Hub cuts in Houston are never nice to see

Good lord, what was this idiot thinking?

Confusion inside Boeing about features related to a new software system underline the flawed design and rollout of the company’s troubled new jet.

The days of top-tier elites being treated like royalty have ended

maybe the top Boeing executives could volunteer to go on a round-the-world trip aboard a randomly selected 737 Max--bringing their families along for good measure.

/ umm, round the world?

LoL good luck with that!

Cool - now give me some good prices

those of us who are smart consumers shouldn’t have been using an airline co-branded credit card for spend before, and still won’t do so after. So while we can complain, I’m not sure the impact will matter much based on what United’s goals are.

// yep. Chase Sapphire Reserve for most purchases (until those points become less valuable), Amex cash for some grocery purchases... Re-evaluate constantly. That's the game today.

There will still be sweet spots and still some mistakes, but the outsize value that used to be possible via using mileage runs to accumulate miles that could then purchase extremely cheap premium class tickets has gotten more and more difficult to realize in recent years, and this move just puts a few more nails in that coffin.

It's been at least two years since I was able to redeem a saverpass premium cabin ticket anywhere I wanted to go. The game has changed.

These days, I get my best value from MP out of occasional upgrades or close-in domestic tickets. And it's a far cry from cashing in 67,500 miles to fly Lufthansa First to Greece back in the day. :)

For a guy who fancies himself such an expert, he seems to have trouble with some basics of travel today

He has always grated on my nerves and this piece did nothing to change that.

That said, I do sometimes use his travel guides. Kinda liked the Paris one :)

When the plane was first designed, engineers determined that using a single sensor—measuring what is technically known as the angle of attack—would be simpler and was in line with the plane maker’s long-held philosophy to keep pilots at the center of cockpit control, a person familiar with the matter said.

That earlier design of the system, known as MCAS, has puzzled some pilots and safety experts, who wondered why the system didn’t rely on multiple feeds.

Mike Michaelis, chairman of the safety committee at American Airlines Group Inc.’s pilot union, welcomed news of the coming Boeing software fix. “That’s the way it should have been in the first place,” he said.

The software change also offered reassurance to concerned MAX passengers on at least one U.S. flight Tuesday.

“Everyone’s just happy that something was going to be done,” Peter McGuinness, chief commercial and marketing officer at yogurt maker Chobani and who flew from New York to Chicago on Tuesday on an American Airlines 737 MAX 8. He described himself “very concerned, so much so that I am taking a regional jet on the way back.”

An American spokesman said the airline continues to believe the MAX is safe and pilots are well-trained to operate the aircraft. Southwest Airlines Co. and United Continental Holdings Inc. also operate MAX planes.

// Sadly, I think we're going to find that inadequate training/documentation of particular quirks in this system probably contributed heavily to both crashes, rather than an outright design "flaw" -- but that doesn't help the dead. And it's just my speculation at this point.