Tag Archives for united airlines.
United’s Newark – Hong Kong flight diverted to Goose Bay on Saturday for a medical emergency and that’s when things went bad.
The plane went mechanical and passengers had to stay on the aircraft overnight because there were no customs agents available. They were running out of food, and the cabin started getting cold. It was basically the plot of the 1993 film Alive.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Several blogs have reported that United Airlines is currently unable to book award space on Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways. In fact it goes beyond that to include TAP Air Portugal as well.
They are able to book the space sometimes — but when space gets cancelled out by a partner they’ve got a real problem on their hands. It makes sense to stop making these bookings until they can get the problem fixed, recognizing this is a huge inconvenience to members (especially those trying to change close-in travel plans).
United made a splash introducing its new business class product two and a half years ago.
Boeing 787-9s though operate United’s longest haul flights, so it’s appalling they have the airline’s old business class product — the same old seats running San Franciso – Newark fly San Francisco – Singapore. They were delivered with old seats, and to date United had not even announced a plan to ever put new seats in them.
United, like many airlines, has long had special programs for high revenue customers. Their primary offering is Global Services. It was a relaunch of the airline’s old VIP program.
The status is invitation only, except that United 4 million milers are granted lifetime Global Services status. In general flying over 100,000 miles and spending at least 30 cents per mile on United tickets is required. The benefits you receive as a Global Services member are impressive.
Apple is by far United’s biggest corporate account. They spend $150 million with the airline. Focusing on California-specific accounts the biggest are Facebook, Roche, and Google which spend ‘over $34 million’ and then Deloitte, McKinsey, PwC, Cisco, Oracle and Applied Materials in the $12 million to $17 million range.
Apple’s spending on San Francisco – Shanghai though is shocking, even accounting for all of the manufacturing done in China — one quarter of total company spend, 50 business class seats a day. That’s presumably 25 business seats in each direction.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Delta SkyMiles eliminated award charts. They charge you whatever they happen to want to charge you for a flight on a given day. SkyMiles aren’t like money, you can’t spend them anywhere you want (say for travel on American). It’s a company town, SkyMiles are their scrip, and they make no promises about what you should expect to get for your points in the future with a published price list.
A year and a half ago United made fun of the idea. However they’ve taken down the fulll .pdf award chart, and the interactive price tool doesn’t even display premium economy award prices at all.
Right on the heels of one of the best airfare deals we’ve seen in a long time being honored, you can fly Chicago – Sydney roundtrip in business class from $1492. This is on Air New Zealand (fly Chicago – Auckland non-stop on their 787 and on to Sydney) or fly United through Los Angeles or San Francisco.
At this price you can definitely get yourself to and from Chicago for the journey.
In March United Airlines told employees that instead of receiving quarterly bonuses they would all be entered in a lottery if the airline met certain performance metrics. While individual employees could win a Cadillac Eldorado or a set of steak knives up to $100,000, most would get nothing.
There was tremendous backlash at the pay cuts, and the airline put off changes. They still planned to change their incentive structure but went on a listening tour to figure out how.
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 »
