Passengers arriving late on some United Airlines flights can take solace in this: Their frequent-flier accounts will be a little fatter for their troubles.
United on Tuesday said it will give 500 miles to passengers delayed by at least 30 minutes on flights to and from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, its largest hub, and seven destinations: Philadelphia; Boston; New York’s La Guardia; Newark, N.J.; Minneapolis-St. Paul; Dallas-Fort Worth; and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in northern Virginia.
The deal only applies to flights between O’Hare and the seven cities – not Denver. However, it does apply to connecting flights, such as flights from Denver to one of the seven cities through O’Hare.
“The seven cities were chosen based on the most popular cities our business customers tell us that they fly to,” said United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski. “Part of it also is we’ve been really aggressive in Chicago with special promotions for business travelers because Chicago is the last hub with two major airlines serving business travelers.”
“If it’s successful in Chicago, we’ll certainly consider trying it in other cities,” she said.
United will honor the offer even for flights delayed because of bad weather or problems with air-traffic control. The program, which began Tuesday, will run through the end of the year and could be extended, Urbanski said.
The airline is not aware of another carrier offering a mileage guarantee for on-time arrivals, she said.
“It is to show our customers in Chicago that we have service that is better than the competition,” Urbanski said.
American Airlines, United’s largest competitor at O’Hare, will “certainly look at what they’re doing, as we do all the initiatives of all our competitors,” spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagan said. “Our focus continues to be providing our customers with an on-time arrival for all our flights, not just a chosen few.”
Urbanski said United will not give those flights priority on the runway – either allowing them to cut in line for takeoff or to get to a gate – in an effort to beat the 30-minute threshold.
She declined to say how much the program would cost the bankrupt carrier, saying only that it would be “pretty cost-efficient.”
But chronic delays at O’Hare could make it a risky move, said Chris Lozier, an airline analyst at Chicago-based Morningstar Inc.
O’Hare ranked as the nation’s worst airport for on-time departures and arrivals in 2004; 37 percent of flights arrived late while 73 percent departed on time.
Denver Post staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi contributed to this report.
