United, like many airlines, has long had special programs for high revenue customers. Their primary offering is Global Services. It was a relaunch of the airline’s old VIP program.
The status is invitation only, except that United 4 million milers are granted lifetime Global Services status. In general flying over 100,000 miles and spending at least 30 cents per mile on United tickets is required. The benefits you receive as a Global Services member are impressive.
It turns out American Airlines isn’t aware of any bar fights in their lounges. However they’ve instructed clubs not to show national news on their televisions unless requested by a member.
Often the best inflight meals are soups. That’s something tough to mess up in a galley. They can be heavily seasoned to counteract the taste bud-dulling affects of cabin pressurization, and they just need to be heated.
Soups work well in club lounges as well. You don’t have to rely on actual skills from Sodexho or other outsourced employees to prepare a good dish, and they sit well too.
Apple is by far United’s biggest corporate account. They spend $150 million with the airline. Focusing on California-specific accounts the biggest are Facebook, Roche, and Google which spend ‘over $34 million’ and then Deloitte, McKinsey, PwC, Cisco, Oracle and Applied Materials in the $12 million to $17 million range.
Apple’s spending on San Francisco – Shanghai though is shocking, even accounting for all of the manufacturing done in China — one quarter of total company spend, 50 business class seats a day. That’s presumably 25 business seats in each direction.
With nationwide sickouts approaching Miami levels, TSA is making a partial payroll payment and bonusing employees despite the government shutdown that would appear to the legality of doing so questionable.
Unscheduled sick leave hit 5.6% on Friday compared to a 3.3 percent who had unscheduled absences on Jan. 13, 2018.”
Over the last couple of years American Airlines has been aggressively adding seat power and satellite internet to their fleet. They’ve made a strategic decision not to offer seat back video on demand the way that Delta does. Since customers need to use their own devices for entertainment, they need to power those devices.
And with the mainline fleet well underway for these modifications, the airline is now in the process of add seat power to two-cabin regional jets — Embraer ERJ-175s, Bombardier CR7s and CR9s.
News and notes from around the interweb: Looks like all your can jet private flight app company JetSmarter is imploding. In the beginning they offered amazing deals (and burned tremendous cash). I only ever used them when they gave free trial memberships to customers with elite status and big mileage balances. The LAX Tom Bradley Terminal finally has PreCheck Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, on flying coach: When speaking to the Royal Aircraft Association back in 2002, Prince Philip commented on the British royal family’s air travel conditions. “If you travel as much as we do, you appreciate the improvements in aircraft design of less noise and more comfort,” he said, “provided you don’t travel in something called economy class, which sounds ghastly.” Pan Am 103: Robert Mueller’s 30 year search for justice bet you…
I always prefer an aisle seat but the person in the window gets to decide whether the shade is up or down. And more often than not shades should be closed.
Window shades as well as cabin lighting get adjusted for takeoff and landing for safety, to improve reaction time of both passengers and crew. And when you land in a hot city you’ll often be asked to close the window shades before getting off the aircraft, to keep the plane cool for the next flight. But what about when you’re in the air, mid-trip?
Air Zimbabwe is shutting down for several days because they have no aircraft suitable to operate.
On December 30 their Boeing 737-200 went out of service. It reportedly needs 45 days of maintenance, though may not return to the fleet. Their only other aircraft, a Boeing 767-200, needs maintenance that’s expected to take several days.
The cockpit isn’t a place where you want distractions. It’s also not a place where you want anything other than flying to be a priority.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
