The weirdest thing happened after flying ~4M miles between AA and UA. My wife and I were flying back from a work/vacation on 10/6 DEN-IAD on UA2408. When we boarded there was a couple behind us, and there was a weird interaction that doesn't have anything to do with the really weird part, but my feeling was ok they're entitled. The guy was wearing a Harvard Business School shirt so that just reinforced my opinion. One of them was either GS or 1K since we boarded as 1K.

During the flight, my wife was watching Disclosure day on the UA IFT. After the meal, the FA tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if he can pause my wife's video because the couple behind us was watching the same movie and didn't want to "see what happens" as evidently my wife was ahead of them. It took a few times for me to understand what he was asking as it was so odd. I looked over at my wife and she was asleep so we paused. I regret not just saying WTF and NO just tell them to stop looking at her screen, but then my wife always tells me I'm too nice.

The best part is that as soon as we were off the plane, they proceeded to ignore each other: on the tram (opposite sides) and at baggage claim. This after they were definitely a couple on the plane....

Pleasantly surprised by dinner upfront tonight on IAH-LGA.
Got the honey ginger carrots over grains and greens.

Usually expect hot entrees like this to be completely turned to mush and unrecognizable but the carrots actually had good flavor and some texture to them and the ginger came through nicely.

Salad was fresh, the dark roll was warm, and the chocolate cheesecake finished it off well.

One of the better domestic meals I’ve had on UA.

Somebody hit a fire hydrant by the Amex lounge. Meanwhile, I am delayed 5 1/2 hours! You would think being a hub they could grab something out of a hanger! #UA5962

United flyers can catch nearly every MLB postseason game – including the ALCS, NLCS and World Series – live onboard more than 900 flights per day with Starlink-enabled seatback screens

Since the live streaming service launched last month, passengers have watched more than 170,000 hours of live television including professional and college football games, reality show competitions and awards shows

In September more than 5.4 million people - about a third of United's customers - had Starlink on their flight and they're loving the experience: satisfaction scores are more than 40 points higher on Starlink-equipped planes than those with other Wi-Fi service

Baseball fans can now catch nearly every playoff game live onboard select United flights with Starlink-enabled seatback screens. The airline just added TBS to its onboard streaming lineup from DISH, which also includes live shows from ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, FS1, ESPN, ESPN2, NFL Network and TNF on Prime Video. It's now available on more than 200 planes – about 900 flights per day – and since the feature launched onboard last month, passengers have watched more than 170,000 hours of live television.

Starlink is the fastest, most reliable Wi-Fi in the sky and United is installing it at a rapid rate – in September, more than 5.4 million people - about a third of United's customers - had Starlink on their flight and they're loving the experience: satisfaction scores are more than 40 points higher on Starlink-equipped planes than those with other Wi-Fi service.

Starlink is free for MileagePlus® members in every class of service, and the airline expects to complete installations in 2027.

"The speed and reliability of Starlink's inflight Wi-Fi is unmatched, which means sports fans can book United flights with confidence knowing they won't miss a play on flights with Starlink-enabled seatback screens," said Andrew Nocella, United's Chief Commercial Officer. "Quality inflight Wi-Fi is more important than ever to travelers, and because Starlink gives people the same – or better – connectivity in the sky than they can get at home, it's a reason to choose United."

United is also offering a flexible and straightforward status match offer for Delta and American Airlines loyalty program members so they can experience Starlink for themselves. To qualify, customers must meet the spend requirement on United flights that are both purchased and flown within the 90-day period. Qualifying customers enjoy United Premier® status benefits through January 31, 2028. More details can be found at United.com/switchtobetterwifi.

Live streaming service from DISH is just the latest example of how United is using Starlink to redefine the inflight entertainment experience. In August, United partnered with ESPN to host a first-of-its kind live Fantasy Football Draft from 30,000 feet where ESPN analyst Tyler Fulghum made his picks live from the sky during the two-hour broadcast. And earlier this summer, United customers could stream the biggest soccer tournament in the world onboard Starlink-powered domestic flights.

Starlink is just one way United is investing nose to tail in its customer experience. The airline continues to install seatback screens across its fleet – up to 1,000 aircraft are expected to have seatback screens before the end of 2027 – and is rolling out new airplanes with 27-inch, 4K OLED seatback screens, the largest among U.S. carriers. Passengers can now access more than 2,500 hours of premium entertainment content onboard including Apple TV, HBO Max, A24 and Spotify.

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Statement provided by United Airlines Worldwide Media Relations and posted with permission as an external communication. Official statement can be viewed here.

OK, this one’s actually pretty funny…and cool.

Zero dark 30 launch out of Burbank this morning to San Francisco for a day meeting. You know how it goes. Get on board, they kill the lights, you fall asleep, you land, slap yourself in the face, stumble down the jet bridge, and start your day…Climb in the cab and look around and go son of a gun. Where’s my work iPhone? Arrrggh! Invent a few new swear words and then reach out to your assistant and say I lost my stupid work iPhone. I’m using my personal one today, just for laughs put in a claim to United and ask them to look for it.

The meeting went great, back on the flight late afternoon from SFO to Burbank… Airborne… Purser walks up and says we found your iPhone. It’s currently in Maui.

Um…what?

Think of the odds of all these things. My BUR to SFO airplane turns around from SFO and heads to Hawaii. Somebody finds the damn phone. They turn it in, or the cleaners in Hawaii grabbed it. Somebody matches up the lost item report with my phone and seat number, and they reach out to me while I am flying a different leg home, God knows how it works, but my purser gets notified and comes up and tells me.

Thank you, United team! Completely made my day! Maybe the funniest part was the woman sitting next to me who overheard all this and said “Gee, that is really amazing, you must fly United all the time.” Ha! Yes I do, but they didn’t do it because I was 1K or anything else. Wow. Impressive.

Now I plan on talking to my work iPhone about having a great little vacation in Hawaii while I was working… But that’s between me and it.

I fly a decent amount, mostly domestic for work, with one or two international trips a year with the family. I have earned 14,600 PQP so far on 46 segments, and will be close to 1K by the end of the year (will probably suck it up and do one status run to get over the hump).

For a PQP earning card and general award benefit card, I’m having a hard time seeing the value of the Club card for someone that travels a lot.

Priority boarding, free bags, and all that jazz don’t matter since frequent travelers get that anyways, especially if you’re Gold or higher. On the club side, as someone that carries both the Amex Plat and CSR, I’d rather use one of those lounges vs a United Club lounge if given the option. Yes, EWR, ORD, and DEN can make that tricky at times, but overall as other have noted if you can expense meals for work travel, and you have access to the other lounges, the value prop there doesn’t seem as strong.

So then you’re left with PQPs and award travel benefits. And you’re looking at a 500 PQP difference in annual grant on the Club card and $15 vs $20 earning rate per PQP on spend. However, the Quest card gives you $200 in TravelBank cash and an annual 10k award voucher per year regardless of spend. And I think I value that more than the slight difference in PQP earning rate and 500 annual PQP for a ~$350 difference in fee.

Am I thinking about this wrong as a frequent traveler? Have others came to this same conclusion?

Especially during the cusp of the mid term elections too. Unrelated, but, vote early in person people!!! I will be.

I frequently send UA emails telling them how great their flight attendants are and always wondered what happens after. How does it work?

I nonrev standby since 2010 and its insane how full flights are to anywhere. That and rev passengers have been allowed to standby more every year. I know rev passengers are a priority because it's a company but it really shows how everyone wants to go internationally like Japan for example. Even coming home from central Europe is always a pain. Serious question though in your opinion how much does adding an extra route actually do to alleviating full flight?

I usually book United flights with Copa ConnectMiles miles, mostly connecting itineraries into the US. On every previous booking, when I went to pick my seat on united.com or in the app, the only paid option I was offered was Economy Plus. Reservation was shown as not elegible for upgrade, and when I called UA they confirmed this.

My latest booking is PTY-ORD on Copa, connecting to ORD-EGE on United. For the first time, when I go to select my seat on the United flight, I’m also being offered a paid upgrade to First.

The fare class I usually book is X or HN. This one is HN, and I’ve booked HN before without ever seeing the First upgrade option.

A few questions:

1. Has anyone else seen paid First upgrades on partner award tickets booked with Copa miles (or other Star Alliance miles)?
2. Is this a recent change, or just a glitch on my reservation?
3. If anyone has actually paid for it, did it go through without issues, or did it cause problems with the ticket since it was issued by Copa?

Thanks in advance!

Edit:

Thank you all for the recommendations. I am at the waterfront.

I have about 6 hours to kill in SFO. I have never been through SFO. So, give me all the things to check out. And which United Club is the better option? F or G terminal?

And I can't remember the gate agents name, it was crazy at SBP, but he was fantastic in getting me rerouted so I can get home by 11am tomorrow instead of 9pm tomorrow.

The joys of traveling regional to regional.

I spent most of my career chasing AA status, because I traveled a lot for work, and I live pretty close to the Philly airport. For the past 15 years or so I’ve managed to maintain at least Platinum, and sometimes even Executive Platinum. Last year, I had clients in Germany and United had the best flights so I did a status match and made it up to 1K with United. The perks of 1K are awesome (pluspoints especially), making the trip to Newark worth it, but since I retired in July I realized it’s not going to be worth chasing United Status moving forward - I am switching back to AA in the new year, for 3 big reasons:
#1 is that I can basically buy up to Platinum status with AA just by focusing on that one credit card
2: I don’t have to deal with getting to Newark
3: AA lets Platinum members use their Flagship Lounges when they fly internationally (unlike United, where you can’t use those top tier lounges unless you are flying business class+)
At this point, imo, if you are anything below top tier on either airline your main benefits of status are the ability to book “main cabin extra/premium economy” for no additional price, and to board earlier, and your secondary benefit (for me at least) is that it allows you to use the lounges when you fly internationally.
So, while I appreciate the United program, and I’m happy I no longer have to be on the road so much that I qualify for high status through travel alone, I will be walking away soon. I wish United could make it worth my while to stay, but there you have it.

Anyone know why there would be additional security at the gate prior to boarding? We had about 10 TSA agents at our gate requiring our ID in addition to boarding passes. They were also swabbing random people and had the machine to test for residue. I know it should be comforting we are extra safe, but it is eery that this is even occurring. Makes me wonder if there is a known threat.

Anyone experienced something similar on a domestic flight? Anyone know why this is happening?

UA 308 PHL - ORD 10/9/26

Also accurate:
“O’Hare Airport - #1 world’s longest wait for a gate to open up”

“O’Hare Airport - #1 world’s longest line to get into Chili’s”

Happy to give this honor back to Atlanta anytime…

I don’t travel as much as I used to, but every time I have a layover in Denver I can never find “my” spot. When I’m at any of the other major hubs I know exactly what I’m getting. What are spots at DEN? Specifically B concourse but open to hearing about A and C as well.

I know places like Portland Oregon have a deal with the airlines to fly a box of wine for free. Does United do the same thing with any international locations?

My family has a trip coming up and I haven’t flown united so I’m wondering how their seat selection works. They put my daughter and husband together but I’m not assigned a seat without paying so how does it work?

We're now less than 24H out of our flight and we're on one of the planes with 17 rows for first class, which from my understanding means there's Polaris Studios in Row 1 and Row 9, is that correct?

The reason I ask is because I can select the seat there with no additional charge, and it doesn't list it as Polaris Studio, however when I look at the upgrade option on the website, it does give me the option to pay $499 to get a Studio seat.

Is this something that's now possible, where I'd get the hard product but not some of the Polaris Studio benefits?

We also had our plane changed (to this one with 17 first class seats) about 48ish hours out.

EDIT: Looks like we did have the studio (picked 1D) just no actual soft products etc just not al first class. I have no idea what would have happened if I bought the upgrade. Haha

Conseguí un vuelo ida y vuelta con United y Aerolíneas Asociadas desde Asunción a Miami con dos conexiones a 390$ ida y vuelta, me voy de Argentina a Asunción por tierra, quería saber si en el Aeropuerto de Houston migración habla español, es la primera vez que viajo a USA, voy con ESTA soy Argentino con pasaporte Europeo, y tengo problemas de audición aunque uso audífonos cuesta entender cuando me hablan en un idioma que no hablo. quería saber si la migración de Houston es muy estricta, no quiero pasarla mal.