United, Star Alliance Take Top Honors

Know More: United Airlines 2.0, United Airlines

United Airlines was rated best North American Airline with a frequent-flier program for the business traveler in a survey by Business Traveller USA.

"What United has managed to do in the past year, particularly on domestic routes, has been no less than remarkable. While struggling to recover from years of financial turmoil, the airline helped redefine what it means to travel on long-haul domestic routes and short-haul regional flights."

The airline has been in Chapter 11 for the last 3+ years and has been able to restructure itself in order to develop the best product for the passenger.

"Just over a year ago, United launched its groundbreaking p.s. service on trans-continental flights from JFK in New York to San Francisco and LAX. The p.s. service offers premium seating, meals and in-flight entertainment that are commonly offered on international flights. United Express helped reinvent the hated regional jet, with the explus, a 70-seat aircraft with United First, and Economy Plus seats and meals on flights of more than 2.5 hours."

Picture courtesy of united.com This move towards reductions in seats and pumping up amenities for economy has left the carrier alone in this area, especially on the domestic scene. American Airlines played with the concept of removing seats to promote increased leg room in economy but abandoned the idea in order to place the most amount of seats on aircraft to squeeze the most money out of the aircraft as possible.

United believes this will pay off and keep their profitable business travelers flying with them instead of their competitors, especially with increased competition with Frontier and JetBlue, who both have on-demand television in all their jets.

Star Alliance, which United is a founding member, won best Airline Alliance. In September, Star Alliance became the first airline group to offer a frequent-flyer redemption option across the alliance, rather than on an individual carrier basis. The redemption is currently available for ANA, Austrian, LOT, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines, but additional Star Alliance members will be added to the reciprocity agreement throughout 2006. BT readers voted Star Alliance the Best Airline Alliance of 2005. Star Alliance collectively flies to 795 destinations in 139 countries. South African Airways and SWISS will be inducted as members by the end of 2006.

Business Traveller USA
USA Today

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