Tag Archives for united airlines.
Passengers on a United flight from Newark to Austin watched maintenance lean out of the cockpit window with what looked like a coat hanger to prod a sensor on the nose of a Boeing 737. The optics for an onlooking passenger aren’t great. United did not send out that aircraft.
United mechanics say their own union let United turn a contract wage-reset formula into a black box, leaving employees short of raises that were supposed to keep them ahead of peers at American and Delta. A judge just threw out most of the case, but the ruling still leaves mechanics one narrow path to challenge the pay process through a grievance on their own.
United flight attendants are finally getting a raise after more than five years without one, and this tentative deal will likely pass after last summer’s overwhelming rejection. But the new agreement also shows the cost of delay: compared to the deal they turned down, each crewmember is effectively giving up thousands in retro pay and lost boarding pay gains while just getting back to industry-standard wages overall.
United’s new tentative agreement really does deliver what the union is selling on the headline items: roughly 30% higher base pay, 50% boarding pay, a richer 401(k) match, and meaningfully better hotel language. But after reading all 425 pages, the fuller story is that the gains come with real tradeoffs too — profit sharing still trails Delta and American, the retro pay is not truly full retro, and the union gave up the restriction that had blocked United from owning a regional airline without using mainline flight attendants.
United has finally done what it spent the past year signaling: the cheapest Polaris and premium economy fares now come with coach-style restrictions, including paid seat selection, no changes, and — in basic business — no Polaris lounge access. This is being sold as new “fare families,” but the real story is simpler: United is making its cheapest premium tickets worse, not meaningfully cheaper.
United is raising checked bag fees to $50 for new tickets, another $10 increase that follows JetBlue’s latest move and will likely be copied across the industry. What makes this worse than a normal fare hike is that bag fees are largely exempt from the 7.5% federal excise tax on domestic tickets, so airlines have every incentive to move more of the price into fees instead of fares.
Senior United flight attendants are on track to earn more than $100 an hour under the union’s newly endorsed contract — and the pay rates leaked online before most crew have even seen the full agreement. The union’s leadership voted unanimously to send the deal to members, but the biggest remaining question is what United got in return for the richer wages, boarding pay, retroactive pay, and better layover hotel protections.
Delta built the strongest airline in America by being better than everyone else at the basics and then layering on a premium halo.
That halo still matters, but it is starting to outrun the product underneath it. United is improving faster, Delta’s operational edge is not what it was, and the airline that spent 20 years building the title now looks increasingly vulnerable to losing it.
United Airlines is planning two of the worlds largest airport lounges in Houston and Washington Dulles while also laying groundwork for a return to New York JFK. An internal presentation makes clear these projects are not just about nicer terminals — they are part of a broader strategy to turn hub spending into faster growth, stronger loyalty, and higher profits.
United says its network is now bigger than Pan Am ever was, a claim designed to sound like a sweeping victory lap. The catch is what the airline is actually measuring. Depending on how you define network, cities, and connectivity, the boast can be made technically true — while still leaving a much less dramatic picture than the one United wants passengers to hear.
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 »
