He was let go.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2003/10/11/2003071266
Yes, it is officially cancelled. They first temporarily suspended it during the SARS outbreak, then reinstated it, then suspended it again, then finally in August they announced it would be cancelled. I had to yell at their reservations people a few times because they would rebook me from the direct flight to one with a huge layover in NRT instead of on an earlier flight and wanted me to pay a fee to change it. They changed it, no fee.
As a consolation, they upgraded the NRTTPE service from 777 to 747-400, and made it a connecting flight through SFO. Still, there’s nearly always delays in and out of NRT which can easily add an hour to each take off and landing, and the nice new United lounge is now PACKED with people, so it’s not much of a perk anymore. It’s so disappointing to see one thing after another get taken away, and service decline slowly but surely. Pretty much all the US airlines are in a race to the bottom now, which are giving the asian airlines a big boost in comparison.
The one thing that remains good is their ground staff in TPE. They have been very nice with the upgrades, and once escorted me all the way from checkin through immigration to the gate when I flew standby and finally cleared the waiting list 15 minutes before the flight. They now share lounges with Singapore which is a bit nicer and has Internet access.
Business & First Class aside, I think all airline food is pretty much the same, no matter which airline… 
Business & First Class aside, I think all airline food is pretty much the same, no matter which airline… [/quote]
I never do like them and I always brought my own food. You name it, I got it, instand noddles, chips, cookies… hey, if you are going to be on the plane for more than 10 hours, you gotta be prepare, you know?! 
Really, I always thought the 777 was an upgrade from the 747-400, except that it’s harder to get seats on a 777 flight, because there are simply fewer of them. The 777 is a newer, more modern plane with more amenities and space (namely overhead bins and headroom). They used to fly the 747-400 to TPE, then they switched to 777 in 2002. The only drawback of the switch was that it became a lot harder (and more expensive) to get a seat, again, because there were fewer seats to go around.
Yeah, that’s why I prefer non-stop. Any stop always adds a lot of time, no matter what they tell you.
Well, when you’re in bankruptcy, that’s what happens, they start taking away things one by one. Service was never really a concern of the major US airlines anyway. 
Unless you are a full fare business or first class traveler, you are pretty much a head of cattle as far as they are concerned, and they don’t care about service, and that goes for all US Airlines, not just United. Asian airlines on the other hand, have always been service oriented, and cater to “the customer is always right”. I’ve heard some pretty outrageous stories of “difficult” customers whom the employees have to bend over backwards to accomodate from my friends in the industry. On top of that, the Taiwanese airlines tickets are generally cheaper than United at any given time. Granted, unlike the US, Taiwanese airlines don’t have to deal with things like unions, strikes, etc, namely because unlike the US, the pay scale for flight crew in Taiwan is quite lucrative compared to the average university educated working Taiwanese professional.
Interesting, ground staff has always been courteous, but never really did anything out of the ordinary. Never got any upgrades either. Care to share your secret there?
Hahahaha, have I seen you on the plane before? I remember seeing someone with an endless supply of snacks. 
I actually kind of like the idea that they’re tossing around of getting rid of food service altogether, and having meals for sale. That way your ticket price can be lower, and if you want to eat, you can buy a meal, which, since you are actually paying for it, there is incentive for them to make it something worth paying for.
For service, food, space, price EVA deluxe economy wins hands down. Cathay Pacific now has to have the most crowded seating of any airline I have ever flown. Horrendous. United is okay but again frequent flyer miles aside, it is not always the cheapest and for the same price I would rather fly EVA deluxe economy.
China Airlines has not been revamped. The same problems exist. It is only a matter of time before the next one crashes. Its been happening for years. The only way to reform that pathetic mismanaged fiasco is to sell off all the planes and disband it.
[quote=“Ben”]
Interesting, ground staff has always been courteous, but never really did anything out of the ordinary. Never got any upgrades either. Care to share your secret there? 
[/quote]
That’s true. Upgrades and other ahem “rewards” are now intimately tied to customer loyalty schemes. If you want an upgrade, you usually need to be a member of the airline’s frequent flyer program and sacrifice some air miles to get bumped up a class. Sad but true, the days of airline freebies are long gone.
These days, with the oberbooking and overticketing scam the airlines pull, you’re not even guaranteed a seat when you turn up for a flight with a valid ticket and “OK” status printed on it.
[quote=“monkey”]
That’s true. Upgrades and other ahem “rewards” are now intimately tied to customer loyalty schemes. If you want an upgrade, you usually need to be a member of the airline’s frequent flyer program and sacrifice some air miles to get bumped up a class. Sad but true, the days of airline freebies are long gone.
These days, with the oberbooking and overticketing scam the airlines pull, you’re not even guaranteed a seat when you turn up for a flight with a valid ticket and “OK” status printed on it.[/quote]
I am a premier member on UAL, and I have a crapload of miles, and that doesn’t seem to help. I was told that upgrades don’t kick in until you hit 2 levels above premier though.
I’m not preferrential to CAL at all, but to their credit, they are trying. A lot of the “old guard” military pilots have been retired, and most, if not all of the new pilots are trained abroad.
In my opinion though, the only way to definitively change things is to privatize the airline and restart. IMO, a lot of the mismanagement comes from the higher levels. Currently, CAL is still I think over 60% state owned. EVA is also Taiwanese, but they have been private from the start. That’s not to say they don’t have any problems, but at least they haven’t lost any planes since their inception in 1991.
I always fly United because of the miles. No major complaints. One thing I do like is that you can stop over for a few days at a time in places, like San Francisco and Tokyo (if you are heading to different parts of the States), and then get on a flight to Taipei (or to your destination) a few days later. Of course, other airlines probably allow this, too.
I haven’t flown EVA to the States. But from the rave reviews in this post, perhaps I should consider it. I guess, to me, it comes down to price and frequent flier miles.
I have taken EVA to Bali and other parts of Asia and found it to be good. I think most of their flights to the States go through LA, and I always have wanted to stop over and see friends in San Francisco (so United made sense).
I’ll give EVA a try. I do like EVA’s inflight magazine–the content seems to have a local slant.
Just curious, how much do they charge you to do the overnight stopovers? The last time I tried to do this (on American), I think they wanted to charge some exhorbitant amount, tantamount to buying two tickets, one to get to the stopover, then another from the stopover to the final destination.
I also used to be die-hard United because of the miles, but over time, it became not worth it anymore, because the difference in rising United ticket costs offset the actual value of each mile (about US$0.01-0.03 depending on how you spend them), although I will admit United has one of the more liberal mileage redemption policies compared to CAL, EVA, or American.
Nothing, as far as I am aware. Granted, the United tickets might be more expensice to begin with.
This last trip back to the States, my route was TPE–NRT–ORD. On the way back, I flew ORD to SFO, stayed in San Francisco for about a week, and then took a flight from SFO to NRT, then NRT to TPE.
I was told that I would be allowed on stop over on each leg of the flight. SO, I guess we could have gone from TPE to NRT, spent some time in Japan, and then boarded a NRT–ORD flight. We didn’t have time, but I will try to do this in the future.
Of course, with United going bankrupt, perhaps this is one thing (the stop overs) that will change. Also, once you’ve locked in the date, I believe there is a pretty high fee (no pun intended) to change anything.
Anyway, United has served me pretty well, but I am always ready to try better–or cheaper–options.
Depends whether you mean complimentary upgrades or not. Anyone with miles at any level is eligible for upgrades paid for with miles. Currently from Taipei to US it is 30,000 miles each way. Your best bet for this is to book early and request an upgrade from the airline immediately. They will put you on the waiting list. The waiting list clears by status level first and then when the request was made. For US domestic flights Premier Executive (Gold) and above earn 500-mile upgrade certs and North American (HK49) upgrades. These are useless if you fly mostly internationally.
For free upgrades, you need to be flying on a full fare (unrestricted) ticket, or have high enough status to get an operational upgrade. Operational means they overbooked economy and will cherry pick those with full fare or highest status to get upgraded so they don’t need to bump someone.
If you have 1K membership level (platinum card) you will get systemwide upgrade (SWU) coupons each year you keep your membership. These are a free pass to upgrade and with these you will almost certainly get an upgrade if there’s any seats available. And when you are 1K you are much more likely to get free upgrades whether operational or just because they had room.
Harder to get upgrades too.
On United they have less legroom and the aisles are narrower on the 777. Plus if you can get Business Class, there’s the upper deck on the 747 which tends to be less crowded and more quiet. About the only thing I like better about the 777 is it seems much quieter.
Just flew through Tokyo today and no delays in or out, and the lounge wasn’t crowded. I guess someone is trying to prove me wrong.
[quote]
Interesting, ground staff has always been courteous, but never really did anything out of the ordinary. Never got any upgrades either. Care to share your secret there? [/quote]
They probably like seeing my gold level status in the computer.
[quote=“fee”]Of course, with United going bankrupt, perhaps this is one thing (the stop overs) that will change. Also, once you’ve locked in the date, I believe there is a pretty high fee (no pun intended) to change anything.
Anyway, United has served me pretty well, but I am always ready to try better–or cheaper–options.[/quote]
I think there is pretty much a fee to change anything on any ticket, unless it’s a full fare ticket.
United in general has been very good to me, just got too expensive starting last year.
I thought you were talking about complimentary upgrades. Yeah, booking early is required if you want to use any kind of miles. In the post bankrputcy United, they pretty much arbitrarily decide whether they will let you use miles on a given flight or not. More often than not, they will not allow you to use them.
If you’re travelling longhaul, in this case (Taiwan-US), unless other airlines introduce economy deluxe (ie: BA and VS), go with EVA Air Deluxe for pirce and value.
I’ve flown with EVA in 3 classes, Super Business, Deluxe and Economy between TPE-LAX. Economy - complete disaster, seats so cramped that took 3 days to recover from jetleg and flu (imagine if there’s SARS outbreak), AVOID. Deluxe - best money spent, seats are like US domestic business or Emirates’ business (no joke), best option if your budget is under $1000 US. Super Business - decent but caterings aren’t much better and can’t compare with SQ and MH, luckily this is my free upgrade, if I’m to shell out $2000+, I’ll pick either SQ (Raffle Class) or MH.
If catering is a big factor for you and you only want to fly economy, you might want to consider MH, all foods are served on square plates and portions are generous.
I’ve flown… EVA, Singapore, JAL, United, Cathay, China Airlines (United and Cathay rerouted through Hong Kong, JAL through Tokyo).
If you’re going for Business Class and above, I would not recommend EVA since the seats do not lie down completely flat, Singapore is much better. In my experience, United Economy is the most hell and you have to go through SFO to get to LAX and with all the extra security going on in the States lately, it’s hell. Transfer airports in the beginning is OK (through Tokyo per say) but at the end of your journey when you are jetlagged and 1 hour away from your destination, it’s hell. At Tokyo they at least directly transferred my luggage onto my next leg of trip but on United (from SFO to LAX) you have to go through all the luggage check all over again–pick it up, screen, push it through, check it in.
I haven’t ridden on China Airlines in a long time since they are a bit freaky but if you want to risk it + keep on budget that’s your choice. Cathay Pacific has older aircrafts, much like JAL when I rode it, and the food in First Class was not that fantastic–but Cathay was almost always on time, sometimes even early in arrival. EVA Deluxe class isn’t too bad, the last few times I rode with EVA they were late but in obtaining their Silver Membership you can have a VIP Lounge Invitation even when you fly economy with them on other trips which is nice.
Hahahaha, have I seen you on the plane before? I remember seeing someone with an endless supply of snacks.
I actually kind of like the idea that they’re tossing around of getting rid of food service altogether, and having meals for sale. That way your ticket price can be lower, and if you want to eat, you can buy a meal, which, since you are actually paying for it, there is incentive for them to make it something worth paying for.[/quote]
U should save yourself the trouble of carrying the food stuffs. On more than one occasion I’ve had the munchies during the middle of the night and the EVA crew has come through with a bowl of instant noodles.