Airlines try for more edible food options

by Jeremy Kressmann on

Let’s not even bother with the jokes – we all know airplane food is awful. But these days, with most carriers looking for new sources of revenue, several of the major airlines have been stepping up the quality and taste factor of their on-board food offerings.

The days of free (and terrible) airplane meals are coming to an end. With Continental, the last carrier to offer complimentary in-flight meals, discontinuing its free service this fall, the in-flight meal industry is ramping up to better serve customer demand. Airlines ranging from Air Canada to United and American are shuffling their food offerings, realizing that if customers have to pay for it, it better bear some resemblance to something edible. Air Canada is introducing healthier food options like veggie sandwiches and yogurt, American Airlines is partnering with Boston Market and United Airlines will be letting customers pre-order in-flight meals before the end of 2010.

So will customers find these new in-flight food options more enticing? Not necessarily. Many frequent travelers have given up finding food on board, opting instead for the array of food options in the terminal like Cibo Express, Wolfgang Puck Express and the ever-popular fast food vendors. But for those looking for tasty, quality food to go with their air travel, keep looking. A top-notch meal on the plane or even at the airport remains a fantasy.

New United Airlines rule change means no more free same-day travel changes

by Scott Carmichael on

A new change at United Airlines can be summed up with “this sucks”. The change involves same-day flight changes. In the past, if a flight had open seats, you could change your ticket to a confirmed seat, without any fees. Additionally, you could often walk up to a ticketing desk, and have yourself added to the unconfirmed standby list for free – and if a seat opened up, you’d be on that earlier flight without any fees.

As of April 10, United Airlines wants $75 for a confirmed flight change, or $50 for an unconfirmed standby request. Thankfully, the $50 fee only applies if you actually get a seat. Some other exemptions are made for United Global Services and 1K elite members, and members traveling on standard award tickets and full fare tickets. The change is just another in a long list of services that used to be free. This one is especially confusing, because in many cases, moving passengers around can actually benefit the airline, by moving people off otherwise overbooked flights onto flights with empty seats. Since there are no apparent savings, the measure is just another way for the airline to make money off you.

George Hobica over at Airfarewatchdog has put together an updated chart with the new changes, which helps prepare yourself for the shock of having to hand over hard earned cash to your airline. You can learn more about the changes over at United.com.

Next candidates for an airline merger – United Airlines and US Airways?

by Scott Carmichael on

In what can probably be described as “just a matter of time”, rumors are heating up about a possible United Airlines / US Airways merger.

The push for this kind of consolidation is being fueled by the last big airline merger – that of Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines. Of course, anyone who has followed the aviation world will know that a United/US merger has been in the news before. The two tried to merge back in 2000, and again in 2008. At one point they had already put their signatures on the deal, but had to cancel the party when the government and unions voiced their opposition.

Despite the size of the two airlines, a combination would still only make them the second largest in the nation.

All these mergers mean fewer airlines (US Airways merged with America West several years ago), and a United/US merger may force Continental to go shopping for similar arrangement.

Of course, things are still in a very early stage, and have not moved beyond “speculation”. Time will tell whether three times really is a charm for these two airlines.

United Airlines announces wireless check-in and paperless boarding passes

by Scott Carmichael on

A mere 24 hours after American Airlines announced the expansion of their paperless boarding passes, United Airlines becomes more mobile with their own services. The United Airlines announcement involves two new technologies – mobile check-in and paperless boarding passes.

With mobile check-in, you simply point your mobile browser to mobile.united.com, and enter your flight information. If you are flying out of Chicago O’Hare, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York La Guardia, San Francisco or Washington Dulles, you can have your boarding pass emailed to your device.

For other airports, you’ll need to pay Mr Easy Check-In a visit to have a paper boarding pass printed. Of course, if you have baggage to check, you’ll still need to stop at a desk or use a Skycap.

With the paperless option, you save a bar code image to your device, ready for the checkpoint and boarding gate staff to scan.

United expects to expand the paperless option to other airports as soon as possible. Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland and Seattle are next on the list to receive the service.

At the United Airlines mobile site, you can also check flight status, flight availability, Mileage Plus statements, Red Carpet Club locations and airport codes. I’m happy to see airlines invest in these technologies – anything that can speed up the process of getting from the front door of the airport to the plane is great.

Have you used mobile boarding passes yet? How was your experience with them?

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Yet another video from Dave Carroll of United Breaks Guitars

by Mike Barish on

Elliott.org, Chris Elliotts excellent travel blog, posted the third United Airline’s bashing video from Dave Carroll, the man behind United Breaks Guitars. That’s right, a third song and video. Did you even know that there had been a second? Look, we get it, United broke this dude’s guitar. And the airline has a pretty dodgy customer service record. Most American legacy carriers do. And people love ripping on airlines, the TSA, airports, airplanes, airplane food, rolling luggage, the weather and virtually anything else that you can think of that may or may not be travel related. There are a lot of easy (and often deserving) targets for scorn, mockery and bitterness out there. But at what point does a campaign become less about the cause and more about shameless self-promotion?

Dave Carroll may have wandered away from advocacy and towards fame-grabbing somewhere along the way. His second video garnered nearly 1/8 the viewers of the original. Could he be desperate to remain in the limelight? You probably didn’t even know who Dave Carroll was until you read the first sentence of this post. We know the song but not the person. Why? Probably because we don’t care that much.

So, while his songs are catchy and his message is still accurate, we’re left wondering what the endgame is here. United has responded to both of his previous videos. So, at this point, it all seems kind of selfish. But maybe we’re just cynical.

What do you think of Dave Carroll’s motivations for producing a third United Airlines-related song and video? Vote below and share in the comments.

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