Tag Archives for united airlines.
Delta was first out of the gate to extend current member elite status through January 2022.
United clearly had a status extension plan in the can, ready to go, and was just waiting to see if another airline forced their hand – because within hours, on a Sunday afternoon, United’s MileagePlus is also announcing a status extension.
For ‘at least’ the next three weeks United will operate a reduced schedule with only 17 flights from the New York area, including 15 from Newark. Today American Airlines is scheduled to operate more flights from Newark than United.
One hundred and thirty five Holland America cruise ship passengers were turned away by United Airlines on Friday night after cabin crew refused to work a flight to Sydney if they were allowed on board.
I’ve cancelled American AAdvantage award tickets and Delta SkyMiles tickets for travel in the next month and neither program charged their usual mileage redeposit fee. These fee waivers are normally in place for top tier elite frequent flyers, but where a ‘no change fee’ fee waiver applies to travel, the redeposit fee for mileage tickets has been waived as well.
Not so with United, although that finally seems to have changed.
What United says is the reality of the industry. Fewer customers, fewer flights, will be serviced by fewer people. Allocating nearly $60 billion to the U.S. airline industry hasn’t changed that. It’s just delayed it to the fall.
After just yesterday announcing the end of all long haul services, United Airlines on Saturday evening changed their mind and reintroduced several flights through their May schedule. They’ll fly to Europe, to Israel, to Tokyo, Sydney and even into South America.
Customers whose events are cancelling are getting travel credits, often without change fees, from major airlines. While hotels are waiving cancellation penalties and refunding non-refundable bookings, airlines are not.
For a leisure traveler perhaps they’ll use a travel credit for another trip in the future. In most cases they’ve got 12 months from original date of purchase (not date of the trip) to use the credit. For managed business travelers their company may be paying for the booking directly, and is on the hook for trips not taken. But what about unmanaged business travelers who submit receipts for reimbursement after a trip?
United’s April flight schedule is down 60% year-over-year; an 85% decrease for international (and greater than that for transatlantic and transpacific) and a 42% for U.S. and Canada flying.
It’s easier to list the international flights that are actually operating than those that aren’t. Domestically there are a lot of cuts but United emphasizes they’ve only completed stopped flying to one U.S. airport
United Airlines sent out a press release this evening, a copy of a letter to employees under the signatures of outgoing CEO Oscar Munoz and soon-to-be CEO Scott Kirby in which they lay out how bad they expect the novel coronavirus to be for the business – and in the middle of the letter they reveal that it “no longer appears realistic” to “avoid [taking] steps that affect [employee] paycheck[s].”
The airline reports that this weekend they have been in discussion with its unions to reduce “payroll expense.”
This is United’s fourth refunds policy change in just a week. If they change your international flight by 6 hours or more they will give you a credit for the amount of your ticket. If you don’t use the credit within a year then and only then are you eligible for a refund.
As recently as March 6, United offered refunds if they changed your schedule two hours or more.
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 »
