Tag Archives for united.
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.
Qatar Airways owns a 49% stake in Air Italy and is attempting to revive what was once Meridiana into the dominant airline in Italy. With Delta partner Alitalia struggling, that seems possible. Although given Alitalia’s challenges, draining subsidies from Air France and then Etihad and the government of Italy the Italian aviation market isn’t a place that’s likely to produce profits. Delta sniffed around looking to invest in Alitalia, but no deal has been done.
US airlines don’t want to compete with Air Italy, though. They don’t want to compete with anyone, and there’s always a chance to go to the administration and complain about foreigners.
Even though their South Africa partner is exceptionally weak – indeed, perhaps because South African Airways is so weak – United is launching Newark – Cape Town service.
This is certainly a gamble but United has seemed to be in a gambling mood, willing to experiment, fail, and adjust their route network.
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.
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.
When you want to book a one way award using United miles from the US to anywhere in the world (including just domestic), grab a second one way award in another region for some time in the future and just add a United domestic flight at the end for around 5000 miles.
I still think the elimination of award charts is awful, but there are still ways to get outsized value using United miles both because partner awards are still pricing based on (effectively hidden) charts and because United will allow you to book those at a discount based on their new lower-priced domestic awards.
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.
Now United is following Delta, eliminating award charts. Prices won’t go higher for travel, though, until November 15 and members may see lower prices today.
United is also eliminating close-in booking fees that range $25 – $75 for some members based on elite status for any award travel November 15, 2019 onward.
I know how I’m betting this turns out, based on nearly 20 years watching and studying this space. I’d love, however, to be wrong.
Faster dinner service on short late night flights makes sense and United still has some of the best bedding in business class in the world — customers should be able to benefit from it with sleep. It will make even more sense once a Polaris lounge opens at Washington Dulles for passengers to have dinner in prior to flights. It’s just that United seems to take every opportunity to find ways to shave from their product, which isn’t what they said they were doing and disappoints me.
Chris McGinnis conducted an interesting interview with United Airlines President Scott Kirby.
There’s a lot here for United flyers, especially those based on the West Coast. For me, though, three things especially stood out.
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 »
