Tag Archives for united airlines.
United Airlines is surveying changes to their United Club – from higher costs for memberships and for their premium co-brand credit card, to limitations on benefits. They are also contemplating changes to give some customers priority getting into the lounge, getting help with their bookings, and finding seats. Much of this is inspired by Delta Air Lines and their Sky Clubs.
Bally Sports reporter Michaela Bennett is mad at United over a checked bag that she got back at baggage claim, with her jewelry missing. It’s her second United trip in a row where things have gone south.
United is really good about providing on board and in-airport milestone recognition. They’re trying to be better about saying thanks on board as well, even if it’s just words of encouragement for staff making that happen.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby laid out the competitive landscape of the airline industry for his employees. United is doing well, Kirby is overly optimistic. He offers important insights but the path is far more fraught for the airline than he lets on.
A passenger on board United’s flight 939 from London Heathrow to San Francisco made “sure to touch everything with her bare feet” on Monday, according to a reader. Dan P shared photos of his seat opponent – propping her feet up on the seat’s television, standing up on seat cushion, and nestling in comfortably foot-to-seat – all sans socks.
About six months ago United put a new status match system in place. It automates the process of considering credentials that a member is asking to match against. It looks at the status you already have and decides whether it looks valid and regularly approves status matches instantly.
However it appears that this new system doesn’t actually check whether what you’ve submitted as proof of status from another airline is… real.
Sunday morning’s United flight 1116 from Washington Dulles to San Francisco cancelled… after passengers waited around for about 17 hours.
Several issues compounded here – from weather delaying the inbound aircraft, mechanical problems and an aircraft swap, to crew timing out and exceeding their maximum duty hours. Passengers made it onto the Boeing 787 twice and even pushed back from the gate. That’s a miserable travel day that, paradoxically, highlights something that United does really well: communicates with customers throughout.
Delta’s outsourced Sky magazine laid off all its staff at the start of the pandemic. American, which outsourced American Way starting with US Airways management’s takeover in 2015, followed suit a year later despite The Onion once suggesting that the airline stop flying passengers to focus on its core magazine business.
And now United Airlines has followed suit axing its Hemispheres magazine from seatback pockets.
United has been promoting ‘epic’ deals on award travel this week, with a different mystery destination each day – and sale prices available that day only.
United Airlines offers less value on a basic economy ticket than competitors do. They don’t allow basic economy passengers to bring a regular carry-on bag on, and they haven’t allowed basic economy passengers to check in online, wasting passengers’ time. Fortunately they’re relaxing the online check-in rule but they’re doing it in a strange and troubling way.
Most people don’t realize that basic economy restrictions aren’t the same across airlines and that United Airlines offers much worse value than competitors.
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 »
