If you’ve been feverishly roaming the interwebs for some new fifth freedom routes of 2025, I’m here to help. Fifth freedoms are a common theme among travel websites, but I still want to provide a quick backgrounder. Created in 1944 by the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention for short), and now managed by […]
United Airlines
Gifting Airline Status
Gifting airline status isn’t unique to Italy’s ITA Airways. Just ask the US3 (i.e. American Airlines, Delta, and United). For the past 15 years (save for maybe 2020 or 2021), I’ve had varying levels of airline status. Back then, the US3 rolled hard with distance-based mileage accruals, as did most of the world. You also […]
United Is Adding Flights from Newark to this Scottish Gem
Did you think I was referring to Aberdeen, the oil capital? Maybe from Houston. Having temporarily suspended routes between the United States and Scotland during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, United was the first U.S. carrier to resume flights between the two places back in March 2022, from NY/Newark EWR to Edinburgh EDI. Resumptions […]
My First United Airlines Fare Search Hack
In what I hope is merely the first of a bunch of posts about how to improve your experience when booking flights, here’s my first United Airlines fare search hack that might help make your next airfare search more efficient. n.b. the search parameters were from last summer, but the travel hack still applies. O.K., […]
United Has Vast Plans for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner
My history with United Airlines and Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner started off with a thud, which considering the circumstances, was the better end of that thud-bang spectrum. A few days after its inaugural Denver DEN to Tokyo NRT flight, I happened to be on that route (one of my aviation goals has been to connect Tokyo […]
