United Airlines News

Airlines like to strike a delicate balance with on-time performance. They want to be reliable, but they don't necessarily want sky-high on-time rates. An always-punctual operation is expensive.

The new flight attendants' contract at United, coupled with other steps CEO Oscar Munoz is taking, could finally enable United to make up some serious ground against its competitors.

With American Airlines capitulating, in-flight entertainment on all three legacy carriers is now completely free. The next phase of competition will likely revolve around the quality of that content with each airline trying to out-do the other.

A good operational meltdown like Delta's should make travelers nostalgic for the good old days, when carriers regularly cooperated to help each other's passengers.

United is refining how it defines a stopover and cranking up fees for award ticket changes -- but we get a better award booking tool in the process.

Can we now say that the radical evolution of loyalty and premium upgrade is nearly complete?

For United, this went about as well as the airline could have hoped. Now the airline can refocus its attention on winning back customers.

The Jeff Katz and Boston Consulting Group startup Dihedral -- with an assist from two major airlines and four hotel chains -- can turn out to be something huge or meander nowhere like some of the traveler journeys they'll be charting. Certainly the two have a track record and they are hitting all the right notes, including Big Data and experiences.

Delta, United, and American wanted the U.S. State Department to take unprecedented action against Emirates, Etihad Airways, and Qatar Airways. But the government didn't opt for a brash approach. This may well be the beginning of the end of the complaints.

If flight attendants ratify the contract, United's customers should win, and it will be a big win for Munoz, too. Today, flight attendants work under two labor agreements, making the airline a model of inefficiency at times.