Archive for the 'United Airlines' Category
June 25 2008
Back in early 2005 Delta introduced a program called Simplifares that basically eliminated minimum stays, Saturday night stays, roundtrip requirements and a number of other things people hated about airfares. United (and everyone else) followed suit.
Well, take everything in that program and throw it out, because your favorite parts of airfares - Saturday night stays and minimum stay requirements - are back. Mazel Tov.
United announced that as of October 6th, nearly all of their fares will require some sort of minimum stay (based on the route) and, to add insult to injury, they’ve raised the lowest fares available.
You can’t blame them, given everything that’s going on, but remember that on most routes you have a choice of airlines that do not require any of this nonsense.
United Airlines | No Comments » 
Print This Post
June 23 2008
This is an odd one:
A United Airlines pilot on a flight from Salt Lake City last week told passengers that he was too angry too fly after a heated discussion just before he boarded the aircraft. I won’t bother to get into the details here (because I can’t be bothered) but it involved him possibly wearing his hat while walking to the airplane. And the pilot’s union. Or something.
United Airlines | No Comments » Print This Post
June 23 2008
I was away when the Continental/United tie-up was announced and everyone else has already commented on this already. I won’t bore you with a long blah blah blah about it, I’ll bore you with a short point:
- We’re at least a year from this being implemented.
- Many of the details haven’t been decided, so it’s difficult to know what it really means for frequent flyers. In general, Continental flyers should be happy because the Star Alliance carriers have far better international products in business & first class, so you’ll enjoy nicer travel when you’re flying on a reward ticket to Asia. The domestic upgrade situation hasn’t been decided yet, so while frequent flyers of both airlines are probably grumbling that upgrading won’t be as easy anymore, it remains to be seen what will happen. Keep this in mind: Continental’s much-touted free domestic upgrades for elites isn’t nearly as great as it sounds anymore. Upgrades on transcon flights are nearly impossible to come by at every level - Continental flyers may decide they like the United program better because (gasp) they’ll actually be able to upgrade.
As I said, it’ll be at least a year before any of this happens so we can all calm down now.
Continental Airlines and United Airlines | No Comments » Print This Post
June 12 2008
United has now joined American in charging $15 for the first checked bag. Look for the other dominos to fall this week.
In other fee news, the guys at FareCompare (who are even more nuts about the minutia of the airline industry that you and I are), have created a full list of every fee the airlines are charging, plus all of the various free & pay food options. You really do have to take these additional fees into account when you book your flight, as they vary immensely. (Thanks to Upgrade Travel Better for the heads up).
United Airlines | No Comments » Print This Post
June 02 2008
What was shaping up to be the summer of the airline merger is now dead. US Airways and United announced that they have decided that now is not a great time to merge. Surprisingly (at least to me, and what do I know?) United was the company to call off further discussions. It looks like Delta/NW will be the only pairup before the Bush administration’s laissez-faire antitrust policies disappear (depending on who wins in November, of course).
US Airways and United Airlines | No Comments » Print This Post
May 15 2008
A legitimate reason to switch to United: The airline now sells upgrades to Economy Plus at the time you book your flight. One-way upgrades that get you about 5 inches more legroom start at $14 for short-haul and go up to $104 each way for LAX-Tokyo (a steal). After you sit 15 hours in Continental’s 31″ Squishfest ™, you’ll gladly fork over $100 bucks for some sanity.
(thanks to Crankyflier for the heads up)
United Airlines | No Comments » Print This Post
February 19 2008
The NY Times is reporting that Delta and Northwest are close to announcing a merger, an announcement of which will supposedly be shortly followed by Continental and United joining forces.
You’ll read plenty of commentary about these mergers elsewhere, so you don’t need me to analyze the minutia, but let me say this: if you thought flying last summer was rough, just wait until 4 of the country’s largest airlines are trying to jam themselves together during the summer travel season. We will be in a level of disaster that we’ve never even considered. Ask your friends who fly US Airways how well their merger went. Now envision that on a much larger scale. Plus thunderstorms.
One word for your summer travel plans: drive.
Continental Airlines and Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines and United Airlines | No Comments » Print This Post
January 24 2008
Although it’s still pretty unlikely, United would consider dropping out of the Star Alliance if it was necessary to complete a merger, according to this article.
United also would consider withdrawing from the Star Alliance, the
global marketing consortium it co-founded, if needed to close a deal.
"You can assume that absolutely everything goes into the mix of
consideration," (CEO Glenn) Tilton said.
I guess they’re serious.
Other changes are already happening, with the airline announcing plans to sell off its Mileage Plus program, as well as a maintenance base at San Francisco.
They announced yesterday that they would cut about 4% of domestic capacity, while Delta also announced about a 5% drop in domestic capacity for 2008 (while at the same time increasing international flights, where they already do 1/3 of their flying).
The shrinkage in the number of available seats domestically will be a (the?) big story for the year, as airlines try to figure out the correct mix of flying. Remember — too little domestic capacity and you’re not feeding enough traffic to your hubs, which leads to fewer international passengers. It’s an enormously tricky balance, and one that will lead to higher fares for consumers. At least until a lowfare carrier sees an opportunity in these now thinner routes with high fares. An AirTran (or whoever) will jump in, lower fares and increase the number of flights. Which will, of course, be met be the incumbent with lower fares and more flights, which will cause them to lose money. Rinse. Repeat.
United Airlines | 2 Comments » Print This Post
January 02 2008
United has canceled more than 1,100 flights since December 23rd, and there’s a bit of a dispute as to why. The airline says that weather has been the primary cause of the wave of cancellations (which would make sense given the beating the midwest has taken, but AA has canceled far fewer at their Chicago hub), but the pilots union says that the airline simply doesn’t have enough pilots to fly.
If you’re flying out of O’Hare in the next couple of weeks, and you haven’t bought your ticket, it’s worth taking this info into consideration (though, let’s be honest, it’s still a tiny percentage of their total flights).
United Airlines | No Comments » Print This Post
November 15 2007
You’ve no doubt read about the (possible) merger talks between United and Delta. Yes, there are synergies in their route structures — it would create an airline giant with a massive global footprint. But let’s get real. Airline mergers have not failed because of route overlap. They fail because of workforces (see: US Airways/America West); because of technology (see: US Airways/America West); because of fleet integration issues (they would have a laundry list of aircraft); and because the supposed synergies of a largescale integration never arrive.
Is this merger impossible? No. Is this merger unlikely? Yes. Are the operational issues of merging these two groups together virtually insurmountable? Absolutely. US Airways and America West announced their merger 2 1/2 years ago, and it’s still an operational mess (see: website). And those were small(ish) airlines compared to these two. Just because a merged United would fly to Cape Town, Kiev, and Seoul does not make this a great idea.
Delta Air Lines and United Airlines | 1 Comment » Print This Post
Next »
United: The Days of No Minimum Stays Are Gone