Tag Archives for united airlines.
United will stop offering change flexibility to passengers booked on the Boeing 737 MAX on April 7 less than two months after the carrier returned the plane to service.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby shared that in 1998 he was a Vice President at America West and a single conversation changed his view about change fees, and he’s wanted to eliminate them ever since. It took until August 2020 to do it and then American, Delta, Alaska and JetBlue all followed.
The interesting part of the story isn’t the golf game that game him the epiphany, it’s why it took 22 years for this change to happen.
At most U.S. airlines if a flight attendant provides great service it’s because of their own inner drive. It’s not because of any training program or incentives that the company has set up.
One of the most frustrating thing I hear from cabin crew all the time is about the small percentage of their colleagues who are slackers, who perform poorly and do as little work as possible (increasing the workload for everyone else). This is frustrating because there’s usually very little consequence. And seeing poor performers do just as well as those who provide exemplary service is demoralizing.
United Airlines flight UA728 from Newark to Miami diverted to Charleston, South Carolina Wednesday morning after a passenger bit his seatmate’s ear off, according to a police report of the incident.
On a United Airlines flight to Houston on Saturday, rapper DJ Drama filmed a passenger being removed from the aircraft – and was then removed himself.
The aptly-named Drama, née Tyree Simmons, posted video of the removal to Instagram – and also video of the aftermath, where he’s being ejected from first class. The ostensible reason is a mask violation but he appeared to have been asked to wear a mask once, complied, and remained respectful throughout. So the real reason for his ejection is .. subject to speculation.
A woman on board a United Airlines flight to Las Vegas became philosophical about language, claiming she is “wearing a mask” albeit not using it to actually cover her mouth. Other passengers disputed her take on what it means to wear a mask.
With Chinese airlines off the table for MAX aircraft acquisitions, and Boeing struggling more generally, United clearly got much more favorable pricing than the standard 50% off of list to do this deal, and to do it now during the pandemic. United hasn’t aggressively retired aircraft types during the pandemic, either – so while they’ve been due for a fleet refresh timing on their end is somewhat more flexible than it otherwise would be as well.
United Airlines will pay a $49 million fine to the federal government to resolve criminal fraud charges for falsifying records that allowed it to collect payments for transporting U.S. mail on time, when in fact it failed to do so.
United “falsified parcel delivery information…[b]etween 2012 and 2015..by submitting false delivery scan data to make it appear that United and partner airlines with which it worked were complying with the [on time mail delivery] requirements, when in fact they were not.”
Up through 2014 most United Airlines flights to Hawaii featured the “Halfway to Hawaii game” where you could win a bottle of champagne. Passengers would be invited to guess the exact time they’d be halfway across the ocean to Hawaii. Some would just take a close enough guess by listening to the pilot’s announced flight time, cutting it in half, and adding that to the departure time. Others took it as a more complex math problem.
The game is back – and starting March 3 there’s a new prize.
United Airlines flight UA328 from Denver to Honolulu had just taken off when the Boeing 777’s right hand engine inlet separated.
Parts from the engine fell down in a neighborhood around 17 miles west of Denver around Broomfield, Colorado. There were reports of a bang and smoke.
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 »
