United Airlines restored its Los Angeles to Shanghai nonstop service on Thursday, becoming the only U.S. carrier to fly the route.
19.08.2024 - 17:05 / thepointsguy.com
It is both the end of an era and a sign of the (electronic) times.
United Airlines recently announced it is discontinuing the print version of Hemispheres, the inflight magazine that has greeted passengers from the seatback pocket since 1992.
Starting with the October issue, United will offer Hemispheres in digital form only.
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Many passengers will miss grabbing a pen, flipping the magazine open to the crossword puzzle and hoping no one else has filled it out yet. Others will miss carefully tearing out that month's enticing "Three Perfect Days" feature and dreaming of jetting off for a quick, efficient trip to that destination. It was even fun to quickly flip through the magazine to see what snacks were available for sale on a particular flight.
Mark Muren, United Airlines' managing director of product, identity and loyalty, told TPG that the carrier is instead "taking a big leap into digital entertainment" and moving the magazine online. This way, United can offer passengers "more personalized content and tell richer stories," according to United's statement, as well as options for enlarged text, access to archival features and (soon) translation into eight languages.
Muren remembers the days when he'd study the route maps in the Hemispheres magazine, read the note from the CEO and take the magazine with him at the end of a flight.
But now, United is "taking this product that was really built for another time and making it much more accessible," he said. Nowadays, most passengers travel with their own electronic devices, and United has vowed to put screens at every seat in its new fleet.
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United Airlines is far from being a trendsetter by retiring its physical magazine.
In fact, the carrier is the last major domestic carrier to close the book on the print version of its inflight magazine.
Back in the days when there were no seatback screens and perhaps one monitor for movies at the front of the cabin, the print version of Hemispheres "was a great way for us to communicate with customers, provide interesting content and help them learn a little bit more about United," Muren said. While it may be "tough to let it go," he said the carrier's research shows that transferring attention to the mobile app and a screen is the right move.
"There's a correlation between having a screen on board and the customer liking so many different aspects of their journey," Muren said. "It makes a lot of sense and is the right thing to do," he said.
United said the Hemispheres digital platform will include "personalized, timely and dynamic travel content" in various formats, such as
United Airlines restored its Los Angeles to Shanghai nonstop service on Thursday, becoming the only U.S. carrier to fly the route.
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Last Oct. 10, my wife, a friend and I arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport to fly to Paris on a trip we had originally planned for April but had to postpone. At the United Airlines check-in counter, agents told us our reservation had been canceled — by us! Even weirder, the same thing had happened three weeks earlier, when the airline sent us an email saying we had canceled our trip. That time, we called and insisted United reissue the reservation for the same price, which it did by giving us a travel voucher and instantly redeeming it. At the airport, though, we watched as supervisors got their supervisors involved, and we were eventually told that something about the voucher had raised questions about fraud. We missed our flight and bought last-minute tickets for that evening’s 11 p.m. United flight to Paris. Then flight was canceled, though this time for everyone. Given the day’s stress and frustration, we gave up on the trip, had dinner and went to the airport Marriott before heading home the next morning. We believe United owes us for the cost of the last-minute flight ($4,475), a portion of the earlier canceled flight ($3,099), the cost of our transportation, hotel and meals that day ($1,178) and the money we lost on nonrefundable plans in France ($2,007). Can you help?
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