Tag Archives for united airlines.
A United Airlines passenger sitting in first class – he and his family were all upgraded – snapped a photo of a woman in the cabin texting racial epithets about him. (He and his family are black.)
The flight was rom Charleston, South Carolina to Denver. Boarding was delayed, and he says the woman was rude to him from the start. She winds up as the passenger in front of them in the first class cabin.
United Airlines was overbooked by 14 passengers on a flight to Las Vegas. They hadn’t even sold more tickets than seats.
Word broke yesterday that United Airlines was putting bigger regional jets – Embraer 175s – on its Aspen routes. This was surprising since the airport doesn’t support these planes, and has blocked attempts to require that they make very modest changes in order to do so. How did United make this happen?
Delta and United have suspended service to Tel Aviv, in anticipation of an escalation in hostilities between Israel and Iran, Hezbollah, and other Iranian-backed groups after Israel struck Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh while at his home in Tehran.
It was something so bad that “with this kind of being a biohazard, I think we need to get this plane on the ground ASAP” according to a doctor on board. “The crew is vomiting and passengers all around are asking for masks…I talked to the crew and it sounds like it’s quite bad back there.”
United’s seasonal second flight between San Francisco and Sydney will only operate for two months, and only three days a week instead of daily. They’ll use a smaller plane for San Francisco to Melbourne, and there will be fewer LA – Melbourne flights leading into peak season. Houston to Sydney will also see fewer frequencies as well.
Delta absolutely melted down, and while employees and customers were dealing with the aftermath their CEO took off for Paris.
United’s CEO appears to have gone on vacation, too. Scott Kirby told employees and customers that he and his family were traveling through the worst of the cancellations this past Saturday.
Employees are furious about this new policy. While the union says it’s filing a grievance, individual flight attendants have been bombarding both federal and state agencies with complaints on their own.
According to a voicemail recording received by a United flight attendant in response to a complaint regarding the new weekend sick policy requiring an absence certificate, the Department of Labor has assigned an investigator and is launching an investigation.
This absence certificate being required by the airline is extensive and invasive, demanding personal health information including a “treatment plan” and “progress of treatment” that is highly unusual to share with any employer – let alone for merely taking a sick day that an employee is contractually entitled to when sick.
Starting today, and until further notice, United Airlines requires a doctor’s note from any flight attendant calling in sick from duty on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. They note that sick calls have increased over summer weekends by as much as 23% and they believe cabin crew are misusing their sick time.
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 »
