Source: AFA/UAL
Date Updated: August 23, 2006

We are pleased to report to you that effective immediately, all United Airlines Flight Attendants are eligible for Free AOL accounts. That's right, you heard that correctly: FREE.

This means that if you are paying $9.99 to $24.90 a month for AOL access to Unimatic and Apollo, you will now receive this service for free if you are a broadband user or if you have another non-AOL dial-up internet service provider.

While this is very exciting news in that many Flight Attendants can now make the switch over to the free AOL accounts, please also remember the following: if you do begin using the free AOL account, you will no longer be able to use AOL Crew technical telephone support. In other words, if there is a connection problem or any other technical reason you are unable to access the Unimatic terminal window with your chosen broadband or other dial-up provider, you will not be able to utilize any AOL technical assistance.

Call Member Services at 1-800-984-6207 and select the Billing Option when prompted. AOL will assist you in changing the account.

Important Points to Consider

There is confusion amongst flight attendants regarding the free AOL Unimatic accounts. It pertains to F/As who have never had any prior AOL Unimatic account whatsoever but want to now sign up to access home Unimatic for the first time using the free plan.

How to switch to the free AOL account
(from your existing paid account)

1. Phone 1-800-984-6207. This will place you in an automated voice recognition system. Keep pressing the # key on your phone over and over again every few seconds or so until you hear the message, "Tell you what, let's find out why you are calling..." It will then give you some options. Choose Option 4.
2. You will be transferred to an operator in India where you can brush up on your Hindi language skills. Tell them that you want to "switch your current AOL account (that you are paying a monthly fee for) over to the new free AOL plan."  REMEMBER: YOU MUST ALREADY HAVE AN AOL UNIMATIC ACCOUNT IN ORDER TO DO THIS!
3. You will need to provide them with the last four digits of the credit card currently being billed, as well as your billing address. They will also ask you for a current address. I recommend giving them this if it's different, as they will send the confirmation letter of the account change to this address.
4. They will then make the switch for you. The change is immediate.
5. They will then ask you if you want some other 'add-on's'. This is the marketing portion of the call. Tell them you are late for a plane and that your taxi is honking their horn downstairs and you gotta run.
6. They will lastly inform you that you just won a free CD-ROM from the Video Professor on how to operate a computer. No, I'm not kidding!  I ordered mine.
7. You're all done. You can then access Unimatic/Apollo via any of the methods below:
   • The 'Access Unimatic' link on this web site.
   • The Unimatic Help Center on the MEC web site.
   • Via www.gounimatic.com (this is my unofficial link, but I have no plans to change it) Just think 'Go Unimatic!'
   • Via http://airline.compuserve.com/ual/launch_mb2.asp

   • Via other 3rd party F/A web sites.

Other Important Points

1. You will receive no more technical support. If you are unable to connect to Unimatic because of any technical problem, you will be unable to contact AOL crew support. For some users, this may be worth keeping the paid AOL account. Seriously! Update: If a flight attendant want to use technical telephone support and customer service, they have another payment plan that they can choose with AOL that is $4.95 per month. You must agree to a contract for one year. The number for this is 800-605-4297.
2. You will need an alternate way to connect to the internet. Remember, you can't use the AOL software to dial out on your computer. You will need to connect via an alternate dial-up provider or broadband (high speed) connection.
3. Bid Packages. Since many flight attendants are accustomed to obtaining their bids via the AOL Crew Channel, after they switch to the free AOL plan, they will need to either get them from SkyNet or visit the following external link to download the bids from the AOL Crew Channel: http://airline.compuserve.com/ual/attendant.asp

Bottom Line

If you are familiar with dial-up/broadband and comfortable without computer tech support for connecting to Unimatic, then the free AOL plan switch is the way to go. If, however, you've never surfed the web outside your AOL software, have never heard of Internet Explorer (it's the little blue 'e' thingy on your desktop), and need the AOL Video Professor CD-ROM offer, then you may want to stay with the paid plan.

More Information from AOL >

(We'll update this page with more information as it becomes known, you know, the usual drill...)