Expedia Group has filed a lawsuit against partner United Airlines growing out of a contract dispute.

The civil complaint, filed in Southern District of New York Monday, is under seal. The docket said the order would be filed under seal.

As of Monday afternoon, United’s flights were still available on Expedia.com.

It is relatively rare that contract disputes between online travel agencies, on the one hand, and airlines or hotel, on the other, reach the public domain unless they are at a breaking point.

Airlines have gone missing on online travel agency websites in the past. One of the more high-profile disputes involved American Airlines and Orbitz Worldwide, which tangled over distribution costs and direct-connect issues starting in 2010. Orbitz took a substantial financial from the skirmish, which dragged on before being resolved in 2014.

An Expedia Group spokesperson decline to comment about its complaint against United. A spokesperson for United Airlines, citing pending litigation, wouldn’t comment.

Although the cases are likely unrelated, Ryanair and Expedia are locked in a lawsuit in the State of Washington, with Ryanair alleging that Expedia accesses Ryanair’s flight schedules and fairs without permission.

 

 

 

The state Assembly approved a bill that would effectively hike the gas tax on United Airlines, the largest airline company doing business in New Jersey, in order to finance the extension of the PATH Train to Newark Liberty International Airport.

Senate Bill 2892, sponsored by Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-3rd District, and approved in a 42-31 vote by the Assembly on Thursday, would close a loophole on the four cent jet fuel tax, but it does not specifically mention United Airlines.

Rather, the bill would see the jet fuel tax hike imposed only on flights in and out of New Jersey airports, which is at least 20,000 annual commercial flights, a distinction currently held only by Newark Liberty International Airport, where the majority of flights are by United Airlines.

The bill would boost state revenue by up to $40 million a year, according to a fiscal note from the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services.

The move has drawn heavy criticism from business advocates and executives, as well as United Airlines, who point to the considerable cost of doing business in New Jersey and argue that the proposed use of the jet fuel tax revenue is illegal under federal law.

“United Airlines, along with other carriers serving Newark Liberty International Airport, have made it very clear this misguided bill would make it more expensive for airlines to operate, adding to the cost of doing business in New Jersey resulting in higher costs for everyone—including the people of the Garden State,” Jill Kaplan, president of the New York/New Jersey region for United Airlines, said in a Thursday statement.

United Airlines has pointed to significant direct and ancillary economic investment into the state—$16 billion in 2017, according to a November 2018 report provided to NJBIZ.

“This change to the aviation fuel tax formula would make New Jersey less competitive and hurt efforts to encourage economic growth,” Andrew Musick, vice president of government affairs for the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, said in a Thursday statement.

“The expanded tax will cost commercial airlines millions of dollars, and that will drive up the cost of doing businesses in New Jersey, as well as the cost of airfare,” he added.

United made $2 billion of direct investment into Newark airport infrastructure and employed 14,000 airport workers, Kaplan said.

And, Kaplan said, Newark has been the most expensive of United’s six hubs nationwide.

“I want to be very clear, we have choices and we are looking at our choices,” Kaplan said at an October 2018 committee hearing. “We grow in areas where we are able to facilitate the focus of our growth plan.”

Kaplan also said the plan is unlawful under the Federal Aviation Administration’s guidelines, which she said mandates that jet fuel taxes can’t be used for non-aviation purposes.

But supporters of the measure, such as the labor union 32BJ SEIU, say United holds significant amounts of wealth, which it needs to more equitably share.

“Approving this measure is justice for working people in New Jersey and especially for Newark and the communities around the airport,” Kevin Brown, the New Jersey state director for 32BJ SEIU, said in a statement to NJBIZ. “In the face of sizable profits on one hand and a compelling community need for improved infrastructure on the other, the tax loophole that commercial airlines current enjoy in New Jersey stands out as unjustifiable.”

TAMUNING, GUAM, February 4, 2019 – 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.

Last year, United updated its digital platforms including the united.com homepage and entire mobile website to make them more dynamic and personalized.

For more information about updates to the app, visit the United Hub.

A Florida woman traveling through Houston won a multi-million dollar lawsuit against United Airlines.

Erica Fulton is disabled and was boarding her flight, when she says a flight attendant, who was helping her to her seat, dropped her, and injured her shoulder.

Fulton was traveling to celebrate her son’s 30th birthday.

“Within 30 minutes of being dropped, she’s there telling United what happened,” attorney Sean Roberts said. “They act like it never happened.”

Roberts represented Fulton in court. He says United claimed they didn’t get wind of this until six weeks after the incident, even though he says their internal call logs shows Fulton reporting it immediately.

Roberts also claims the airline didn’t even investigate the incident.

“That was probably what set this thing along the path of a multi-million dollar verdict, when it should’ve been much lower,” Roberts said.

United Airlines ultimately lost in court, and Fulton was awarded nearly $4 million.

“The way United painted their first-class passenger, as a malingerer and a liar, I’m not surprised with how the jury reacted to that,” Roberts said.

ABC13 reached out to United Airlines about the incident. They responded in an emailed statement:

“Our goal is to provide all of our customers with a safe and comfortable travel experience. We disagree with the court’s ruling and will continue to defend ourselves.”

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