Tag Archives for united airlines.
A United Airlines pilot, hired in April 2022, was terminated after less than two months at the carrier “because he struggle[s] to discern different colors while flying at night.” The pilot is suing.
Combined with a broad sense of bank fragility in the face of rising interest rates, alongside a concern that we’re late in the economic cycle and potentially headed into recession, United’s announcement worried some observers that it was a sign that consumer spending was tightening alongside shrinking household balance sheets.
But what changed at United? They cite some booking softness earlier in the year. And they made a decision to accrue costs related to a new pilot contract into the first quarter for their projections. Isn’t that… a little weird?
Before the pandemic United reduced the number of flight attendants working in business class, and started pre-plating their food. But here’s, finally, an explanation for why the food is actually bad.
On Sunday a passenger on board United Airlines flight 2609 from Los Angeles to Boston partially disarmed the emergency exit door, attempting to open it, and then tried to stab a cabin crewmember in the neck.
According to schedule data from Cirium Diio Mi, American Airlines is the largest U.S. (and world) airline by flights and seats flown, but United Airlines is the largest in March schedules by seat miles flown. United flies big planes farther.
United Airlines MileagePlus is somewhat less lucrative for the airline than American’s and Delta’s frequent flyer programs. You can get some insight into the economics of their loyalty program from their latest SEC 10-K filing as well as disclosures made around raising debt backed by the revenue from its mileage offering.
United Airlines has added language to its Contract of Carriage to say that they will not honor mistake fares, but that if you book one and incur non-refundable costs as a result they will reimburse those costs.
The airline also now says that booking flights likely to be delayed, and then complaining about the delays for compensation, is grounds to be banned from the MileagePlus frequent flyer program.
United’s seat map tool seeks out available adjacent seats during the booking process. They’ll use this to make more adjacent seats available, even in more costly coach seats, when children under 12 are part of a booking. A full rollout of the capability will happen by next month.
The airline will also allow free flight change without fare difference when adjacent seats aren’t available prior to travel. Their new policy applies even on basic economy fares.
Ultimately the flight attendant call button is for… calling the attention of a flight attendant. That means, if you need a drink, ask. But understand that they may make you wait, and if you’re on Spirit they may make you pay. They may also make you wait out of spite, because you pressed the call button.
United Airlines flight attendants, represented by the AFA-CWA union, have been working on a contract over the past year and a half and report very little progress. Direct negotiations began in January 2022, yet there’s been resolution on just one section out of 34 in their contract – dealing with flight attendants taken hostage.
Here’s what they’re demanding, and why negotiations are stuck.
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 »
