Tag Archives for united.
Yesterday morning a United gate agent in Atlanta ‘sounds like a coach’ giving a pregame speech commends his team passengers for making it to the plane on time. “You’re here, you’re on time. I’m commending you for it. I’m high-fiving you for it,” he says.
But he warns everyone, they may be tempted to go get breakfast at the nearby bagel place. “Goldberg’s have lethargic lines,” he says. “They don’t move as quick as they should this time of the morning.”
United and Marriott offer reciprocal benefits. Chase issues both the United co-brand card and the Marriott card.
So it’s not surprising to see United and Marriott working together through Chase.
Passengers aren’t supposed to be able to board the wrong plane. Boarding passes are scanned at the gate. There’s a manifest — airlines know how many people are supposed to be onboard. When passengers are in the wrong seat, there’s usually another passenger assigned that will say something. But it happens. Occasionally one person, or a couple traveling together, wind up in the same city.
Perhaps for the first time ever a majority of people on the plane were flown to the wrong city.
American Airlines began the race to charge checked bag fees. First it was a second checked bag fee, then fee for the first. It became industry standard with Southwest remaining as the outlier.
With passengers charged for overhead bin space they began carrying more onto the plane. With planes largely full for the past several years there hasn’t been enough bin space to accommodate everyone, leaving the last passengers to board having to gate check their bags usually meaning that they must collect those bags at baggage claim.
On flights where some passengers have to gate check bags it won’t be those who pay extra to board early and queue up in group two. It will be those who don’t pay the $9.
American is investing in the domestic fleet, adding seat power and bigger overhead bins and high speed internet even as they’re cramming in more seats. AAdvantage has been devalued, but so have most of their competitor frequent flyer programs. There are a lot of things that the airline really has going for itself. There are fantastic assets and improvements that shouldn’t be overlooked, and should even be celebrated.
United Airlines prevailed in a federal class action case over its decision to eliminate the Silver Wings senior citizen discount program in which they had sold lifetime memberships.
The program was founded in 1986 for customers 55 years and older. In 1996 the program is said to have had 560,000 members. They continued to add lifetime members through 2005, costing at that time ~ $250. The program was terminated (‘closed to new members and renewals’) in 2007.
On Monday United Airlines President Scott Kirby announced that they would pause the plan to replace quarterly bonuses with a much less expensive lottery program.
Last Friday they had come up with the lottery that would save the carrier perhaps $30 million per year, replacing bonuses of up to $300 per quarter per employee with big prizes given to just 1-2% of employees. And the backlash was brutal.
Back in the day frequent flyers and road warriors used to drive past half a dozen gas stations and ten extra miles to the Shell that accepted Diners Club even though the “low fuel” light had been on all day. We do crazy things for points.
A signup bonus and up to 3 miles per dollar is great. And both earning and burning points are a decent way to keep miles from expiring, buy gas at BP once every 18 months. At the margin it makes BP competitive with Shell (although neither gas is usually cheapest).
A woman onboard United Express flight UA5449 was restrained by other passengers — one tying her feet while another held her down — after she tried to open the aircraft door midflight and announced “I am God, I am God, I am God.”
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 »
