This week a blogger posted a lengthy rant about his customer service experience with United Airlines over the Thanksgiving weekend. The short version of his story is that he bought a roundtrip ticket, didn’t show for the first flight (drove instead), so United canceled the reservation. A few days later, he shows up wanting to…
Commentary
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Get ready for winter weather and travel waiver season
The snowflakes are falling in parts of the country, making this a good time to bring up the power of airline travel waivers. Generally, these policy exceptions are issued by airlines when known weather systems or other operational disruptions will prevent the majority of a carrier’s flights from operating on-time, or at all. They are…
What is a mileage run?
Stated simply, a mileage run is an airline trip taken solely to accrue more miles or points with a given airline. The destination is in this simplest definition is irrelevant, and often isn’t a destination at all, with the majority of mileage runners never leaving the secure area of the transiting airport(s). They will simply…
The 2010 Zagat Airline Survey results are in
The publisher of the popular Zagat restaurant guides surveyed its readers for their opinions on airlines and airports around the world, and the results are out today. The 8,007 respondents flew an average of 17.4 flights per year, and were likely seasoned travelers as the age demographic skewed older with 57% over the age of…
United Airlines Red Carpet Club rate increase & my thoughts on airline lounges
On December 7, 2010, United Airlines is raising the price to join or renew membership in the Red Carpet Club. Pricing depends on your Mileage Plus status, and the cash prices are going up $50 per year across the board. The rate for general members is increasing from $425 to $475 annually, with prices for…
The busiest air travel days of the year & keeping it real this week
The news media is on overdrive this week reporting on the busy air travel period upon us for the holidays. The Air Transport Association (ATA) is forecasting 24 million people will take to the skies during the 12-day Thanksgiving holiday travel period, with the busiest day in the upcoming week being Sunday, November 28, 2010.…
United postpones one change announced earlier in the week
United backpedaled a bit on their Mileage Plus program update from Tuesday this week and issued the following revision to the Confirmed Regional Upgrade (CR1) program: Frankly, I’m surprised United caved in so fast. As I mentioned in Tuesday’s post, we nearly had them eliminated when Unlimited Domestic Upgrades (UDU) began, and they promptly retracted…
“I’m a lawyer and I’m going to sue United Airlines!”
This week an appellate court judge upheld an order to dismiss a civil lawsuit brought against United Airlines for expiring a customer’s Mileage Plus miles for non-activity. Noticing that the guy who sued United was himself a lawyer, I read on and had a whole scenario playing out in my head on how it likely…
Travel & Leisure takes a closer look at world airports and wants your vote
The December 2010 issue of Travel + Leisure arrived yesterday and has a few interesting topics covering airports. First is an article by Michael Gross, entitled “Ode To Airports.â€Â He writes about how his unfortunate late check-in for a flight at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport led he and his wife to discover some of…