united

Tag Archives for united.

Where can you find a 787?

Seven airlines have fifty 787s grounded at airports across the world: Tokyo Haneda, Japan: 12 Tokyo Narita, Japan: 7 Mumbai, India: 5 Houston, USA: 4 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia:4 Santiago, Chile: 3 Takamatsu, Japan: 2 Bangalore, India: 1 Boston, USA: 1 Chicago,USA: 1 Doha, Qatar: 1 Frankfurt, Germany: 1 Kumamoto, Japan: 1 London Heathrow, UK: 1 Los Angeles, USA: 1 Matsuyama, Japan: 1 Warsaw, Poland: 1 In addition, Boeing has about 20 undelivered 787s.

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Disconnected Star Alliance Points

I have flown Turkish Airlines six times in the past  six weeks. They are a member of the  Star Alliance (along with United, US Air, Singapore, Lufthansa and others).  The Alliance  slogan is: “The Way the Earth connects”. Upon booking, I called Turkish Airlines, and asked them  to enter my United number into the Turkish Reservations system attached to my flight bookings. When checking in online, I found my number was absent from the system,  so I re0entered it. At the airport, check in counter, I found (again) my United  number was absent from my booking. When…

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Crazy Week

Two things about this week: The first is I have a crazy schedule: five US cities in five days with flights from Auckland, New Zealand to Melbourne, Australia. Will be flying Qantas, United, Delta, JetBlue and Southwest. The second is that I will fly the 900th flight of my life! Sadly, not a very exciting flight on  a Delta connection to Richmond, Virginia. Check out my flight memory which tracks where I have flown. I have now flown over two million kilometres (1.2 million miles). That is almost 53 times around the world! Related Posts Two Million…

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Honey, guess what we lost today?

Normally my whacky Wednesday posts are funny or at least a little amusing. Today’s is far from amusing. United Airlines, who I regularly bag, bash and mock in my blog are apparently in the business of transporting luggage and people around the USA. According to Brett Snyder, they are doing worse since the merger with Continental (vale).  For example only 70.1 percent of their flights were on time in June. In addition, United lost bags at twice the rate of Delta which is a bigger airline. Luggage being lost is annoying. On June 30, 2012 United Airlines lost a bag…

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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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My 757th Flight on a United 757-mega fail

Thanks to Flight Memory.com and my friend Tony (see blog post), I know exactly how many fights, miles and hours have been spent in pressurised tubes of metal flying around the world. Even after many flying hours, and despite the determined efforts by some airlines to make travel as horrible as possible,  I am still wildly excited about plane travel. United flight 967 at gate in LAX Flight 737 on a Boeing 737 with Southwest was a fun experience. Flight 747 on a Qantas Boeing 747 was made very special by the delightful cabin crew.…

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Don’t sneak your Business Class drinks out!

Got an upgrade to business class with United Airlines from Houston to New Orleans but my friend Betty didn’t. She asked me to get her a Baileys. So I ordered a Baileys from the cabin attendant and “snuck” it down to Betty in the economy cabin.The flight attendant was not amused. She told my friend Betty off in no uncertain terms and then came to me: “we dont allow our crockery into the coach cabin.” Naughty me! Am I banned from United business class for life?

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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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United Breaks Guitars

My least favourite airline still has an embarrassing song that just won’t go away. Musician Dave Carroll claimed that his guitar was by United Airlines baggage handlers at Chicago airport.  Carroll filed a claim with the airline but was told he would not receive any compensation becasue he had not claimed within 24 hours after the incident He kept approaching United for nine months. At which point,  he wrote and recorded the song: “United breaks guitars.” Millions of people have now seen it. Carroll now travels doing presentations on customer service. In the best follow up possible, United lost his luggage on such a speaking trip!

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