job injury, harrassment from UAL medical, and numerous efforts by UAL management to evade the law. Another letter we recently received from the wife of a former UAL pilot instructor, describes how the airline -- from union and employee representatives, medical advisors, and fleet captain -- ignored the trainer's health condition, fought against his Workman's Compensation filing, and ultimately, contributed to his early death. Another former employee describes her struggle to get back on her feet. The advice of former employees is useful reading: UAL does not care about you!

Legal advice and employee information requested:
More terminated employees are soliciting legal advice or information from other fellow employees regarding their respective plights. Some correspondence relates to employees terminated under suspicious "medical-related" reasons, with one former UAL medical doctor stepping forward to respond to questions. In similar incidents, one employee was terminated while under medical care, another was terminated after the airline fabricated the claim that he resigned, and a potential whistleblower was terminated and refused his retirement pay. If anyone has advice or can offer legal representation for these employees, please contact our site.