United Airlines announced Friday it is donating $1 million to Feeding America’s “Shutdown Response Fund” to help provide food for families of federal employees who missed paychecks during the partial government shutdown, which is set to end following the unveiling of a short-term deal.
“On behalf of the United family, I would like to thank the countless federal employees who have made a large sacrifice to ensure our safety despite not being paid, and we hope this contribution provides them much-needed support. Even with today’s announcement, there is continued need among federal employees, in addition to the important programs that Feeding America administers,” United Airline CEO Oscar Munoz said in a statement.
“We continue to urge our leaders to work in a bipartisan way over the coming weeks to ensure the long-term certainty on which our industry and the overall economy depends.”
President TrumpDonald John TrumpStone: ‘I’ve never had any discussion’ with Trump about a pardon White House: Trump will move forward on wall ‘with or without’ Dems Pelosi after Stone indictment: ‘What does Putin have on the president’? MORE announced Friday that he would reopen the government for three weeks while Democrats and Republicans negotiate their disagreements over border security and his desired border wall in a bipartisan conference committee.
About 800,000 federal employees were furloughed or required to work without pay during the record-long shutdown, which entered its 35th day Friday. Reports flooded the airwaves and internet of employees struggling to pay their bills and taking up second jobs to cover their losses. The crisis caused cancellations at airports and heightened absences of federal employees from their jobs.
“Feeding America is thankful to our long-time partner, United Airlines, for stepping up, yet again, to help families in need. Even after the government is re-opened, many hardworking families will likely suffer the lingering impact of this crisis,” Feeding America CEO Claire Babineaux-Fontenot said.
United was already working with Feeding America, the largest hunger-relief organization in the country, to set up food distribution centers at United’s seven hub airports and New York’s LaGuardia Airport.
Customers’ favorite features, such as bag tracking, will continue to be available in the updated app, and new highlights include:
A navigation bar that gives customers quick access to some of the most popular tools such as flight status, and some new handy features like My Trips.
A My Trips tab in the navigation bar that allows customers to easily access information about their upcoming trip and stores boarding passes when customers are checked in for their flights.
An inbox that stores important push notifications United sends customers about their flight, such as if a flight status changes, gate changes and alerts about when boarding for a flight has begun.
Dynamic boarding times will be updated throughout the app in the event that departure times change to give customers the latest information even when they are not at the gate. This builds on the airline’s recent addition of boarding notifications, which were added when United rolled out its Better Boarding process.
One of the biggest updates to the app comes during the travel period, when the home screen updates to give customers the most helpful information for each step of their travel journey. The home screen will begin to update starting 48 hours before a flight, and will continue updating throughout various phases all the way through arrival at the final destination with the most useful information. For instance, customers connecting will find a screen that allows them to easily access airport maps so they can easily navigate to the next gate. Bringing the most useful information to the forefront will make the entire journey less stressful and more intuitive.
The app also includes an updated design with more engaging content. When a customer does not have an upcoming trip, the app will open to a beautiful destination image to provide travel inspiration. Content on the home screen is also more personalized to each user; for example, customers who recently passed loyalty milestones will be recognized on the home screen, and the app will also celebrate customers on their birthday.
United’s in-house digital team spent over a year designing and creating this updated app, including eight months during which customers and more than 18,000 employees provided feedback to create the final version that rolls out worldwide today. United issued seven releases during the beta test, making numerous changes based on user feedback. There were more than 13,000 check-ins during the beta test period. The airline will continue soliciting feedback on the app and expects to roll out additional features later this year to further improve and ease travel for our customers.
As a technology leader, United was the first carrier to offer mobile boarding passes and became the first to introduce boarding passes and flight information in its app for partner airlines. Customers can access boarding passes and flight information for flights on United’s Star Alliance partner airlines when flights are booked with connecting travel on United on the same itinerary. The airline also made it easier for customers to search for fare classes available in the app with Expert Mode, a popular feature from united.com.
For more information about updates to the app, visit the United Hub.
About United
United Airlines and United Express operate approximately 4,800 flights a day to 353 airports across five continents. In 2018, United and United Express operated more than 1.7 million flights carrying more than 158 million customers. United is proud to have the world’s most comprehensive route network, including U.S. mainland hubs in Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Newark/New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. United operates 770 mainline aircraft and the airline’s United Express carriers operate 559 regional aircraft. The airline is a founding member of Star Alliance, which provides service to 193 countries via 28 member airlines. For more information, visit united.com, follow @United on Twitter or connect on Facebook. The common stock of United’s parent, United Continental Holdings, Inc., is traded on the Nasdaq under the symbol “UAL”.
A passenger on an October United Airlines flight that had to make an emergency landing is suing the airline because, he claims, the company “fabricated” the real reason for the incident.
In a lawsuit obtained by PEOPLE, Theodore Liaw writes that “United’s negligence nearly resulted in the loss of all life aboard United Airlines Flight 931 on October 27, 2018, and … United has blatantly lied to its customers to cover up that negligence.”
The suit outlines how the aircraft, en route from Chicago to London, had been several hours into its trans-Atlantic flight when the plane “suddenly [plunged] and begin a terrifyingly rapid descent” from its cruising altitude of 40,000 feet. The drop only ended, he says, when the plane successfully landed at a rural airport in Goose Bay, Canada. The passengers then had to wait in their seats for eight hours for another plane, the lawsuit states.
Liaw, who claims to have spoken to the pilots after the landing, then alleges that the cause of the landing was a shattered cockpit window — photographs of which he included in the filing. It is unclear if he took or obtained the photos.
During the 8-hour wait for rescue, Liaw says he “wandered up to the cockpit to express his appreciation” to the pilots, who then “freely discussed” what had happened.
“The pilots grimly mentioned that everyone came close to dying many times over – from the pilots being sucked out of the window, to the fact that had the plane been further out on its journey, the pilots would have had no choice but to risk an almost certainly fatal water landing in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean,” the suit states.
Liaw then says that he asked if something had struck the window and the pilots “chuckled in response” before telling him “there’s nothing alive at 40,000 feet” and stating the cause was “likely” human mechanical error.
United responded to the lawsuit, telling PEOPLE in a statement: “At United, safety is our top priority and we diverted the aircraft due to a cracked windshield and the aircraft landed safely. We are continuing to investigate this matter but there are a number of claims in this lawsuit that are untrue. Due to the pending litigation, we’re unable to comment further.”
The pilots allegedly went on to detail what may have happened, saying, a United mechanic had “over-torqued the bolts of the cockpit window.”
The lawsuit details that the external two layers of the windshield glass were “completely compromised,” affecting the internal air pressure, while the internal third layer only stayed intact because the “co-pilot quickly pushed his weight against [it] … which may have prevented the entire window from breaking during the descent.”
The documents continue: “Had that last layer disappeared, both pilots would have likely been sucked out of the plane and Flight 931’s passengers would have been doomed.” It also purports that if the glass had started to give in when the plane was over the Atlantic, it would’ve had to land on the ocean.
The pilots allegedly told Liaw that had that been the case, “everyone on board would have either died from the impact or would have quickly frozen to death in the cold ocean.”
Liaw contacted United several times after the incident and was told by one agent that “her notes showed that a bird hit the windshield” of Flight 931, a statement he calls “an outright lie” because “no birds live or fly at that altitude.”
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The filing claims each passenger was offered a $500 voucher as an apology for the incident, which Liaw says caused him “bodily injury and severe emotional distress. He is asking for “fair compensation from United from his close brush with death due to United’s negligence,” which he says amounts to $75,000.
WHY IT RATES: Travel agents and advisor with clients who fly with United Airlines should be showcasing the carrier’s improved app.—Donald Wood, Breaking News Senior Writer.
United Airlines is introducing a reimagined mobile app to customers around the world. Already the top downloaded airline app for Apple and Android phones, the refreshed app now features a more dynamic experience that updates customers at each step of their travel journey, making it the perfect travel companion.
The app includes features customers know and love from the previous version, while adding enhancements that make managing travel easier from booking to landing.
“Every day we are using technology to improve our customers’ experience and making more information available to our customers at the swipe of a finger,” said Linda Jojo, executive vice president of technology and chief digital officer at United Airlines. “With this updated app, we set out to bring improvements that are meaningful to all our customers, whether they travel every week or only once a year.”
Customers’ favorite features, such as bag tracking, will continue to be available in the updated app, and new highlights include:
—A navigation bar that gives customers quick access to some of the most popular tools such as flight status, and some new handy features like My Trips.
—A My Trips tab in the navigation bar that allows customers to easily access information about their upcoming trip and stores boarding passes when customers are checked in for their flights.
—An inbox that stores important push notifications United sends customers about their flight, such as if a flight status changes, gate changes and alerts about when boarding for a flight has begun.
—Dynamic boarding times will be updated throughout the app in the event that departure times change to give customers the latest information even when they are not at the gate. This builds on the airline’s recent addition of boarding notifications, which were added when United rolled out its Better Boarding process.
One of the biggest updates to the app comes during the travel period, when the home screen updates to give customers the most helpful information for each step of their travel journey. The home screen will begin to update starting 48 hours before a flight, and will continue updating throughout various phases all the way through arrival at the final destination with the most useful information. For instance, customers connecting will find a screen that allows them to easily access airport maps so they can easily navigate to the next gate. Bringing the most useful information to the forefront will make the entire journey less stressful and more intuitive.
The app also includes an updated design with more engaging content. When a customer does not have an upcoming trip, the app will open to a beautiful destination image to provide travel inspiration. Content on the home screen is also more personalized to each user; for example, customers who recently passed loyalty milestones will be recognized on the home screen, and the app will also celebrate customers on their birthday.
United’s in-house digital team spent over a year designing and creating this updated app, including eight months during which customers and more than 18,000 employees provided feedback to create the final version that rolls out worldwide today. United issued seven releases during the beta test, making numerous changes based on user feedback. There were more than 13,000 check-ins during the beta test period. The airline will continue soliciting feedback on the app and expects to roll out additional features later this year to further improve and ease travel for our customers.
As a technology leader, United was the first carrier to offer mobile boarding passes and became the first to introduce boarding passes and flight information in its app for partner airlines. Customers can access boarding passes and flight information for flights on United’s Star Alliance partner airlines when flights are booked with connecting travel on United on the same itinerary. The airline also made it easier for customers to search for fare classes available in the app with Expert Mode, a popular feature from united.com.
For more information, reach out to your local travel agent.
Here are the companies the Yahoo Finance team is watching for you today.
Tilray is buying Canadian medical cannabis producer “Natura Naturals” for about $26 million in cash and stock. The deal is contingent on production milestones and includes a huge greenhouse for growing legal marijuana.
A departure from the C-suite at Express. The CEO, David Kornberg, is out as of today, though he’ll officially stay on the books into February. It’s not clear what led to his exit. Kornberg’s been in the top job at Express for the last 4 years. The COO is taking over, on an interim basis.
Tesla is denying reports it’s struck a deal over batteries in China. Tesla tells Bloomberg the reports are “completely false.” Reuters had said the electric car maker had reached a preliminary deal to buy batteries from a Chinese supplier, for its Shanghai factory. Tesla currently gets some of its batteries from Panasonic.
Panasonic is teaming up with Toyota to produce electric car batteries. The two companies announced today that the joint venture will launch by 2020. This comes as ecological vehicles become a more profitable sector amid concerns about global warming. Toyota will take a 51% stake in the partnership, Panasonic will own the rest.
United Airlines is reviewing an incident that left 250 passengers stuck on a plane for about 15 hours. The flight out of New Jersey was heading to Hong Kong last weekend when it was diverted to Newfoundland, Canada, after a medical emergency. A mix of factors, some of which included mechanical problems, led to the passengers being stuck on the frigid Canadian airfield.
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Travel News | eTurboNews
United Airlines is speechless. The Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air, also known as the Montreal Convention may cost United Airlines more than a million Dollars. Airline officials had no comments after 250 United Airlines passengers traveling on a flight from Newark to HongKong were taken hostage by Canadian Authorities. This was reported by eTurboNewson Sunday.
According to Paul Hudson the responsibility may actually be at the airline. Hudson is president of Flyersright.org the 17-hour tarmac stranding on United Airlines Flight 179 in Newfoundland due to mechanical problems should be a textbook case for delay compensation under the 1999 Montreal Convention, which governs international trips, President of FlyersRights.org.
The Montreal Convention 1999 (MC99) establishes airline liability in the case of death or injury to passengers, as well as in cases of delay, damage or loss of baggage and cargo. It unifies all of the different international treaty regimes covering airline liability that had developed haphazardly since 1929. MC99 is designed to be a single, universal treaty to govern airline liability around the world. Read the full MC99 text (pdf)
Under Article 19 of this little known treaty that airlines and many governments do not want the flying public to be aware of, airlines are responsible for damages suffered by passengers on a near strict liability basis of up to about $5,700. To avoid liability, the airline must prove that it took all reasonable steps to avoid or mitigate the delay. Having airworthy aircraft is the airline’s responsibility.
According to Mr. Hudson, the captain could have declared an emergency and this would have allowed passengers to deplane regardless of Canadian immigration rules.
United Airlines did not respond to eTurboNews, but according to a statement to the Wall Street Journal a United spokesperson said that the company is planning to “look at every aspect of this diversion to understand what we could do better.”
Information on fliyersright is available at 1-877-FLYERS-6 or by email to [email protected] or [email protected] at no charge.
The flight from Newark to Hong Kong was first diverted for a medical emergency, but once on the ground in Canada, a door froze, leaving passengers stuck on board for more than 12 hours.
United Continental Holdings Inc. is reviewing an incident that left 250 passengers stuck on an airplane on a small Canadian airfield for about 12 hours last weekend, prompting some to email airline Chief Executive Oscar Munoz.
“We’re going to look at every aspect of this diversion to understand what we could do better,” a United spokeswoman said Monday.
A lawsuit filed last week
accuses United Airlines of failing to protect a 16-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted on a July 2017 flight from Seattle to Newark New
Jersey.
A lawsuit filed last week accuses United Airlines of failing to protect a 16-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted on a July 2017 flight from Seattle to Newark New Jersey.
Photo: Bill Montgomery, Houston Chronicle
Caption
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A lawsuit filed last week
accuses United Airlines of failing to protect a 16-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted on a July 2017 flight from Seattle to Newark New
Jersey.
A lawsuit filed last week accuses United Airlines of failing to protect a 16-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted on a July 2017 flight from Seattle to Newark New Jersey.
Photo: Bill Montgomery, Houston Chronicle
A lawsuit filed last week accused United Airlines of failing to protect a 16-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted on a July 2017 flight from Seattle to Newark, New Jersey.
But the complaint filed in King County Superior Court says that United failed to take appropriate action when the victim called for help, even letting Krishnappa walk off the flight afterward, prompting the girl’s mother to call law enforcement so he could be arrested the next day.
“The conduct of United in this case is unconscionable from start to finish,” said attorney Samuel Daheim, who, with Julie Kays, represents the victim and her mother in the case.
For its part, United issued a public statement indicating it cooperated with the criminal investigation and let the victim change seats.
The assault occurred July 23, 2017. The victim, from the Federal Way area, was about to fly alone for the first time to head for a young women’s leadership conference at Princeton University, according to the lawsuit.
The girl was assigned a seat toward the back of the aircraft and the cabin lights were switched off as the crew prepared for takeoff. The teen expected to sleep throughout the flight.
However, the passenger next to her, later identified as a doctor from India working in the United States as part of a fellowship, began to touch her knee with his fingertips. The teen thought he was asleep and didn’t think the touching was intentional, court documents say.
However, the touching escalated to his hand on her knee, then on her upper thigh and on her genitalia over her leggings.
The girl felt “trapped and afraid” in the dark cabin and thought Krishnappa might do something worse if she drew attention. But when he slid his hand beneath the waistband of her pants, she confronted him and summoned a flight attendant.
The lawsuit says that the flight attendant who responded did nothing to rectify the situation except to tell Krishnappa, “not cool, dude,” and move the teen a few rows ahead, where Krishnappa could still see her.
The Seattle-based flight crew allegedly did nothing to investigate or document the incident and only gave the teen a bag of peanuts as she cried hysterically.
Upon landing more than four hours later, Krishnappa walked off the flight — meaning, Daheim said, that United crew violated federal law by failing to report the assault to authorities.
The teen called her mother in tears to report what happened. Her mother booked a flight to come see her and contacted police, according to court records.
Krishnappa was arrested the next day.
The assault left the girl unable to participate in the prestigious conference and has since suffered social isolation, the complaint said.
United Airlines issued a statement about the case that reads, in part:
“The safety and well-being of our customers is our top priority. Our customer was immediately moved to a different seat when the flight attendant was made aware of the issue. We fully cooperated with law enforcement’s investigation and the perpetrator has been permanently banned from flying United.”
The FBI and federal prosecutors have encouraged passengers in recent months to report any sexual assault they witness or suffer aboard an airplane. During a press conference in August, the FBI said reports of sexual assault aboard aircraft have increased 30 percent in the previous four years.
More than 250 passengers suffered a travel nightmare on a flight from Newark Liberty International Airport to Hong Kong International airport on Sunday, when a medical emergency on the flight caused them to remain trapped on the tarmac for approximately 16 hours.
The United Airlines
UAL, -0.55%
flight was diverted to Goose Bay Airport in Newfoundland, Canada so a passenger could be hospitalized and subsequently the plane was forced to stay grounded there for hours due to a mechanical issue.
The flight was international and Goose Bay Airport did not have overnight staff, so no one was allowed to deplane.
Because the flight was international and Goose Bay Airport did not have overnight staff to process passengers through customs, no customers were allowed to get off the plane.
“The flight landed at 10 p.m. local time and customers departed at 3:30 p.m. local time on a new aircraft,” according to United. Their total delay was more than 17 hours, most of which was spent on their original aircraft.
A United Airlines spokeswoman told MarketWatch that the flight’s crew did everything possible to assist customers but could not allow them to get off the plane due to the customs problems.
“An alternative aircraft was flown in and transported customers and their luggage back to Newark,” she said. “Upon arrival, customers received reimbursement, compensation, hotel accommodations, and meals. We apologized to our customers for this experience.”
Frustrated passengers tweeted
TWTR, -3.97%
about the cold cabin and lack of food as temperatures dipped 30 degrees below zero outside. “This is not an airline,” passenger Cherie Martorana Neve wrote in a Facebook post around noon on Sunday. “It’s more like a prison.”
“There have been small groups of people discussing how agitated they are, discussing legal action, some even searching online what our legal rights as passengers are, and how long the airline is allowed to make us sit on the tarmac,” she added.
Is a 17-hour delay legal?
“U.S. laws do not typically extend to protect passengers internationally for tarmac delays,” said Henrik Zillmer, chief executive officer of air-passenger rights company AirHelp. “The rules also do not apply if the pilot determines there is a reason to keep passengers on the plane, pertaining to safety or security, or if air traffic control advises that taxiing to a place where passengers can deplane would significantly disrupt airport operations.”
‘U.S. laws do not typically extend to protect passengers internationally for tarmac delays.’
In other words, on many international flights and any flight in which the pilot deems it “unsafe” to leave the plane, passengers can be kept on board as long as the airline decides. In one case in November 2018, passengers were trapped on a tarmac in Siberia for six hours before deplaning and ultimately spent three days in and out of the airport due to delays.
According to U.S. law, after a tarmac delay of two hours, the airline must provide passengers with food, water, operational lavatories, and medical care. After a tarmac delay of three hours (or four hours for international flights) in the U.S., passengers must be given the option to deplane. This is not always the case, however, especially at international airports.
Airlines that are found to violate these laws can be fined by the Department of Transportation. The DOT fined Allegiant Air $225,000 in October 2018 for tarmac delays and fined American Airlines
AAL, -3.33%
$1.6 million in 2016 for more than 20 flights between 2013 and 2015 that violated tarmac rules. These fines go directly to the DOT and not to affected consumers.
What can you do about delays?
Passengers affected should be able to claim compensation under the 1999 Montreal Convention, which governs international trips, according to Paul Hudson, President of FlyersRights.org, a U.S.-based airline-passenger advocacy organization. Under Article 19 of the treaty, airlines are responsible for damages suffered by passengers of up to about $5,700. This includes health issues.
‘Someone needs to stand up and say you cannot keep people trapped on the tarmac for more than 8 hours.’
To avoid liability, the airline must prove that it took all reasonable steps to avoid or mitigate the delay, Hudson said. This makes it difficult to take an airline to court if the primary reason for the delay was weather-related or any other delay deemed out of the airline’s control.
However, “Having airworthy aircraft is the airline’s responsibility,” Hudson said, meaning the passengers affected by this week’s delay could have grounds for compensation.
A long shot: If the airline will not compensate you, you could contact your credit-card company in an attempt to have the charge reversed, arguing that you did not get the service you paid for, said consumer advocate and travel writer Christopher Elliott. However, he says that may not work. “It may depend on the mood of the dispute resolution officer,” Elliott said.
What action has the government taken?
Delays like these underscore ongoing issues with flying, Elliott said. Portions of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 — designed to help investigate common complaints, the policy of “bumping” passengers from oversold flights and develop means of preventing sexual assaults on flights, among other things — may be delayed due to the government shutdown.
The Act, passed in October 2018, called for the creation of an Aviation Consumer Advocate and the examination of “tarmac delay contingency planning requirements.” (The Federal Aviation Administration did not respond to request for comment and has tweeted it is running with limited staff due to lack of funding.)
“Flying is not fair,” Elliott said. “The only reason airlines are allowed to get away with this is that we are allowing them to get away with it. Someone needs to stand up and say you cannot keep people trapped on the tarmac for more than 8 hours, and maybe something will be done.”
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Kari Paul is a personal finance reporter based in New York. You can follow her on Twitter @kari_paul.
