6 ms·

To a European like me, United was such a weird airline to fly. There were actual commercials played before the safety video, the cabin crew warned passengers t

To a European like me, United was such a weird airline to fly. There were actual commercials played before the safety video, the cabin crew warned passengers to make sure children cannot see the adult content they're watching (can you get more American than that?), and their credit card was offered multiple times during the flight. At least the WiFi was reasonably cheap. Over here, that stuff would never fly (no pun intended), except maybe on Ryanair or other extremely low-cost carriers. On e.g. a Lufthansa longhaul flight, which are priced similarly and cover the same route I flew (fra-ord), it would be unthinkable.

schmuckonwheels 11mo ago
>the cabin crew warned passengers to make sure children cannot see the adult content they're watching (can you get more American than that?) Is it considered normal in Europe to watch pornography on public transit in public so children can see it? >Lufthansa longhaul flight My experience is different. Old planes, and Lufthansa cabin crew are cold and service was poor and inattentive.
- whoknowsidont 11mo ago
  How is that your interpretation of OP's statement?
- zwnow 11mo ago
  Its normal in Europe to not watch any kind of pornography in public. Idk why you would do that.
  - deleted 11mo ago
    [deleted]
  - schmuckonwheels 11mo ago
    I remember the days when movies shown on aircraft were edited for both content and dialogue. These days, with so much content expected to be available at your fingertips, both in your seat and people bringing iPads on board loaded with R-rated streams, it's expected to be mindful of your neighbor on such things. How that is distinctly "American" I don't quite understand.
  - lateforwork 11mo ago
    Adult content does not necessarily mean pornography. It can include nudity, which Europeans are more comfortable with than Americans.
    - zwnow 11mo ago
      I am aware, the person I replied to just went straight into pornography, as to why I replied like that.
mr_mitm 11mo ago
Isn't swiss air playing commercials for some watch brand constantly?
- softwaredoug 11mo ago
  And Icelandair advertises things to do in Iceland
- schmuckonwheels 11mo ago
  Swissair used to let you gamble, until the system started a fire, which caused a crash that killed everyone onboard. https://www.theautopian.com/swissair-used-to-let-you-gamble-on-planes-with-real-money/ https://www.theautopian.com/swissair-used-to-let-you-gamble-...
- seanmcdirmid 11mo ago
  Swiss air is a discount airline ever since its bankruptcy and restart right? I've only flown them once to Beijing, it was slightly better than Aeroflot.
rottencupcakes 11mo ago
What has become much more degraded in Europe than America is the domestic flights. Try flying Lufthansa (or one of their half dozen subsidiaries created almost entirely to give worse service) anywhere inside of europe. Everything is a money grab and the service and boarding are terrible. United maintains a relatively consistent experience between domestic and international, minus the free alcohol.
- thatfrenchguy 11mo ago
  > United maintains a relatively consistent experience between domestic and international, minus the free alcohol. A consistent extremely mediocre experience I guess. I've flown Lufthansa, Air France, Air Canada and United with a toddler and I'd get out of my way to avoid United in the future, never seen staff everywhere in that airline that was more unpleasant and unhelpful, especially with young children, as much as when flying United.
  - jen20 11mo ago
    To give my own anecdata to counter yours: every time I've flown with children on United they've gone out of their way to make it straightforward. The only better airline I've encountered for it is Virgin Atlantic, which is, to be fair, better at everything.
    - kelnos 11mo ago
      Interesting; I just flew Virgin Atlantic for the first time a week ago (SFO->LHR) and found the experience aggressively mediocre. Reservation management and check-in experience with their app was the hottest of hot garbage, boarding was slow, in-flight meal below average, general comfort just kinda okay. No complaints about the crew, at least. I generally fly United (while they are also aggressively mediocre, they mostly fly direct to the places I need them to, and their pricing is generally good on the routes I take), and I'd honestly rate United higher than Virgin Atlantic, which surprised me. Maybe my single experience was a fluke, but it was a really bad first impression. And I say this as someone who absolutely adored Virgin America back when it existed. Bizarre that the two could be so different.
Klonoar 11mo ago
> and their credit card was offered multiple times during the flight The largest of the airlines in America make more profit from this than the airline aspect itself. There is far more that could be said on this but, ironically, I am on a flight and about to land.
- bklyn11201 11mo ago
  Europe will financialize everything just slower and with more regulation. Branded credit cards are coming. See Brussels Airlines and Mastercard A well optimized domestic USA airline makes money from credit cards, points, trip insurance, upsells, and segments the consumer into a dozen bins based on what they’re willing to spend for a couple more inches of leg room.
  - N19PEDL2 11mo ago
    > Branded credit cards are coming. See Brussels Airlines and Mastercard As well as ITA and American Express, at least everywhere in Milan airport.
  - alibarber 11mo ago
    Not sure about your bit of Europe but I’ve had branded credit cards from European airlines here in Europe for a long time. They’re definitely past ‘coming’. Not as lucrative for me the holder as you’d get it the US, but I can’t really imagine being without one.
    - mandevil 11mo ago
      As I recall, that's because it's basically impossible to have a US rewards card in Europe. European authorities tightly cap interchange fees (the fees that come out of the merchant's end of the deal). US issuers are much less regulated. In the US there are cheap cards that offer no perks and take a small (0.2-1%) cut from the merchant, and the perks cards that have lots of perks and take a bigger (3.5%) cut from the merchant. The CC companies, naturally, want more people to use perks cards so they get more of a cut, so to encourage consumers to use these cards they give some of it back to the users in the form of these rewards. This model recently came under attack when a whole bunch of merchants brought an anti-trust lawsuit against Visa and MC for their requirement that if you wanted to accept the cheap cards you had to accept the expensive cards as well, merchants want to be able to accept the cheap cards and reject the higher tier cards. The negotiations about that settlement continue, so we'll have to see how it all shakes out, but it could result in a major limiting of American reward cards. Or maybe not, always in motion the future is. The EU parliament passed a law capping interchange fees at 0.3% (for local personal cards, business has some other limit that I don't remember) so there is just no money to offer rewards to customers of European banks. Much better for merchants, lower prices overall mean probably better for poorer folks, worse deal for wealthy people with good credit who pay attention and pay their bills in full every month. Speaking as an American one of those people who benefit from rewards cards, I think that it is better for society to go with the European choices than the American.
mschuster91 11mo ago
> and their credit card was offered multiple times during the flight American airlines actually lose money on passenger flights - the cash cows are loyalty programs and freight transport [1]. [1] https://www.investopedia.com/the-four-biggest-us-airlines-all-lost-money-flying-passengers-last-year-8781856 https://www.investopedia.com/the-four-biggest-us-airlines-al...
thedogeye 11mo ago
[flagged]
- aosaigh 11mo ago
  How edgy. Spoiler: we’re not too interested in appealing to America any more over here.
- vablings 11mo ago
  Instead of complaining about legislators protecting your rights. Why don't you pressure sites to stop harvesting so much of your data?
- acdha 11mo ago
  I see businesses are getting you to blame the law rather than their activities which the law requires them to disclose. Personally, I’d expect to be paid before acting as a lobbyist.
jen20 11mo ago
> On e.g. a Lufthansa longhaul flight, which are priced similarly and cover the same route I flew (fra-ord), it would be unthinkable. I fly both airlines regularly, United is _vastly_ better from a hard product perspective, a soft product perspective, and _especially_ a service recovery standpoint. The credit card thing is easily ignored, but you used to heard it often on European flights too before branded credit cards got wiped out there. I've never heard an announcement about adult content, and have taken over 90 United flights this year.
ErroneousBosh 11mo ago
> except maybe on Ryanair or other extremely low-cost carriers. I fly on Lauda most often, who are operated by Ryanair. You show up, you get on, you sit down, a couple of hours you get off again. A trolley comes round with drinks and snacks, but it's a short journey even with a small child. Can't you just stick an orange and a bottle of water in your bag? It's what the Austrians do. The first time I flew over with my small son he was three, and having been up since 5am was getting a little fractious and fidgety, so I explained he was probably a bit tired and bored and maybe he'd like to eat something and have a sleep, and I'd wake him up once we were back over land. A bit later on someone further up the plane started remonstrating with the cabin crew that they didn't have the sandwich she wanted on the trolley, eventually shouting "IF IT'S ON THE MENU YOU GAVE ME I SHOULD BE ABLE TO HAVE THE DAMN SANDWICH!" Well that shut everyone up. And in the ringing silence that followed, a little voice, with the punch and clarity that only 3-year-olds have, that Brian Blessed or Meat Loaf would have given any limb you care to mention for, piped up: "DADDY, DOES THAT LADY NEED A SNACK AND A WEE NAP TOO?"
kelnos 11mo ago
The credit card thing doesn't surprise me. I expect United makes a ton of revenue from the card. With how credit card transaction fees are capped in Europe, I doubt it's worth it for European airlines to bother pushing their branded card much, if they even have one in the first place. I was on a Virgin Atlantic flight last week, and while there weren't ads before the safety video, there were three ads before every movie I tried to watch... and it was the same three ads each time. I flew Turkish in October, and was annoyed to find the movies and TV shows heavily censored, including blanking out or dubbing over minor swear words. It was also wild to see the Qur'an in the entertainment system's reading library. (No judgement there, just notable as I've never seen the Christian Bible present on other airlines.) I think you're just falling victim to the usual thing where what you're used to feels normal, and everything else seems weird. I've definitely experienced the same as an American, when flying on European, Latin American, and Asian airlines.

schmuckonwheels 11mo ago

>the cabin crew warned passengers to make sure children cannot see the adult content they're watching (can you get more American than that?) Is it considered normal in Europe to watch pornography on public transit in public so children can see it? >Lufthansa longhaul flight My experience is different. Old planes, and Lufthansa cabin crew are cold and service was poor and inattentive.

whoknowsidont 11mo ago
How is that your interpretation of OP's statement?
zwnow 11mo ago
Its normal in Europe to not watch any kind of pornography in public. Idk why you would do that.
- deleted 11mo ago
  [deleted]
- schmuckonwheels 11mo ago
  I remember the days when movies shown on aircraft were edited for both content and dialogue. These days, with so much content expected to be available at your fingertips, both in your seat and people bringing iPads on board loaded with R-rated streams, it's expected to be mindful of your neighbor on such things. How that is distinctly "American" I don't quite understand.
- lateforwork 11mo ago
  Adult content does not necessarily mean pornography. It can include nudity, which Europeans are more comfortable with than Americans.
  - zwnow 11mo ago
    I am aware, the person I replied to just went straight into pornography, as to why I replied like that.

mr_mitm 11mo ago

Isn't swiss air playing commercials for some watch brand constantly?

softwaredoug 11mo ago
And Icelandair advertises things to do in Iceland
schmuckonwheels 11mo ago
Swissair used to let you gamble, until the system started a fire, which caused a crash that killed everyone onboard. https://www.theautopian.com/swissair-used-to-let-you-gamble-on-planes-with-real-money/ https://www.theautopian.com/swissair-used-to-let-you-gamble-...
seanmcdirmid 11mo ago
Swiss air is a discount airline ever since its bankruptcy and restart right? I've only flown them once to Beijing, it was slightly better than Aeroflot.

rottencupcakes 11mo ago

What has become much more degraded in Europe than America is the domestic flights. Try flying Lufthansa (or one of their half dozen subsidiaries created almost entirely to give worse service) anywhere inside of europe. Everything is a money grab and the service and boarding are terrible. United maintains a relatively consistent experience between domestic and international, minus the free alcohol.

thatfrenchguy 11mo ago
> United maintains a relatively consistent experience between domestic and international, minus the free alcohol. A consistent extremely mediocre experience I guess. I've flown Lufthansa, Air France, Air Canada and United with a toddler and I'd get out of my way to avoid United in the future, never seen staff everywhere in that airline that was more unpleasant and unhelpful, especially with young children, as much as when flying United.
- jen20 11mo ago
  To give my own anecdata to counter yours: every time I've flown with children on United they've gone out of their way to make it straightforward. The only better airline I've encountered for it is Virgin Atlantic, which is, to be fair, better at everything.
  - kelnos 11mo ago
    Interesting; I just flew Virgin Atlantic for the first time a week ago (SFO->LHR) and found the experience aggressively mediocre. Reservation management and check-in experience with their app was the hottest of hot garbage, boarding was slow, in-flight meal below average, general comfort just kinda okay. No complaints about the crew, at least. I generally fly United (while they are also aggressively mediocre, they mostly fly direct to the places I need them to, and their pricing is generally good on the routes I take), and I'd honestly rate United higher than Virgin Atlantic, which surprised me. Maybe my single experience was a fluke, but it was a really bad first impression. And I say this as someone who absolutely adored Virgin America back when it existed. Bizarre that the two could be so different.

Klonoar 11mo ago

> and their credit card was offered multiple times during the flight The largest of the airlines in America make more profit from this than the airline aspect itself. There is far more that could be said on this but, ironically, I am on a flight and about to land.

bklyn11201 11mo ago
Europe will financialize everything just slower and with more regulation. Branded credit cards are coming. See Brussels Airlines and Mastercard A well optimized domestic USA airline makes money from credit cards, points, trip insurance, upsells, and segments the consumer into a dozen bins based on what they’re willing to spend for a couple more inches of leg room.
- N19PEDL2 11mo ago
  > Branded credit cards are coming. See Brussels Airlines and Mastercard As well as ITA and American Express, at least everywhere in Milan airport.
- alibarber 11mo ago
  Not sure about your bit of Europe but I’ve had branded credit cards from European airlines here in Europe for a long time. They’re definitely past ‘coming’. Not as lucrative for me the holder as you’d get it the US, but I can’t really imagine being without one.
  - mandevil 11mo ago
    As I recall, that's because it's basically impossible to have a US rewards card in Europe. European authorities tightly cap interchange fees (the fees that come out of the merchant's end of the deal). US issuers are much less regulated. In the US there are cheap cards that offer no perks and take a small (0.2-1%) cut from the merchant, and the perks cards that have lots of perks and take a bigger (3.5%) cut from the merchant. The CC companies, naturally, want more people to use perks cards so they get more of a cut, so to encourage consumers to use these cards they give some of it back to the users in the form of these rewards. This model recently came under attack when a whole bunch of merchants brought an anti-trust lawsuit against Visa and MC for their requirement that if you wanted to accept the cheap cards you had to accept the expensive cards as well, merchants want to be able to accept the cheap cards and reject the higher tier cards. The negotiations about that settlement continue, so we'll have to see how it all shakes out, but it could result in a major limiting of American reward cards. Or maybe not, always in motion the future is. The EU parliament passed a law capping interchange fees at 0.3% (for local personal cards, business has some other limit that I don't remember) so there is just no money to offer rewards to customers of European banks. Much better for merchants, lower prices overall mean probably better for poorer folks, worse deal for wealthy people with good credit who pay attention and pay their bills in full every month. Speaking as an American one of those people who benefit from rewards cards, I think that it is better for society to go with the European choices than the American.

mschuster91 11mo ago

> and their credit card was offered multiple times during the flight American airlines actually lose money on passenger flights - the cash cows are loyalty programs and freight transport [1]. [1] https://www.investopedia.com/the-four-biggest-us-airlines-all-lost-money-flying-passengers-last-year-8781856 https://www.investopedia.com/the-four-biggest-us-airlines-al...

thedogeye 11mo ago

[flagged]

aosaigh 11mo ago
How edgy. Spoiler: we’re not too interested in appealing to America any more over here.
vablings 11mo ago
Instead of complaining about legislators protecting your rights. Why don't you pressure sites to stop harvesting so much of your data?
acdha 11mo ago
I see businesses are getting you to blame the law rather than their activities which the law requires them to disclose. Personally, I’d expect to be paid before acting as a lobbyist.

jen20 11mo ago

> On e.g. a Lufthansa longhaul flight, which are priced similarly and cover the same route I flew (fra-ord), it would be unthinkable. I fly both airlines regularly, United is _vastly_ better from a hard product perspective, a soft product perspective, and _especially_ a service recovery standpoint. The credit card thing is easily ignored, but you used to heard it often on European flights too before branded credit cards got wiped out there. I've never heard an announcement about adult content, and have taken over 90 United flights this year.

ErroneousBosh 11mo ago

> except maybe on Ryanair or other extremely low-cost carriers. I fly on Lauda most often, who are operated by Ryanair. You show up, you get on, you sit down, a couple of hours you get off again. A trolley comes round with drinks and snacks, but it's a short journey even with a small child. Can't you just stick an orange and a bottle of water in your bag? It's what the Austrians do. The first time I flew over with my small son he was three, and having been up since 5am was getting a little fractious and fidgety, so I explained he was probably a bit tired and bored and maybe he'd like to eat something and have a sleep, and I'd wake him up once we were back over land. A bit later on someone further up the plane started remonstrating with the cabin crew that they didn't have the sandwich she wanted on the trolley, eventually shouting "IF IT'S ON THE MENU YOU GAVE ME I SHOULD BE ABLE TO HAVE THE DAMN SANDWICH!" Well that shut everyone up. And in the ringing silence that followed, a little voice, with the punch and clarity that only 3-year-olds have, that Brian Blessed or Meat Loaf would have given any limb you care to mention for, piped up: "DADDY, DOES THAT LADY NEED A SNACK AND A WEE NAP TOO?"

kelnos 11mo ago

The credit card thing doesn't surprise me. I expect United makes a ton of revenue from the card. With how credit card transaction fees are capped in Europe, I doubt it's worth it for European airlines to bother pushing their branded card much, if they even have one in the first place. I was on a Virgin Atlantic flight last week, and while there weren't ads before the safety video, there were three ads before every movie I tried to watch... and it was the same three ads each time. I flew Turkish in October, and was annoyed to find the movies and TV shows heavily censored, including blanking out or dubbing over minor swear words. It was also wild to see the Qur'an in the entertainment system's reading library. (No judgement there, just notable as I've never seen the Christian Bible present on other airlines.) I think you're just falling victim to the usual thing where what you're used to feels normal, and everything else seems weird. I've definitely experienced the same as an American, when flying on European, Latin American, and Asian airlines.