Tag Archives for united airlines.
United’s top public elite tier is 1K, or 1000 which is short for 100,000. However it no longer takes 100,000 miles to earn this status. In fact United MileagePlus no longer has anything to do with miles at all. You no longer earn redeemable points based on miles flown, and status is no longer earned based on distance either. Instead 1K status is either earned based on number of flights (not 100!) and spending, or on spending alone. It’s time to rename 1K status.
Starting March 29 United will run 13 daily flights between the two cities. Ten of those flights will be using the airline’s new premium-heavy regional jet they’ve dubbed the ‘CRJ-550’ and 3 flights will be on larger Embraer 175s.
United can offer more flights – frequency is attractive to business travelers – offering fewer seats per flight on average. And they’re offering a product on 10 of the flights where they’re putting just 50 seats on the plane that’s designed for 40% more than that. Plenty of space per passenger is attractive, too.
United Airlines will remove bag sizers from boarding gates by January 23. They say they will be more aggressive at check-in and that sizers will remain at security checkpoints, but that at the gate agents are supposed to ‘use their judgment’.
United has been inviting its business class customers to contract lounges in about 30 cities, and they’ve extended this option to Star Alliance members are well even though they aren’t required to.
Now United has mostly eliminated the practice. Except at two airports United no longer invites Star Alliance Gold members (who aren’t flying business class) to use contract lounges. This move (naturally) follows one made a few years ago by Delta.
This is solid advice – not just for flight attendants – and was even prior to the latest tensions.
An internal United Airlines memo details that the carrier will no longer automatically send out vouchers to passengers on flights that are delayed less than 6 hours.
United Airlines MileagePlus no longer has anything to do with miles at all. You no longer earn points based on distance flown. You no longer earn status based on distance flown. Award costs aren’t based on distance either.
With elite status now based on money spent they’ve put an end to “miles” completely. They’ve been trying to do this for over 30 years.
There’s a new United Airlines status match program. Elite frequent flyers are valuable customers – to the airline they’re loyal, and also potentially to other airlines who might poach their business. The same holds for elites in hotel loyalty programs.
Status makes it difficult to switch, you’re better treated by an airline or hotel chain and it’s tough to start somewhere else from scratch. That’s why many loyalty programs offer to match your current status in order to win your business.
Airlines are tightening their belts, trying to cut what it costs them to give out denied boarding compensation to passengers when they overbook a flight. Both United and American have copied Delta in soliciting ‘bids’ from customers for what compensation they’d accept, hoping to avoid bidding wars at the gate.
In the wake of United’s April 2017 passenger dragging incident – where David Dao was told to give up his seat for two crewmembers and refused, winding up bloodied by airport – there was a huge public backlash against bumping passengers off of overbooked flights. And airlines started paying out far more compensation to avoid involuntarily denying boarding to passengers.
They want your money, more money than ever before, but can’t even make the investment to be ready for their own new system in time.
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 »
