I've flown United in every status, from nobody to the highest level of their frequent flyer plan. The problem isn't their people: it's that their airline has shitty policies.

I switched to Delta, and I'm much happier.

Pretty uniformly the same experience for me with Southwest (pre-pandemic). I'd sometimes prefer to fly Southwest over other airlines even for longer flights. Consistently decent people; surprisingly so, since you'd assume cheaper flights would bring more difficult customers. But maybe I never flew the cheaper routes.

If I had very young children, or needed special accommodations, I might have a different opinion. The SWA preboarding process doesn't seem very generous.

funny because i’ve heard of a very similar anecdote to this one but at southwest airlines.