United to cut flights
 

According to today's Chicago Tribune: <BR> <BR>Starting November 1, 2001, United Airlines is planning drastic cuts in its "off-hours" flights, before 7:00 a.m. (CST - Chicago's time zone) and after 7:00 p.m. <BR> <BR>United expects this to concern millions of booked and potential travelers -- particularly those with tickets for November and December, so I thought that some Fodor's readers might be affected. United promises to contact everyone, but I just wanted to give a heads-up. <BR> <BR>Does anyone know if the new Forum policy of not cutting and pasting text include site links to copyrighted material? I don't want this to get deleted, so visit www.chicagotribune.com and the full article is in the online "Business" section. The site also includes a nice "Business Travel" section with links to many helpful articles.

Hi Heather, <BR>I found out yesterday when I was checking my flts that UA has cut their schedules drastically. One of my flts. to FLA (in Nov) is now going out of a completely different airport and the other for December back from London was canceled entirely. I really love UA and fly them all the time. There are so many people losing their jobs. It's sad. I think if anyone has reservations on UA they should contact them or their travel agent instead of waiting to be contacted. <BR>Good luck and keep flying...

Fodor's policy of not including cutting and pasting text from copyrighted sources is not new at all, it is the policy on every legitimate site on the web and is a point of law. It has always been mentioned on the page if you actually read the legal section or something, but I suppose they've had complaints or have noticed more of it so put it up front. telling people URLs is not cutting and pasting text, that is what you are supposed to do to reference something--zillions of articles in the paper, magazines elsewhere couldn't exist if they didn't give you web site addresses nowadays. BTW why did you just violate the policy, Heather? Fodors does not want you to post copyrighted material on here, didn't you understand that? If they delete your post, they will delete the whole thing.

United just started a sale for flights between the U.S. and Europe. I could take the kids to Paris for a few days for $230 RT from Washington. <BR> <BR>I'm still not going to bite, though, as I don't think we'd be safe. It's very tempting, though.

Christina, I was unclear on whether directing someone to a copyrighted site is violating the policy. That isn't specified in Fodor's language. <BR> <BR>First, you wrote, "telling people URLs is not cutting and pasting text, that is what you are supposed to do to reference something". <BR> <BR>Which is what I did. <BR> <BR>Then, you wrote, "BTW why did you just violate the policy, Heather? Fodors does not want you to post copyrighted material on here, didn't you understand that?" <BR> <BR>So, what part of my post is copyrighted and violated the policy? I wrote all of the post and directed them to the Trib's site. None of my post was copied from the Tribune ... it is just the jist of the article to alert those who visit here and might be affected by United's new cuts. While it is difficult to convey tone online, the following comment is not intended to be rude: perhaps, before replying to future posts in the way that you did to mine, you should make sure that you have all of the facts.

Heather, brava!!!

Ditto the cheers for Heather.

Thanks Heather!

I was to go to India for 3 weeks in Dec./Jan. but United canceled the flights, but did refund our money. They are not flying to that part of the world right now, I suppose. They gave the option for us to re-book with Air India but we passed. If you have tickets to the Middle East or Central Asia with any American carrier, check on the flight, it may have been canceld on you without your knowledge. Not afraid of flying/travelling though, going to Amsterdam instead!

This was on the local news in Chicago last night and again this morning, didn't get to read the Trib today. The news said NO United flights period (not jsut reduced or cut) between the hours of 7 am and 7 pm. This is both domestic and international according to news. I live in the flight pattern for O'Hare and I can tell you there are MANY flights that normally pass over in these hours so this is kind of a shock!

What is wrong with Air India, Steven, that made you pass on your trip?

No problem with Air India. But, I am Caucasian, my wife is Indian and we were to go with her parents as well. My mother-in-law felt it wasn't safe for me with the conflict out there (there are many Muslims in India). Also, we were planning on going to Kashmir, which is seeing artillery fire again. Oh well, we will just have to go next year.

Beth, if that's what they said on the news they said it wrong. What Heather originally said is what all the papers are saying -- United is cutting most drastically in the off hours of 7 pm to 7 am. The flights between 7 am and 7 pm will be less affected by cuts. If United ever eliminated all daytime flights in and out of ORD, its hub, there would essentially be no United left at all.

I'm sorry I meant the news said 7pm to 7am. The thing is the news said ALL flights during these hours and believe me a hear plenty during those "off peak hours" Its hard to go to sleep on Sunday nights with all of the loud planes coming in after 11 pm. The difference is apparently the Trib said a "reductiion" in off peak flights while the news said NO off peak flights for United.

One question that I had is how all of the changes affect when the best time to purchase international (US-Europe RT) tickets is. Is it best to wait, as I usually do, for lower fares, or will the reduced number of flights keep fares up and empty seats down? The airline industry still confounds me a bit in how it reacts to different climates. Any advice is welcome. <BR> <BR>Thanks!

I'm in the same boat [airplane?] Heather and I haven't *clue* -- my travel agent said to expect more schedule changes -- I'm sort of waiting to see what emerges after Oct 27 when swissair finally folds.