United Airlines News

Flight attendants on United will have both a stricter mandate and a stronger incentive to pitch the airline's new co-branded credit card.

In-flight credit card pitches are officially coming to United Airlines, which is great news for revenue and maybe less-great news for frequent flyers.

Elite loyalty members of United's MileagePlus program will be able to get free upgrades to international premium economy cabins this summer as the product fully rolls out.

In May, United removed tomato juice because few passengers drink it. Afterward, though, United got another lesson in the power of social media. Many folks complained, and so tomato juice has returned. The funny thing is, United's customers still aren't asking for it. But at least it's there.

United's new vice president of loyalty is putting his weight behind a new credit card and a handful of other initiatives at the airline. It will be interesting to see how those goals mesh with a weary base of MileagePlus members and a management team eager to turn profit and save cash.

United's new vice president of loyalty wants to bring more value to MileagePlus customers across a wider spectrum of travelers. He's starting that process by spearheading an overhaul of the company's co-branded credit card.

Travelers board an airplane and expect the Wi-Fi, which is often expensive, to work as it does at home. But it's not as good as at home, and it may never be. Should airlines do a better job of communicating that to customers?

You probably can't blame airlines for delivering a poor in-flight Wi-Fi experience. As United's chief digital officer Linda Jojo says, it's likely impossible for any provider to give passengers a consistent ground-like experience. People forget sometimes they're traveling more than 500 miles at hour, at more than 30,000 feet.

Andrew Levy came into United with so much promise, but it doesn't sound like it worked out. That's too bad, but we expect Levy will land somewhere else.

United Airlines is never going to control how its flight attendants look in the same way as airlines in other countries. That's OK. There's no reason flight attendants all must look the same. But it's probably a good thing United is asking some outliers to clean up their approach.