What was shaping up to be the summer of the airline merger is now dead.  US Airways and United announced that they have decided that now is not a great time to merge.  Surprisingly (at least to me, and what do I know?) United was the company to call off further discussions.  It looks like [...]

A legitimate reason to switch to United:  The airline now sells upgrades to Economy Plus at the time you book your flight.  One-way upgrades that get you about 5 inches more legroom start at $14 for short-haul and go up to $104 each way for LAX-Tokyo (a steal).   After you sit 15 hours in Continental’s [...]

(Thanks to Sean for the heads up…)
Silverjet, which many predicted would be shutting down shortly, says that they have signed an agreement for a $100 million investment ($25 million now, $75 million later) from an unnamed source in the United Arab Emirates (the UAE is so flush with cash that people there think it’s a [...]

You’ll read about this elsewhere, but United just raised their ticket change fee on domestic flights to $150 from $100.  Expect other majors to follow.  Remember that JetBlue only charges $40 for a change, and Southwest doesn’t charge anything.

The modern-day US airline industry, which allowed people to fly all over the country for roughly the same price as a couple of steaks at Morton’s, died last week after a long illness. It was 30 years old.
The cause of death was oil. And irrational pricing. And low fare carriers. And [...]

The NY Times is reporting that Delta and Northwest are close to announcing a merger, an announcement of which will supposedly be shortly followed by Continental and United joining forces.
You’ll read plenty of commentary about these mergers elsewhere, so you don’t need me to analyze the minutia, but let me say this:  if you thought [...]

Ah the good old days. Remember back in 2005 when Delta introduced SimpliFares and they were going to cap fares at $599 each way and end Saturday night stays? Those days are looooooong gone.
This article notes that a number of airlines (including Continental, American, United and Northwest) have re-introduced Saturday night [...]

We’ve seen a couple of stories recently about turbulence causing injuries, but I’m including yet another:  10 passengers were hurt when a United Airlines flight from LA to Chicago hit severe turbulence over the Rockies.  If I’ve written it once, I’ve written it, uh, 4 times or so — the only real danger you face [...]

Although it’s still pretty unlikely, United would consider dropping out of the Star Alliance if it was necessary to complete a merger, according to this article.  United also would consider withdrawing from the Star Alliance, the
global marketing consortium it co-founded, if needed to close a deal.
"You can assume that absolutely everything goes into the mix [...]

Two quick notable route cancellations:
Air New Zealand is dropping its thrice weekly service between Nadi, Fiji, and Los Angeles in April so it can use aircraft on more profitable routes.  Codeshare partner Air Pacific will pick up 2 of those frequencies, bringing their number of weekly flights to 6.  Air Pacific isn’t as comfortable as [...]