Tag Archives for united airlines.
United has been paying a guy to hold up a sign at its hubs, thanking passengers. But labor is tough to come by these days, and it looks like they’ve figured out how to to leverage underutilized space to get their messages across to customers:
United Airlines, which claims its de-escalation procedures have led to a 50% reduction in passenger incidents, has sent a memo to flight attendants reminding them that they are never to duct tape passengers to their seats.
Rachelle Hunt of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra tried to bring her violin onto United Airlines flight UA4349 operated by CommutAir from Knoxville to Washington Dulles. However a flight attendant on the ERJ-145 aircraft declared this wasn’t permitted.
The flight attendant declared the passenger kept “on saying federal law” but at United “we don’t go with the federal law.”
United has two new ways to earn elite status for next year. One lets existing elites keep their status for modest spending, while the other gives those who don’t currently have status or have already re-qualified a boost in reaching a higher elite tier.
It’s not quite ‘giving up’ on 2021, but it does make earning status much easier, and still requires more spending than other airlines.
United Airlines will require all of its employees to be vaccinated. This requirement will be effective the sooner of 5 weeks after FDA full approval of a Covid-19 vaccine, or 5 weeks after September 20.
Back in the fall of 2003 United had a guy named Ted going around Denver picking up lunch tabs for entire restaurants. You see, Ted was their new low cost carrier ‘within the airline’ that United was launching. Ted was your friend. He was fun. That’s not how Ted turned out, in fact Ted – which shared the last 3 letters of United – was often described as being “the end of United.” And United retired Ted on January 6, 2009. Around the time that United was paying someone to pick up lunch, US Airways decided it needed to respond and so a guy named “Seth” picked up a few lunch tabs in Crystal City near the carrier’s Arlington, Virginia headquarters. Although by that time US Airways’ low cost carrier within a carrier MetroJet was…
United Airlines now offers pre-order meals, snacks, and drinks in coach starting five days prior to departure. So far this is only available on some flights out of Chicago to 4 markets but will “expand to all flights over 1,500 miles by early fall.”
The flight from San Francisco to Orlando was supposed to leave at 2 p.m. but the flight was “held on the tarmac after several passengers reported receiving inappropriate photos” according to a passenger.
A read out from an employee meeting at United details the headaches the airline is going to face at Newark over the next few months, and what that means from passengers. They’ve also detailed how they’re using the crisis to get the government to limit competition from other airlines in the Newark market.
Business travel seems to be coming back, with airlines generally reporting that it’s returned to about 40% of 2019 levels, heading towards 60% in the current quarter, with two primary drivers that will lead to its further return.
United Airlines reports that while frequent flyers still make up a reduced percentage of travelers overall – they are “7 to 8 points below normal” for even MileagePlus members on a given flight – three quarters of elite members have either flown or booked travel this year. They believe those elites who haven’t are primarily people who fly to international markets that have been closed. United also claims that 84% of MileagePlus members are vaccinated.
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 »
