Chances are you have seen The Star Alliance symbol on aeroplanes, airline check-in counters, airport lounges or Boarding Passes. Started by just five airlines 20 years old this week, it is the biggest of the six major airline groupings across the world. – The Six Major Airline Alliances These groupings of airlines share sales office, ground support and lounges, code share flights and jointly market their products. The benefit for us, is that the Alliance allows customers to get similar reciprocal benefits across the airline members. By size the alliances are: Star Alliance has 27 member…
united airlines
Tag Archives for united airlines.
Your Seat is Never Guaranteed- The Weird United “unboarding”
The world is aghast at the sight of airport security officials hauling David Dao. a passenger the airline described as “belligerent” off a plane at Chicago airport. It is likely you will have seen the videos of the guy being dragged down the aisle of the Embraer. I suspect the travelling world has paid more attention to this incident than the children being bombed to death in Syria or the people starving in Somalia or the gay men being rounded up and put in concentration camps in Chechnya. I suppose because we can all relate more…
Virgin America’s New Logo…um wait a sec…
Virgin America revealed their new logo today. Yes it does look like what you think it looks like… Interestingly it bear’s some resemblance to Aibnb’s logo which caused a stir when it was launched: It is an April 1st Prank but many people thought it was serious.Virgin have described this new logo as “A labor of love” and say “Fundamentally, this is a human-centered brand – one that hits you where it hurts.” They further say: ” They further say: “The combination of sharp angles and sleek, sexy, supple curves are meant to surprise and delight…
United builds 787 routes
While a lot has been going wrong for United recently, on the positive side is the steady roll out of their 787 Dreamliners and their future planned destinations which have been steadily announced. The airline now has 22 of the 55 Dreamliners they have ordered. The Dreamliner’s ten destinations from San Francisco International are now: Auckland -July 2016 (787-8 increasing to a daily 787-9 from October) Chengdu -Commenced Houston Osaka -Commenced Shanghai Sydney -March, 2016 Taipei Tel Aviv – March 2016 (787-9) Tokyo Haneda Xi’an The airline is deploying the 787 on its longest flights which means they have a massive fuel…
Good Bye US Airways- will they be missed?
Tomorrow, US Airways disappears as a brand. It joins AirTran, Aloha, Continental, Midwest Express, Northwest, TWA as airline brands that have all disappeared since 2001. The largest airlines in the US have contracted to just three large carriers: American, Delta and United. US first flew in 1939 as mail carrier All American Aviation, adding passenger traffic in 1949. In 1953 it became Allegheny Airlines, a name it carried until the deregulation era of 1979 when USAir was adopted. USAir was varied to US Airways in 1997. In 2005, they entered into a “reverse merger” with America West with the America West…
United opens up to hear from us
United is the airline, I love to hate. And I am not alone. Their on-time arrival performance declined in 2014 while their mishandled baggage rate increased. The airline had a higher customer complaint rate in 2014 compared to 2.14 in 2013. Brent D. Bowen and Headley in their 2015 Airline Quality Ratings gave them ninth place out of 12 US carriers. Skytrax customers have given them a 3/10 rating. Since new CEO, Oscar Munoz took over in dramatic circumstances, just three weeks ago, he has been reaching out to try and change the airline. He has…
United’s Very handy US Airports App
If you travel through major US airports, United Airlines have unveiled a feature which makes their iphone app well worth downloading. Under the “Travel Tools” section on their app, the airline has added interactive maps for their seven mainland U.S. hubs airports: Chicago O’Hare Denver Houston Bush Intercontinental Los Angeles Newark Liberty San Francisco Washington Dulles. The maps include all parts of those airports, however, not just the terminals and spaces used by United. They include searchable information about retail stores and available service options at each airport. eg restrooms, restaurant, Burger King etc etc. I discovered for…
Virgin presents the most boring movie ever!
Would you watch a 5 hour boring movie for 2500 frequent flyer points? Virgin America has created “BLAH AIRLINES FLIGHT 101”, a boring, beige and dull five hour and forty-five minute flight set in real time on a flight from Newark to San Francisco. The passengers aboard seem pretty creepy, the pilots bored and tired and the flight attendants over perked. The film’s trailer can be viewed here: Already almost one million people have already watched the film on YouTube since the film was uploaded in October, 2014! (Did they skip parts of it -like…
Knee Gadget Sales Rise
After “that incident” on United Airlines this week, the Knee Defender, a gadget that blocks airplane seats from reclining, has seen a boost in sales. It’s website crashed yesterday under the weight of orders for the $US21.95 Knee defender! The device consists of two clips that slip onto the seatback tray. The incident, occurred, on United Flight 1462 from Newark, New Jersey to Denver, Colorado. A male passenger (48 years old), seated in a middle seat of row 12 used the Knee Defender to stop the female passenger (also aged 48) in the seat in front of him…
Ranking US airlines by complaints
US airlines get about 10, 000 complaints a year reported to the US Department of Transport. The number of complaints rose until 2012, when they fell slightly. Last year, 643 million passengers were carried by US airlines, so the number of complaints in that perspective does not seem to me to be that high. Of course few of us take our frustration with an airline to the appropriate authorities, preferring to whine about it ourselves or post our experiences on Facebook! The report “Unfriendly Skies”, an analysis of five years of airline complaints by…
Recent Comments