It’s incredibly convenient to carry your airline boarding passes on your smartphone. They save paper, save the airline money, and save really absentminded people from misplacing their tickets. The problem, though, is that using them means that Ralph loses out on a lot of frequent flyer miles that United Airlines owes him. He doesn’t have any boarding passes to show and prove that he traveled when he said he did, and evidently United doesn’t keep track of that kind of thing. [More]
united
Relief In Sight For Sandy’s Stranded Passengers As JFK & Newark Reopen For Some Flights
By 10.31.12
Call her a hurricane or call her a superstorm, but weather phenomenon Sandy is responsible for either stranding a lot of passengers away from home or keeping them from their destinations elsewhere. There’s some relief in sight after three days of flight cancellations, as two New York-area airports, John F. Kennedy and Newark Liberty, have reopened for some flights. [More]
Hurricane Sandy Prompts 4 Major Airlines To Cancel 9,000 Flights
By 10.29.12
In case you’ve been blithely unaware of a weather phenomenon dubbed Hurricane Sandy, she’s moving in on the East Coast, and fast. As such, American, Delta, United and US Airways had already wiped a combined total of about 9,000 flights off the boards to prepare for the storm. That’s a lot of stranded people. [More]
United Takes Your Miles To Upgrade Stranger's Reservation
By 4.17.12
It was incredibly generous of Wes to use his own frequent flyer miles to upgrade a random stranger’s reservation to Business Class. At least, it would have been if that’s what he had meant to do. He had called up to upgrade his wife’s reservation, and it seems that a typo in the confirmation number meant that someone else got the upgrade, and no one knows how Wes can get his miles back. [More]
F-16s Escort United Flight After Reclined Seat Leads To Slapfest
By 6.1.11
We’ve all gotten annoyed at a passenger in front of us who reclines his seat too far into our space, but most of the time it doesn’t lead to two fighter jets escorting the plane for an unscheduled landing. [More]
The Airlines That Make Us Hate to Fly
By 4.12.11
Air travelers all have and use their own horror stories to determine which airline is the worst one around. But which U.S. carrier is statistically the worst company flying? American Eagle. [More]
Some Airlines Jettisoning First Class Seats
By 10.20.10
Global austerity has lead some airlines to chuck first class seats out the air lock. [More]
An Insider's Look At A Four Hour United Express Delay
By 9.22.10
If there was something that could delay United Airlines flight 1488 from Washington to Philadelphia, then it happened, writes our tipster dev. Although originally meant to be a short one hour flight, the delays stretched to over three hours. Dev writes that most of the delays were caused by the pre-flight crew: “Those of us in the front of the aircraft could hear the Trans States Airlines crew griping over the fact that the ground crew, another contract outfit (this group from Air Wisconsin Airlines Corporation), did not do their pre-flight prep work on the plane properly.” [More]
Shareholders Say "Voltron Unite!" To United-Continental Merger
By 9.17.10
United and Continental are oh so close to merging, now that shareholders for both airlines have approved the deal. [More]
United Hates U.S. Diplomatic Relations With Pakistan
By 9.1.10
United has already mastered guitar bashing, so now the airline is moving on to more ambitious projects: screwing up diplomatic relations with other countries. [More]
Justice Dept. Clears Way For Continental-United Merger
By 8.30.10
The marriage between Continental and United Airlines got one huge step closer to happening on Friday when investigators at the Justice Department wrapped up their four-month inquiry into the merger and offered its blessing. [More]
Here's What A Merged United/Continental Plane Will Look Like
By 8.12.10
Continental and United Airlines won’t officially join to form their airline Voltron for several months, but yesterday they released this image of how the branding on their planes will work once the merger is complete. [More]
United Airlines Is The King Of Fees
By 7.22.10
A newly released study shows that airlines around the globe are raking in cash from ancillary revenue like baggage fees. Worldwide, carriers collected $13.5 billion in fees last year, an increase of 43% over the previous year. And sitting high atop that pile was United Airlines. [More]
Turbulence Injures Dozens Of Passengers On Diverted United Flight
By 7.21.10
A United Airlines flight from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles hit more than a few bumps in the road Monday night when turbulence not only caused the plane to be diverted to Denver, but also left at least 25 people injured. [More]
United Removes Passenger From Flight After He Asks Whether A Meal Will Be Served
By 7.20.10
Over at JoeSugarman.com, Joe writes that on his way home from a seminar in Austin, he settled into his first class seat–he’s what United Airlines calls a 1K traveler because he flies over 100,000 miles with them every year–and asked the flight attendant, “Are you serving any meals during our flight?” A few minutes later, he writes, “two armed Austin police officers boarded the plane, looked at me and said, ‘Sugarman, follow us.'” [More]
United Overloads Plane, Kicks Off Passengers Who Paid The Least For Their Tickets
By 7.19.10
Last week, a United Airlines flight from Burlington to Washington, D.C. was deemed too heavy to fly, so the company had to decide who to boot off. In a moment of what was almost certainly accidental honesty, they targeted the 20 least profitable customers. We know this was their criteria because they announced it to the rest of the passengers, so those who remained were able to rest easy knowing that all the cheapskates, budget travelers and poor people were gone. [More]
United Gate Bag Template 1" Shorter Than Check-In's, Makes You Gate Check Bag
By 7.13.10
He thought he was golden but radio host Todd Schnitt had to check his carry-on unexpectedly because the baggage check template at the gate was one inch shorter than the one at check-in. [More]
You're Most Likely To Get Stranded On The Tarmac With Delta And United
By 7.12.10
Every month the Department of Transportation issues the Air Travel Consumer Report. This month the report has statistics about tarmac delays — and the numbers aren’t good for Delta, United and their regional partners. [More]
