Tag Archives for united airlines.
United Airlines shopped the MileagePlus loyalty program around to lenders to raise cash, and they had to present a lot of internal data as part of the process. Now that the transaction is moving forward, they’ve had to make this data public.
Here’s how the $5 billion loan is going to work, and some facts about the program they hadn’t previously revealed.
United operates three different routes between the U.S. and India and all three have wide open business class award space looking out into 2021 – for months at a time.
I decided to show connecting availability also because it’s worth flagging business class award space for four or more people on Swiss through Zurich and Turkish via Istanbul. There’s even Air Canada business class Delhi – Vancouver for four passengers on Tuesdays.
Even if you were forced to accept a travel vouchers you can contact United for an exchange. You were entitled to a refund if your flight was cancelled, or if the airline changed its schedule more than two hours. And United will honor this policy retroactively, even where they had previously reneged.
United is instituting a new requirement for passengers to fly starting Tuesday, June 9. Everyone traveling on United will be required to complete a health screening as part of the check-in process, and confirm that they’re willing to wear a mask.
Under United’s new coronavirus rules I’m unlikely to ever be eligible to fly.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby spoke at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference and spoke confidently about shedding costs and preparing for a rebound in air travel. He offered that bankruptcy isn’t a strategic option, that airlines are foolish to retire fleets too quickly, and that MileagePlus is going to be a great source of cash – whether by selling a ton of miles or borrowing against the program.
Overall (9) claims Kirby made seemed both new, compared to previous statements, and struck me as noteworthy.
Delta’s CFO acknowledges SkyMiles members taking “a little hiatus when people aren’t going to travel,” but that the program still continues to motivate spend because it gives people “something to look forward to [the] prospect of saving up for something.” Then he offers insight into how the Delta portfolio is performing relative to American Express’s other products.
Usually onboard harassment involves a creepy guy and alcohol. This time onboard harassment involved alcohol and a creepy girl. Maybe that only happens, or at least happens most often, when the victim plays in the NFL.
In order to lay off pilots, United’s union contract requires them to remove seats from regional jets. They’re preparing the engineering work now in order to have seats out of planes by October 1.
While they expect to be a smaller airline, and for leisure travel to come back before business travel, they see opportunity to encourage existing co-brand credit card customers to spend more on their cards and are preparing new promotions to encourage that.
According to financial markets, the major U.S. airline most likely to wind up in bankruptcy is American, followed by United.
At this point the big airlines talk about how much cash they have to make it through this year. But that’s not the issue. After $58 billion in subsidies allocated to commercial airlines, airlines will make it through 2020. The question is what happens in 2021.
My dinner parties could use some new recipes featuring “the ingredients, techniques and flavors of” United Polaris on board dining. Don’t tell my wife, she’s a former professional chef. But shouldn’t we all have a ‘seasonal salad’ in our repertoire that is the same every season?
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 »
