United Airlines News

Skiplagged doesn't have much of a future as a business beyond being an informational website. It is doubtful that Skiplagged would get authorization to link to a travel agency to enable Skiplagged users to book hidden-city itineraries because travel agencies would get into big trouble with airlines for facilitating such bookings.

Ensuring adequate competition in airports large and small gives those airports more negotiating power against the big three national carriers, and could ensure adequate infrastructure for more visitors from abroad to spend their travel dollars in the US. This last is, after all, the mandate of organizations like the US Travel Association.

Outfitting aircraft with Wi-Fi is part of the battle. As Routehappy points out, the quality is still lacking with fewer than one percent of flights in the U.S. equipped with Wi-Fi that has the bandwidth to stream video.

U.S. airlines, including United, are finally making sustained profits and they are scrambling to reward shareholders. Employees, such as Delta's, who participate in profit-sharing plans will benefit but there is only lip-service being directed at benefiting another important stakeholder -- passengers. Too bad.

Business travelers who pay will continue to make out well as the major U.S. airlines come courting for their loyalty.

What is this world coming to when airline stocks are actually an attractive investment? The biggest airlines got a helluva lot bigger in 2014, setting the pace for growth among the largest publicly traded travel companies on the planet.

Skiplagged founder Aktarer Zaman identified a problem -- the seeming arbitrary nature of airfares -- and attacked it. Now United and Orbitz may eat him for lunch.

Skiplagged's hidden-city practices are screwing up Orbitz's relationships with airlines so that's one reason for the lawsuit. Another factor is that startup founder Aktarer Zaman has been outsmarting his adversaries at every turn.

Loyalty points are a currency that requires an expertise of a George Soros to take the best advantage of.

American has one other trump card that helps it compete while United and Delta scramble to pander to business class clients: The world's largest network of flights.