In a brazen bid to attract more customers, United Continental (remember when the two airlines merged?) announced today a slew of customer upgrades ($550M worth of them to be exact), which comes as a bit of good news for the thousands of travelers who are destined to get stranded at the airline's biggest carrier, Newark Liberty Airport. more ›

Last night, United Airlines' computer system crashed—"a network connectivity issue" supposedly (whoever unplugged the Cat 5 cable is probably in trouble)—which resulted in complete chaos for its passengers. Planes couldn't depart, flights were canceled, and reservations and ticket processing systems were down. As one resigned passenger Tweeted, "Cutting losses: after 15 hrs (9 @ LAX), 2 cancelled flights, 3hrs on phone & $200 in cab fare, I gave up on @United & cancelled all flights." more ›

The NTSB says that the cockpit fire that forced a United flight from JFK to LAX to be diverted to Dulles on Sunday may have been caused by a "recurring issue" in Boeing 757 planes. Investigators are inspecting the plane and the NTSB cautions, "We haven't narrowed down what the issues are with this incident yet." more ›

So that United JFK-LAX flight that was diverted to DC last night due to a fire (possibly electrical) in the cockpit? The celebrities on board include Ashley Olsen and her boyfriend, Justin Bartha. But don't fret—they are "safe," as were the other hundred-some passengers. Phil Lobel, a LA-based publicist, said, "The people that were sitting in first class had taken pictures and seen the flames coming out of the cockpit actually, when the door was open. Smoke was coming out and they saw that the front windshield was completely shattered from the heat of the fire. Everybody had masks on - the pilot and co-pilot had masks on breathing oxygen." more ›

Last night, a fire broke out in the cockpit of a United Boeing 757 headed to LAX from JFK Airport. The plane landed safely at Dulles at 9:36 p.m. Passenger Phil Lobel, told the AP that 30 minutes in, "he detected an electrical burning smell. He said flight attendants began going over emergency instructions with passengers in the exit rows and someone brought up a fire extinguisher from the back of the plane to the cockpit." Other tidbits: Some passengers took pictures of the flames, some passengers were celebrities, and "About an hour after the plane landed, Lobel received an e-mail from United apologizing for the 'experience' he had on the flight." more ›

Starting today, extremely overweight passengers on United Airlines may be forced to buy an extra seat to accommodate their extra padding. A spokeswoman for the airline tells Bloomberg News the policy is being implemented in response to "hundreds" of complaints, and that until today more svelte customers had no choice but to "share their seat with the oversized guest." According to the new rules, an obese flier may be required to pay for an extra seat if he or she can't buckle the seatbelt (even using the seatbelt extender) or can't put the armrests down when seated. If the flight is not fully booked and two empty adjacent seats are available, flight attendants will relocate the passenger, free of charge. But if the flight is full, the passenger could be bumped to another flight or charged for an upgrade. Similar policies are already in effect at eight other domestic airlines, including Delta and Southwest. But up in ever-courteous Canada, the Supreme Court ruled that airlines must provide an extra seat for wide ends free of charge. more ›