Tag Archives for united airlines.
At the United Airlines media day executives at the carrier shared what a review of 365 days of ticket purchases on the United website showed about the cheapest days to buy travel and the cheapest days to travel.
United Airlines is launching their new premium regional jet configuration on board what they are calling the Bombardier CRJ-550. United can’t add more regional jets for large numbers of passengers. So they’re putting just 50 seats in a plane that can fit 50% more. This new aircraft makes its first commercial flight this Sunday, October 27th.
There are some positives – and, I think, real negatives – to this new aircraft. And it’s unclear United will even keep it in service if they get the deal they want from pilots in a new contract.
I’m at United’s Media Day in Chicago and the morning session gave me seven key takeaways, from new overhead bins to free baggage delivery to Marriott hotel rooms and a new member-driven charity program in MileagepPlus.
I’m here at United Airlines Media Day in Chicago and United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz said that relying on commitments from Boeing and the FAA that the 737 MAX is “is not going to be enough.”
United admitted during their earnings call that dynamic award redemption is about their own financial bottom line – not customer benefit – and that it doesn’t actually help customers book more awards.
Status does a great job motivating customers who buy coach, or at least fly coach a substantial portion of the time – for instance the road warrior whose company will spring for business class internationally once or twice a year but has a rule of 6 hours or more for premium cabin so domestic trips are mostly out up front.
Status does almost nothing to motivate someone who buys all premium cabin tickets. When elite status spending requirements are so high they’re met primarily by people who buy first class, elite status is meaningless.
Do you remember when people felt so attached to an airline brand that they paid more money to spend extra time flying, just to demonstrate enough loyalty for when they’d fly in the coming year? It’s hard to say there hasn’t been something lost.
While Snopes actually has an entry debunking whether United Airlines has an ‘armed seating and apparel division’ the airline is now coming under fire for doing nothing over a passenger’s t-shirt.
On yesterday’s United flight UA824 from Los Angeles to Boston a passenger was wearing a t-shirt advocating hanging of journalists.
United Airlines has declared that miles no longer matter at all – a strange position for MileagePlus to take. Distance flown no longer matters for earning miles. Redeeming miles is more revenue-based with the elimination of award charts. And now even qualifying for elite status will be based on spending starting next year.
You can earn status by spending more than before and counting up the number of flights you take, or just based on spending alone. Here are 11 takeaways from this historic change.
United will stop counting how far you fly for earning elite status. United will no longer have 25,000 mile, 50,000 mile, 75,000 mile and 100,000 mile status.
Instead – starting in 2020 for customers earning status for the 2021 program year – United will count how many flights you take and how much you spend. And if you want to earn status without taking a lot of flights, just spend 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 »
