Browsing Tag: United Airlines

It looks mighty cold out there!

It looks mighty cold out there!

The Library of Congress shows that Matthew Henson was the first person to reach the North Pole on April 6, 1909. It took him eight attempts to finally make it to the North Pole. The journey was difficult and I bet he never imagined that a little over 100 years later an airline could have flown over the North Pole region 10,000 times. United Airlines flight 898 from Beijing to Washington, DC marks their 10,000th polar flight.

Today in the Sky points out that United Airlines has quite a few daily flights on four polar routes: Chicago-O’Hare Beijing; Chicago O’Hare-Shanghai; Chicago O’Hare-Hong Kong; and Washington Dulles-Beijing. The routes and flights didn’t come easy. In 1999 with the combination of better technology and better cooperation from Russia, UA were able to start the first of these first flight in Jan 1999 from Chicago to Hong Kong.

Polar flights are able to save time, fuel and money. Currently United Airlines only flies about 20% of the polar flights worldwide.

Image: hundun
A nice mesh-type curtain.

A nice mesh-type curtain.

Have you ever flown in first class and felt bad about having to look at the people sitting in the back of the plane? Ever been in the back of the plane and hated seeing the treatment that the front of the plane received?

Worry no longer, the class divider (aka cabin curtains) is making a comeback.

After the September 11th attacks, the TSA mandated airlines lose their curtains, allowing easy plane visibility. Passengers (presumably from the front of the plane) have complained and want to have more privacy and airlines are responding.

American Airlines is in process of adding new curtains to recreate the class separation. United Airlines started earlier, installing mesh-type curtains over three years ago.

As time goes on, more and more airlines will most likely follow. Even being in the back of the plane, this can be a good thing, since I don’t enjoy seeing what I am missing.

Source: Chicago Tribune Image: olton
United Airlines Boeing 757

United Airlines Boeing 757

United Airlines has been holding off for quite awhile from buying any new planes. They had talked about reducing their fleet, however, now they plan to order up to 150 aircraft by this fall.

As they have been waiting for a good time to buy, their fleet of almost 400 aircraft have aged. Now they are looking to replace their wide-bodied jets and Boeing 757’s with new aircraft. They are also hoping to  get rid of their almost 30-strong fleet of Boeing 737’s.

It’s a large order, which gives them tremendous buying power. United Airlines states they are in talks with Boeing and Airbus and only want to purchase planes from one of the two manufacturers. This could be a huge payoff to the winning bidder and will probably create a lot of interesting deals for United to consider. With airlines cancelling orders for aircraft already being built, this could be a better than average boom for either Airbus or Boeing.

Source: KOMO Image: code20photog
Does Southwest Airlines giving out free drink coupons help them to acheive #1 status?

Does Southwest Airlines giving out free drink coupons help them to acheive #1 status?

According to the Customer Service Satisfaction Index, airline passengers feel the airlines are doing a 3.2% better job in customer service compared to the year before.

Although fees are up, the numbers of passengers are down. This means less lines, fewer bumped people, and more room since you might have no one sitting in the center seat.

Southwest Airlines was #1 for customer satisfaction for the 16th year in a row with it’s highest rating ever. The biggest gainers were Delta Airlines, US Airways, and Continental who improved by margins of 6.7% to 9.7%. American Airlines saw the largest decrease (3.2%) and United Airlines ended with the lowest overall score for the year.

It will be interesting to see if the airlines can keep this positive trend going, since hopefully by next year we’ll have a strong economy and fuller planes (and lines).

Source: USA Today Image: tsmyther