UA to invest in fleet upgrades

[WorldTraveler]

Sunday afternoon seems like a strange time to release news like this...
alot of it seems to be to bringing the two fleets to the same standard... but other things are upgrades to the existing fleet but this is good news for upgrading UA's onboard product.

CHICAGO, Aug. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- United Continental Holdings (NYSE:UAL - News) today announced it will invest more than a half-billion dollars in its onboard product as it takes another important step in becoming the world's leading airline. These product improvements include:

•Adding flat-bed seating on 62 additional long-haul aircraft, bringing total aircraft with flat-bed seats to 185, more than any other U.S. carrier
•Adding Economy Plus seating and Channel 9 air traffic control audio to more than 300 aircraft
•Nearly doubling the overhead storage space on more than 150 aircraft
•Installing advanced broadband Wi-Fi on more than 200 aircraft
•Introducing streaming wireless video onboard its 747-400 aircraft
•Completely retrofitting its p.s. fleet with flat-bed seats, Economy Plus, on-demand audio and video and Wi-Fi

 

[Euro Meatball]

Sunday afternoon seems like a strange time to release news like this...
alot of it seems to be to bringing the two fleets to the same standard... but other things are upgrades to the existing fleet but this is good news for upgrading UA's onboard product.

CHICAGO, Aug. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- United Continental Holdings (NYSE:UAL - News) today announced it will invest more than a half-billion dollars in its onboard product as it takes another important step in becoming the world's leading airline. These product improvements include:

•Adding flat-bed seating on 62 additional long-haul aircraft, bringing total aircraft with flat-bed seats to 185, more than any other U.S. carrier
•Adding Economy Plus seating and Channel 9 air traffic control audio to more than 300 aircraft
•Nearly doubling the overhead storage space on more than 150 aircraft
•Installing advanced broadband Wi-Fi on more than 200 aircraft
•Introducing streaming wireless video onboard its 747-400 aircraft
•Completely retrofitting its p.s. fleet with flat-bed seats, Economy Plus, on-demand audio and video and Wi-Fi

 

[Euro Meatball]

Wonderful !!!!
Does anybody look at the number of pireps there are on the "all singing and dancing" new seats currently fitted to the longhaul fleet. More than half are seat/ IFE problems.
When they first came out, it was at least three months before somebody even gave us an access code just to get the IFE started, let alone have a clue how it worked.
The actual seats have been a voyage of discovery, before we able to find some fixes.
That is without spares or time.
These sytems look fine in lab conditions,but wait till they get pax abuse . Just give it to me,and I'll destroy them.
So at the end of the day it will be more expensive junk fitted to the aircraft. :angry:

Hope I'll be out of it before I have to deal with them.

 

[Goldie]

United Airlines Blames Messy Merger with Continental on Inability to Advise Travelers of Termnal at Newark Liberty International Airport its Flights Will be Leaving From Causing Confusion and Delays.


Continental and United are having a major operations problem at Newark Liberty International airport. As a result they are advising passengers that they cannot be certain of the terminal that a flight will be leaving from until minutes before scheduled departure time. This causes significant inconvenience to passengers of both airlines.
I emailed Jeff Smisek, CEO of United Airlines regarding a complaint about last minute changes of the Terminal from which a United or Continental flight may be leaving Newark Liberty airport. His assistant Susan A. Cloer, Continental Corporate Care representative, and I exchanged more than a dozen emails and had a telephone conversation. Bottom line: Due to messy merger operation problems United/Continental states that it cannot advise passengers in advance as to what terminal at Newark Liberty International airport their flight will be leaving and that changes may be made as little as 10 minutes before flight time.
This official position left me incredulous. How could this possibly be the truth since flight plans and other arrangements must be known in advance? I wondered whether this is the “customer care” that we can now expect to receive from United after the merger with Continental. Surely the pilots and other personnel need to know the terminal that their flight will be leaving from. There are three terminals at Newark International airport linked by a monorail. This means that if you arrive at Terminal C (previously the Continental terminal) at Newark Liberty International airport for a scheduled Continental or United flight, and find out that your flight is not leaving Terminal C as previously scheduled, but from Terminal A, you will have to take your luggage.,take escalators and elevators as well as the monorail to get to Terminal A This will take about a half an hour and after considerable physical effort, you may have missed your scheduled flight. Prepare to leave at least an extra half hour, according to Ms.Cloer. On a recent flight from Newark to San Francisco, this is exactly what happened and I missed my early morning flight. Thanks United for the customer care.

 

[Jim Lively]

United Airlines Blames Messy Merger with Continental on Inability to Advise Travelers of Termnal at Newark Liberty International Airport its Flights Will be Leaving From Causing Confusion and Delays.


Continental and United are having a major operations problem at Newark Liberty International airport. As a result they are advising passengers that they cannot be certain of the terminal that a flight will be leaving from until minutes before scheduled departure time. This causes significant inconvenience to passengers of both airlines.
I emailed Jeff Smisek, CEO of United Airlines regarding a complaint about last minute changes of the Terminal from which a United or Continental flight may be leaving Newark Liberty airport. His assistant Susan A. Cloer, Continental Corporate Care representative, and I exchanged more than a dozen emails and had a telephone conversation. Bottom line: Due to messy merger operation problems United/Continental states that it cannot advise passengers in advance as to what terminal at Newark Liberty International airport their flight will be leaving and that changes may be made as little as 10 minutes before flight time.
This official position left me incredulous. How could this possibly be the truth since flight plans and other arrangements must be known in advance? I wondered whether this is the “customer care” that we can now expect to receive from United after the merger with Continental. Surely the pilots and other personnel need to know the terminal that their flight will be leaving from. There are three terminals at Newark International airport linked by a monorail. This means that if you arrive at Terminal C (previously the Continental terminal) at Newark Liberty International airport for a scheduled Continental or United flight, and find out that your flight is not leaving Terminal C as previously scheduled, but from Terminal A, you will have to take your luggage.,take escalators and elevators as well as the monorail to get to Terminal A This will take about a half an hour and after considerable physical effort, you may have missed your scheduled flight. Prepare to leave at least an extra half hour, according to Ms.Cloer. On a recent flight from Newark to San Francisco, this is exactly what happened and I missed my early morning flight. Thanks United for the customer care.

Goldie,
Read your ticket next time. If it says operated by Colgan or Continental on it, it's terminal C, if it say operated by United it's B and if it say operated by Express Jet it A. Most of the hotel vans taxis and buses go by all three terminals. Next time tell the driver, they generally know who is in what terminal.

Jim

 

[T5towbar]

Goldie,
Read your ticket next time. If it says operated by Colgan or Continental on it, it's terminal C, if it say operated by United it's B and if it say operated by Express Jet it A. Most of the hotel vans taxis and buses go by all three terminals. Next time tell the driver, they generally know who is in what terminal.

Jim

That's true.
If it's SCO mainline, its Terminal C.
If it's regional (Express - Shuttle America), it's Terminal A
If it's regional (Connection Props: Colgan - CommutAir), It's Terminal C
If it is SUA mainline, its Terminal A (usually ORD; DEN; SFO; and I think LAX) Except the UA ZRH flight, and probably the new BRU flight. That is at Terminal C (Gate 102) The incoming flight arrives at Terminal B. (which has a better & faster customs facility than Terminal C. Terminal A has no customs. Only B & C has it. So SUA arrives there. If connecting from B, once cleared, your bags will be rechecked and transferred to the appropriate terminal. But you (and your carry on) will have to exit customs and take the monorail to the terminal you need and reenter security once again. (B does not have a shuttle service).

Check your ticket. It will tell you who is operating the flight.
You can check in at both terminals and a shuttle bus (which is inside security Gate 71a for C; Gate 28 for A - for SCO and B6 - also a second transfer bus for A-1 which is SUA; AC; and WN flights at Gate 28) can take you to whichever terminal you need. If it is extreme situation (during IRROPS), they will hold the flight if passengers are at a different terminal that the flight is leaving from.
We are still not one as of yet. I can gather that all of SUA mainline will be coming over to Terminal C. And most Express will remain at Terminal A. There were plans some time ago that SUA mainline would be coming to Terminal C, but until the merger is completed and what aircraft will be stationed (corporate real estate will have to make plans), that won't be finalized till SOC is done.