united airlines

Tag Archives for united airlines.

United ditches Auckland-Houston

Remember the promise of a 787 flight from Auckland to Houston Intercontinental (IAH)? It was made by pre merger Continental. At approximately 11900 km (7400 miles), the new route was to be the longest from Continental’s Houston hub. I was very excited by this possibility.  Houston is a much nicer airport than Los Angeles and the flight would get you into the heart of the USA.  For me, Melbourne-Auckland-Houston-Philadelphia for example (as nightmarish as it sounds) is much more preferable than Melbourne-Sydney-Los Angeles-Philadelphia. Changing planes at Sydney is a hassle and in Los Angeles it is awful. The only…

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Tuesday Trip Report: United: London-Washington

  I flew four days after the finalisation of the United-Continental merger and four days after the new combined reservations system had commenced. Thought I would test things didn’t I? This flight was the 830th I have ever flown in my life and was my 93rd flight with United and/or Continental. The flight itself was pretty okay. It was about what I would expect from the pre merger United so if I was expecting a dramatic leap to being one of the world’s greatest airlines as promised by United CEO, I didn’t see it. I have long regarded United as one of the worst legacy carriers in the…

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United and Continental – Married at last!

Once upon a time there was a USA airline that I really liked.   Texas based Continental Airlines flew to 140 cities with an attitude to service I really liked. Between 1991 and 2001, I flew Continental the equivalent of two trips around the world. I ranked them consistently the best US “legacy” airline for a while In the same story was Continental’s beau- United airlines.  I have long had a love hate relationship with them. Flew United a lot but don’t ever feel I really bonded – especially when they served me up some of the worst flights I have been on. I have travelled 103,586…

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United delays International 787 expansion

Following the grounding of one of United’s six 787s for an electrical generator failure on 4th December, the airline has delayed sthe deployment of the 787 on some routes out of Houston Intercontinental. The services are to  Lagos which will start in “late January” instead of 3 January, London due now on 1 March instead of 4 February Amsterdam on 24 February instead of 23 February United still plans to begin flights between Los Angeles and Shanghai Pudong on 30 March, and Denver and Tokyo Narita on 31 March. The airline said  “By delaying the…

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Tuesday Trip Report: US Airways was okay!

US Airways is not one of my favourite airlines. In fact, they rate in my bottom ten airlines based on my experiences of their service over eight years. I have given them an overall 2.9 out of 5 after a decade of flying them. My experience is that every time I fly them they have got worse. A client of mine, booked me on US Airways from Houston to Richmond via Charlotte to get to an important meeting. This gave me a good chance to test them. Booking: 7/10 Upon receiving my booking confirmation, I logged onto to US Airways.com to find my seats. The…

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United & Continental Unite

Readers of my blog will know I have very low regard for United Airlines. They are not my worst airline but close. See my last devastating review of United. I have just flown United 13 times in March and they were scarily impressive. I was wondering how much of this is because of the United Continental merger? United Airlines and Continetal are merging to form the world’s biggest airline. The merged airline will be called United. In other words adios “Continental” name. The planes post merger will, however, carry the Continental colours and logo (see picture from the…

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