I said yesterday that United’s go-forward plan made for interesting reading. But it certainly isn’t worth $1 million a month in consulting fees to McKinsey & Company, and United’s unsecured creditors agree. They’re asking the bankruptcy court to stop the engagement.
Two Fun Websites for Aviation Buffs
Listen to Air Traffic Control from your favorite airport on your PC. Watch Air Traffic Control for six US airports on your PC.
Path forward for United?
United’s January 31 presentation to its creditors committee makes for some (long) interesting reading. It gives a fairly detailed look into where United sees itself and the rest of the industry, and makes its case for: * cutting back mainline flying * growing the regional jet fleet * cutting fees paid to regional partner airlines * starting up a low-cost carrier United believes they are the ultimate Road Warrior airline, but that the Road Warrior segment (high fares, wants First Class) is deteriorating rapidly. United also believes that they are poorly positioned for leisure traffic. A low-cost carrier on leisure routes is their solution. Now, I do see some problems. First, they give away a bit of their myopia when they offer a slide blaming their problems on the Internet. (Customers know price options, spurs…
Stupid Security Awards
Wired reports on a new award to be announced April 3rd — the Stupid Security Awards.
Discounted Airport Parking
From a generous member of Flyertalk comes two sites that offer coupons for airport parking discounts: Long Term Parking Airport Discount Parking
Things to do when you’re stuck on business in a foreign country
Item one: Print this out and distribute in the terminals at CDG or Orly-Paris airports. Item two: Compose your own Alanis Morissette songs
How bad can it get for United?
Outlining the worst-case scenario for United as it struggles with bankruptcy. That is, other than a war with Iraq…
Whoops. The New York
Whoops. The New York Times runs a correction today that really is a big oops for them. Because of an editing error, a front-page article yesterday about diplomatic developments in the Iraq crisis misidentified the Bush administration official who said about the weapons inspectors in Iraq, “At some point it will become obvious that it’s time for them to go.” It was an administration official speaking on condition of anonymity, not Condoleezza Rice, President Bush’s national security adviser. Sorry, but the cat is out of the bag…(Thanks to Slate’s Today’s Papers for the pointer.)
Double or Triple Dip with
Double or Triple Dip with your Online Shopping. I’ve written before about how you can and should earn miles for your online shopping. All it takes is logging into your favorite store through a mileage-earning site (such as the Northwest Worldperks Mall, the United Mileage Plus Mall, Goldpoints, AirMilesMart, etc. etc.). You can check whether your store gives points, and with which program, at Rewards Lookup.com. Here’s a tip that’s been a bit of the buzz over at Flyertalk — The Northwest Worldperks Mall gives points for purchasing gift certificates at GiftCertificates.com. You earn 3 Northwest miles per dollar there. So simply buy a gift certificate for the store you’re about to buy from. The gift cert is e-mailed to you instantly. You’ll get miles for the gift certificate, and then when you shop at…
Two for one awards with
Two for one awards with SAS. SAS Eurobonus members in North America can book special two for one awards from the U.S. to Scandinavia for travel by March 15th. 50,000 points are two coach tickets and 70,000 points are two business class tickets with this promotion. Simply call SAS to book this. (Thanks to MilesLink for the pointer.)
