United Airlines offers an arrival lounge to intercontinental business and first class passengers in its new home in Terminal 2 at London Heathrow. Open from 5am – 2pm each day, Air Canada and South African Airways also allow their...
Frankfurt to San Francisco in United Airlines First Class
United Airlines CFO John Rainey made an unforced error when he told Bloomberg News that there was virtually no difference between United Airlines First Class (Global First) and Business Class (BusinessFirst). While true that the differences between first and...
9-Seat Airliner Coming to California
I have family that lives in Visalia, California and while my uncle was still alive, I made frequent trips up there – often once per month. A 3hr drive on I-5 is not a horrible thing, but the drive...
United Cuts JFK-IAD Service, Effective October 25, 2014
Even I am not too old to remember when New York Kennedy was once a United focus city, with service to Tokyo, London, Hong Kong, Boston, Chicago, Washington, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. JFK was also once the home...
Kidnapping Forces United Flight from Washington to Beijing to Divert
I love the movie Argo, which tells the story of how Canada and CIA operative Tony Mendez smuggled out a cadre of six U.S. diplomats from Tehran during the Iran Hostage Crisis. In the gripping conclusion (full of artistic...
United Airlines’ CFO Disses His Company’s Global First Class Product
John Rainey, United Airlines’ infamous CFO who claimed that elites are over-entitled, has put his foot in his mouth again…this time by trashing his company’s three-cabin international first class product, dubbed “Global First”. But it was not just a...
Giving up Lufthansa First Class for Love
Today was the day that my wife was to fly Lufthansa First Class for the first time. I was looking forward to it so much! First Tokyo Haneda to Frankfurt, then Munich to Toronto in First Class tomorrow with...
U.S. Secretary of State Rescued by United Airlines
It is not just us hoi polloi that run into mechanical delays that foul up our schedules and cause us to shift travel plans…it even happens to the Secretary of State of the USA. Sec. John Kerry has been...
United Loosens Award Routing Rules Between North America and Africa
Fearing that United Airlines had further tightened up award routing rules to Asia based on a new and restrictive revision of the fine print, I warned in May that if enforced, United’s draconian new routing rules would mark a stealth...
Onboard Photos: The Hidden Hypocrisy in United’s New Safety Video
Another passenger was thrown off a United Airlines flight yesterday for taking pictures. Full details here, but here’s my summary: Passenger is on a flight from Austin to Denver. He has top-tier status with United and is a million-miler...
New (Humorous) United Airlines Safety Video!
United Airlines has introduced a new safety video that for the first time incorporates some levity into what has been a serious, humorless public service announcement for at least the last two decades. The video is not over the top like...
Always Check: First Class for the Price of Economy Class
A client in Los Angeles called me this morning saying he had an emergency meeting in Miami on Monday morning and needed a ticket to Miami tomorrow afternoon or evening, returning Monday night. I noted immediately that AA or DL...
Airplane Feet Etiquette
I could never become a medical doctor because blood makes me squeamish. That’s about it, though – most things do not bother me. Except bare feet. I don’t know how those people with permanently dirt-stained, calloused feet can stand it:...
United Airlines Bends Rule, Saves the Day for Sick Boy
United Airlines gets a lot of bad press and rightfully so – it has torpedoed the MileagePlus program on both the earnings and redemption side and has severely cut back on in-flight services, particularly in the forward cabin of...
Why I’d Hate to Be a Gate Agent
I spend enough time in airports to know that I would never want to be a gate agent. Some agents are just nasty, but most try their best and get gangraped (I suppose that is a bit strong) by...
United Cuts Winter Service to Rome, Belfast, Dublin, Manchester
I wrote about United’s new service to Santiago, Chile yesterday as well as additional flights to Punta Cana and Belize City, but that was only half the story. While the resumption of Santiago service will be a nice addition...
United Announces New Routes to Santiago de Chile, Punta Cana, Belize City
After bludgeoning the majority of MileagePlus members with a customer unfriendly move toward revenue-based award mileage earning earlier this week, United has thrown us a bone in introducing new service to three Latin American cities. Of special interest is the...
RDMs Will Be Revenue-Based Starting March 01, 2015 on United Airlines
When Delta Air Lines announced a revenue-based earnings chart for 2015, I predicted that it would only be a matter of time before United Airlines would match, though I did not expect it to happen so soon. Copying Delta...
Video: New United Airlines Commercial
United Airlines has a new commercial out highlighting its international route map through a light-hearted tale of a man trying to learn catch phrases in several languages. The ad is targeted toward New York City flyers and was filmed...
United Has Tightened Routing Restrictions on Asia Awards
Exactly one month ago, I wrote a post entitled New, Stricter United MileagePlus Routing Rules for Travel Between USA and North Asia? At the time, I concluded the rumored draconian new routing restrictions on awards between North America and North Asia...
