Tag Archives for united airlines.
Airlines face a challenge around the holidays. Do they insist on a standard image for their frontline employees, or do they allow some festive creativity? And if employees can deviate from standard dress, what guidelines should be applied?
United Airlines appears to be taking a conservative stance this holiday season, cracking down on flight attendant holiday dress.
The Hill has named the Top Lobbyists of 2019 who “stand out for delivering results for their clients in the halls of Congress and the administration.”
This list includes all 3 major legacy airlines (but no smaller airlines) and the major airline industry lobby shop’s represenatives, too.
United’s Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 fleet – the latter which flies United’s longest flights to places like Sydney, Singapore, and Capetown – have still had the old Diamond 2-2-2 seats that most passengers with a choice avoid.
We finally have a look into United’s retrofit plans for these aircraft, and it isn’t pretty.
The Kansas City Chiefs clinched the AFC West last night and stopped the New England Patriots’ home winning streak at 21 games. But the real drama was lost luggage leading up to the game.
The Kansas City Chiefs took a United Airlines-chartered aircraft to play the New England Patriots. When they arrived some of their equipment was left on board. The plane then went to Newark, and the equipment didn’t reach them until two hours prior to kickoff.
Kirby definitely gets in the weeds, including in the management of frequent flyer programs, and he’s known to overrule the executives below him. It may be that the sense is he doesn’t listen to investors (which is good, the growth plan that’s benefited United was unpopular with investors) but my sense is that he’s less likely to listen to his own teams.
I’ve been a frequent critic of American Airlines, and that’s largely because I believe no U.S. airline has greater potential to be better than it is today than American. I’m also frustrated with many things about its loyalty program, AAdvantage, but when I sit down to compare AAdvantage to the programs offered by United and by Delta it actually comes out ahead. Here’s why.
Oscar Munoz is leaving United as CEO and Scott Kirby will take on that job May 20, 2020. Munoz will become Executive Chairman for one year. United’s current chair, former FAA administrator Jane Garvey, will retire from the board at that point. This mirrors predictions I have offered here for some time.
Though there’s been some growth – and will need to be more as Kirby steps into the CEO role – Kirby’s history is one that suggests management from the spreadsheets. He’s taken things too far in the past, such as elimination of elite bonus miles and a plan to charge for water on board at US Airways, moves where he’s had to reverse course. It remains to be seen whether he can moderate those tendencies as he formally takes the reins at United.
Airbus now is poised for a big win because United is poised to order 50 Airbus A321XLR long range narrowbodies. Since the order is being reported at $7.1 billion we can assume it’s roughly half that. Deliveries would be slated to begin in 2024.
United’s new PointsPlus upgrade program – which replaces regional and global confirmed upgrade certificates – is scheduled to launch on Wednesday.
Overnight on Tuesday nights the ability to confirm upgrades with existing regional and global certificates will be frozen in preparation for this launch. Then upgrades should re-open on Wednesday with a bank of points replacing existing upgrade certificates, and the ability to use those points in a more granular manner.
On Saturday 16 year old Taylor Richardson reports that she flew United flight UA2369 from Denver to Jacksonville, Florida. She’s black, and says the white man assigned to sit beside her refused to sit next to her because of her race. He flagged down a United flight attendant, who then apparently changed his seat.
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 »
