United Airlines Reviews in Chicago, IL Area

Pros

Good benefits
Pay is below average

Cons

Financially tough industry and increasing cost of fuel makes it hard to be profitable.

Advice to Senior Management

search for new ways to improve customer experience and achieve profitability.

UAL is a great company in a difficult industry, however new and innovative ways of serving customers will help.

Pros

Great travel benefits and competitive salary in the middle to higher tiers. Your experience and upward mobility at the company is very much driven by your direct manager.

Cons

Vacation policy doesn't allow for much travel definitely a drawback. It'd be easy to get buried in the bureaucracy if you don't assert yourself.

Advice to Senior Management

Itd be nice if there was less of a rift between front line and management employees. I feel like there is a good camaraderie within departments but outside communication is close to non existent.

Pros

Great benefits. Flexible spending, health benefits, 401K and travel benefits

Cons

Ineffective communication between senior management and middle to lower management and salaried employees. An overall distrust of information when it is communicated.

Pros

The travel benefits place an airline job in a different class of work place benefits. It is difficult to place a value on what the travel benefits are worth.

Cons

The Headquarters is overstaffed, especially after the merger. There are many airline "lifers" in mid-upper management who function as "yes men, or yes women" because they are not brave enough to push the limits. There is no innovation going on at United.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire mid-upper management from outside of the company and outside of the industry. New blood and thinking are needed to make lasting change at this company.

Pros

Top notch technology and resources
Excellent pay and benefits including travel
Good advancement opportunities
Intelligent workforce and fairly laid back work environment

Cons

No real work/life balance even though the technology is available for work from home etc.
Very competitive and promotions are therefore more difficult
Seems to be more turnover lately

Advice to Senior Management

Be more open to change and focus on work/life balance which will help with employee retention.

Pros

The travel and health benefits are very generous.

Cons

The job has changed in many ways since September 11th.

Advice to Senior Management

More respect for our hard work as the front lines of customer service.

Pros

Free or reduced rate travel (if you are able to get on a flight) and good medical benefits.

Cons

There's a horrible corporate culture which promotes excessive executive compensation while doing everything they can to cut labor costs at the expense of the employee.

Advice to Senior Management

If you want to deliver the type of customer service you are promising to your customers, you need to fairly compensate the people who will be delivering it.

Pros

If you are looking for very fast paced, challenging work that requires intense focus but with a great payoff ( in terms of seeing your work in action out in the system), come here. We have a lot of fun among very smart people. You will never be bored. It's an exciting industry with so many facets to engage in. We never stop learning.

Cons

If you prefer a safe, steady and calm work environment, no airline is for you. This is not a co or an industry for the risk averse. When times get rough, you can only lean on you performance (which we pay great attention to). It is a high performance environment.

Advice to Senior Management

The siloed decision making still has opportunities to improve.

Pros

Working at United Airlines is challenging, though rewarding. It is also nice to have free standby travel all over the world.

Cons

The airline industry in recent years has always been flirting with insolvency. When fuel prices spike (as they often do), the work load can increase significantly.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep doing what you are doing. United Airlines turned a profit last year and things are looking promising this year.

Pros

Good benefits, challenging work, exciting industry, dynamic company, some great people, located in the Loop (vs. Elk Grove Village or Houston)

Cons

Management team post-merger is not yet aligned creating groups working against each other, culture clash continues between United and Continental employees creating a lot of bureaucracy.

Advice to Senior Management

Align on common goals and communicate well with employees - this is not getting done. Continue to value employees and alignment of employee groups. This is a challenge, but United can truly be a great company.