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United Airlines' new upsell: Keeping other travelers out of the middle seat

United Airlines has a new way to entice customers to pay more on board: no middle seat neighbor. The carrier said Tuesday that one of the rows on its Airbus A321XLRs will have an empty middle seat with a tray table for the aisle- and window-seat customers to share. The seats, which are in the extra legroom section, go on sale later this year so it's not clear just how much more United will charge. It said it could later add them to other aircraft beyond those new, long-range narrow-body planes. The new upsell is just one of many airlines are throwing out to get customers to pay more to fly. Last week, Delta Air Lines joined United in launching basic business-class and premium economy fares that don't come with perks that used to be included in the ticket. For example, Delta will no longer include access to its top-tier Delta One lounge or seat selection with its cheapest long-haul business-class tickets. United in March also said it plans to launch a set of three economy seats that can be converted into a bed, which it's calling the "Relax Row" on some of its wide-body planes. Airlines have spent years adding more premium-class seats to make bigger business-class cabins where spending has been more resilient. The bottlenecks of ever-more-elaborate seats have even delayed deliveries of new planes. Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis.

United Airlines' new upsell: Keeping other travelers out of the middle seat
North America
CNBC Finance

World Cup's biggest spenders show up late as semifinals drive host city travel boom

The World Cup's biggest economic boost is arriving later than expected as the tournament enters its final days. But for the U.S. businesses hoping for a soccer boom, it's better late than never. This week's semifinals pit France against Spain in Dallas on Tuesday and England versus Argentina in Atlanta on Wednesday. Travel bookings have accelerated as the field of competitors narrows and fans converge from around the world to see the high-stakes matches. Every U.S. host city has seen an economic lift from soccer fans, according to Bank of America Institute. "You can see the World Cup effect on the ground," said David Tinsley, senior economist at Bank of America Institute. "Spending picked up after the tournament kicked off, with restaurants and bars seeing some of the strongest gains as consumers turned matches into social events." In-person spending in U.S. host cities rose 5% over last year from June 10 to July 5, with Kansas City leading the gains, according to analysis from Bank of America credit and debit cards. The impact could be much higher, since the results capture only spending with BofA cards in U.S. households and does not include cash, checks and spending by international tourists or on corporate cards. Kansas City also saw the biggest weekly hotel performance gain among host markets, with revenue per available room (RevPAR) up nearly 50%, according to data from industry analysis firm CoStar. Philadelphia also saw a strong lift, with weekend RevPAR up more than 74% as its World Cup match coincided with Fourth of July celebrations and America 250 events. That was a relief to hotel owners who worried before the World Cup kicked off about soft advance hotel bookings and FIFA releasing large blocks of rooms back into the market. It's not that hotels are sold out. During the final week of the tournament's group stage, occupancy actually declined almost 3% over last year in U.S. host cities, indicating some business and leisure travelers altered their plans. But even in early stages of the World Cup, host city hotels charged 21% higher rates, according to CoStar. As the tournament moved into the knockout stage, demand from June 28 to July 4th increased 2.4% from last year and RevPaR rose 23%, despite the World Cup having 50% fewer matches than the previous week. Demand for short-term rentals also increased beside higher stake matches, according to analytics company AirDNA.

World Cup's biggest spenders show up late as semifinals drive host city travel boom
Europe
BBC Business

The SpaceX IPO made history. One month on has it lost momentum?

ByKali HaysTechnology reporterPublished13 July 2026, 06:01 BSTUpdated 8 minutes agoSpaceX investors have swung from celebration to apparent concern in its first month as a publicly traded company. When shares in the firm, co-founded and led by Elon Musk, first became available for individuals to buy on the public stock market on 12 June, there was an investor frenzy. Although the company had decided to price its shares at $135 each, the price immediately shot up to $150 that first day, climbing to $176, before closing at $160.95. The following week, its shares went up even further, hitting an intraday high of $225, meaning it had surpassed Amazon and Microsoft in total market value. "With Elon Musk, any company he touches gets people excited," Keith Snyder, analyst at investment research firm CFRA, said. "But this was also the first time people felt like they were able to invest in something that was being marketed as an AI play." Willy Lee, an investor at Neosteller, which facilitates individual investors putting money into private companies, agreed that the excitement around the IPO was very much around artificial intelligence (AI). SpaceX earlier this year acquired Musk's AI start-up xAI, recently renamed SpaceXAI, external and best known for the controversial chatbot Grok, and also started leasing data centre capacity to other tech companies. But its main business is the manufacture and launch of rockets and telecommunications satellites called Starlink. When Starlink said it was cutting prices in the Memphis, Tennessee area amid local concerns over a massive data centre project, SpaceX shares fell on the day by 8%. As the reality of how SpaceX currently makes money has seemed to come into clearer focus, the company's shares have started to sink. Even amid a tumultuous couple of weeks for tech stocks, SpaceX has taken a particular hit. When it was added to the Nasdaq100 index on 7 July, for instance, although the index closed down 1.7%, SpaceX fell 4.4%. An earlier addition to the FTSE Russell index had given the shares a slight boost. At the end of its first trading month, shares of SpaceX were selling at around $145 each, roughly 18% less than the high on its first day of trading, and 35% less than its peak so far.

The SpaceX IPO made history. One month on has it lost momentum?
Europe
The Guardian

Oil, gas and UK government borrowing costs prices jump as Middle East tensions ratchet higher – as it happened

Crude oil prices have hit their highest levels in four weeks, as Washington and Tehran traded attacks and the US reimposed a naval blockade of Iran. Brent crude has jumped $3.79 a barrel to $87.08 a barrel, a 4.55% increase, the highest since 12 June, before the ceasefire. The US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding to end the conflict on 17 June and engaged in negotiations for a permanent peace deal. Iran said on Monday it was continuing talks with mediators from Qatar, Pakistan and Oman to try to prevent any further escalation. Donald Trump declared the ceasefire over last week but left the door to talks open. US West Texas Intermediate crude rose to a high of $81.25 a barrel, and is now trading at $80.92 a barrel, up 2.8%. What we think is that the peak of the escalation is behind us, but there are upside risks to oil prices if these disruptions continue and that will keep prices in the $85-$90 range.

Oil, gas and UK government borrowing costs prices jump as Middle East tensions ratchet higher – as it happened
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

US attacks Iran over ship being hit in Strait of Hormuz; Tehran lashes out again at Gulf Arab states

The United States attacked Iran early Sunday morning over an Iranian attack on a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, setting the container ship ablaze and forcing its crew to abandon it. Iran apparently responded with strikes targeting Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The new crossfire in the Persian Gulf comes after US President Donald Trump suggested an interim deal and ceasefire in the Iran war was “over.” US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote online: “Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay.” The United Arab Emirates warned the public Sunday of an incoming missile and drone attack as explosions could be heard in nearby Qatar. A missile alert sounded in Qatar shortly after the blasts. Qatar's military said in a statement it intercepted the incoming Iranian fire. Meanwhile, missile alerts sounded in Bahrain, an island kingdom in the Persian Gulf home to the US Navy's 5th Fleet. It wasn't immediately clear what locations were under attack in the UAE, which so far hadn't been targeted in the latest round of attacks by Iran. In the Strait of Hormuz attack, a Cyprus-flagged container ship was hit by Iran and suffered “significant engineroom damage” and a civilian crew member is missing, US Central Command said. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre, overseen by the British military, said the ship had been travelling in a route hugging the shoreline of Oman. That's been the way ships have gotten in and out of the Persian Gulf while avoiding Iranian territorial waters. The ship's crew abandoned the vessel as it was ablaze, the centre said. Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said multiple vessels “disregarded our warnings and instructions to correct their course and proceed along the approved route.” One of them “was struck by a warning shot and brought to a stop.” Iran said that the strait would remain closed “until further notice” and said it would consider targeting “additional enemy bases in the region” if it faced more attacks. (AP) RD RD Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

US attacks Iran over ship being hit in Strait of Hormuz; Tehran lashes out again at Gulf Arab states
Europe
BBC Business

UK wasted £10bn on PPE that left NHS staff poorly protected, Covid inquiry finds

Image source, Getty ImagesByJim ReedHealth reporterPublished14 July 2026, 12:01 BSTUpdated 2 hours agoThe lives of NHS staff and patients were put at risk in the pandemic because of a lack of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), with almost £10bn of taxpayers money wasted in a scramble to buy more, the Covid inquiry has said. The chair Baroness Hallett described the "vast" waste in pandemic procurement, amounting to £9.9bn – two-thirds of the £14.9bn the UK and devolved governments spent on PPE. The country entered the pandemic with its stockpile of masks, gowns and gloves in a "perilous state" and was "simply not ready to compete" in the global race to secure new supplies, added the chair. She criticised the controversial "VIP lane", which prioritised offers of PPE from those with political connections, as a "misguided" policy which undermined public confidence. But she said there was "no evidence of cronyism or corruption" by ministers or other officials when awarding the final contracts. When the cost of home testing kits and other equipment, such as ventilators, was included, the total amount spent by the government between January 2020 and June 2022 exceeded £42bn, the inquiry found. The UK's emergency stockpile of PPE, meant to last at least 15 weeks before being replenished, was running out by the end of March 2020 as demand from hospitals soared. Only a third of the masks in England's pandemic stockpile were usable, the inquiry found, while Scotland had no supplies of high-grade respiratory masks used in hospitals. At the time, care homes, GP surgeries and pharmacies were all expected to source their own PPE, something the report described as a "major failure in planning". In total the UK government was forced to write off £9.9bn worth of PPE that was either unused or out of date, as well as £157m for unused healthcare equipment. The "ventilator challenge" programme, where suppliers were asked to develop breathing equipment at short notice, led to another £143m charge for designs that never made it into production. In Scotland approximately £8mn of healthcare equipment, including PPE and testing kits, was written off.

UK wasted £10bn on PPE that left NHS staff poorly protected, Covid inquiry finds
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Iran says Strait of Hormuz is closed after striking vessel using ‘unauthorised route’

Iran has declared the Strait of Hormuz closed once again after a vessel using an unauthorised route was hit by a warning shot, intensifying tensions despite a fragile ceasefire with the United States. (a file picture) | Photo Credit: KIM SOO-HYEON Iran said it considers the Strait of Hormuz closed once again after a vessel using an unauthorised route was struck by a warning shot in the critical waterway, further jeopardising the already tenuous ceasefire agreement with the United States. The White House and US military officials offered no immediate comment on the closure, nor did they say whether American retaliation could be coming. The announcement followed Iran and Oman's foreign ministers meeting on Saturday to discuss the strait that lies between them, after days of Iranian attacks on ships and U.S. retaliation that dealt a blow to the interim deal to end the war. Iran's new supreme leader, still unseen since the war began, vowed in his first statement since the funeral of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that Iranians would avenge his killing in the war's opening strikes on February 28. Such revenge “is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out,” Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement carried on state television, hours after US President Donald Trump threatened more missile attacks. Oman said it and Iran agreed to keep talking about the Strait of Hormuz “at the technical and political levels,” a day after the United States called on Iran to publicly say the crucial waterway is open and ships won't be attacked. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he met with his counterpart in Oman to discuss “appropriate mechanisms for ensuring the safe passage of ships.” The world for decades has considered the strait an international waterway. Iran has insisted that the strait now remain under its control and that it be allowed to charge ships moving through it, a stance it took after the war began. The US urges mariners to transit on a southern route through Oman's territorial waters. About a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed through the strait before the war began. Iran's grip on it during the war led to a global energy crisis, though oil prices have sharply dropped since wartime highs of USD 120 a barrel. Iran's top diplomat also accused the US of violating the interim deal by ending waivers allowing Iran to sell crude oil on the open market in US dollars. Washington ended them in response to the attacks on ships in the strait. A thousand "missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat," Trump wrote on social media overnight He said he was responding to threats "to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate" him. During Khamenei's funeral, mourners held posters or banners calling for Trump to be killed along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump has declared the ceasefire over but said the US would continue negotiations.

Iran says Strait of Hormuz is closed after striking vessel using ‘unauthorised route’
Europe
BBC Business

How much should you give to the year-end teacher collection?

Image source, Getty ImagesByLucy Hooker, Emer Moreau and Daniel Thomas, Business reportersPublished14 July 2026, 00:02 BSTUpdated 3 hours agoParents know the drill: as the end of summer term rolls in it's time to think about thank-yous for the teachers after another year of hard work and tested patience. But just how generous should you be? Is £5 too much? Or too little? And what about support staff like teaching assistants, canteen staff and librarians? With many parents strapped for cash and heading into the holidays, it's an extra expense to budget for and an awkward etiquette to negotiate. Plus, what used to be a simple matter of buying chocolate and writing a card has been overtaken by an organisational extravaganza, with class reps sending out a flurry of Whatsapps to drum up contributions, before passing round the collective card, and deciding on flowers, spa days, wine or vouchers. At her South East London primary school, collections have reached as much as £560, which is split between the teacher and teaching assistants. For a class of 30, that works out at more than £18 per child. On top of this, she says there are usually bake sales and ice cream sales in June and July to raise money for the school, as well as collections for support staff who are leaving or members of the PTA. The mother-of-two, who didn't want to share her name, said she and her partner "were not in an uncomfortable position" but still "feel the strain". "Sometimes you are asked to put money into someone's bank account and there's a lot of pressure there. You can't just put a few quid in or you'll seem tight." Teacher whip-rounds are a hot topic on the online forum Mumsnet, where they tend to divide opinion. In a recent thread, one parent spoke of the "insane" amount they were asked to give, while another said they felt pressured to contribute, especially if there was a class "Queen Bee" organising the collection. But others responding online said it was reasonable to give a sizeable amount, with one arguing that teachers were "woefully underpaid and undervalued". Even if you are contributing £10 each for three members of staff, that costs the same as taking the family out for coffee and pastries, they pointed out.

How much should you give to the year-end teacher collection?
Europe
BBC Business

South East Water must pay £30.5m for supply failures

South East Water must spend £30.5m on improvements after supply interruptions hit thousands of its customers across Kent and Sussex. Water regulator Ofwat said this follows the conclusion of three investigations into the company's repeated failures. The redress package will be paid for by the firm's shareholders and not through customer bills. A spokesperson for the water company said they were "incredibly sorry" for the historical supply disruptions for Kent and Sussex customers. "We know this caused significant disruption and anxiety, and we accept the failures identified by Ofwat," they said. "Our priority has been to ensure that the resolution of this investigation directly benefits those who suffered the most." Ofwat says the redress will include £5m to provide free water butts for households, £5m to bring forward smart metering to businesses and other non-household customers, and a further £5m for on-site storage to help manage the supply during peak demand. The regulator previously proposed a £22m fine for water supply failures between 2020 and 2023, which impacted more than 286,000 people. It launched a second probe at the start of this year after further supply interruptions in Tunbridge Wells and across Kent and Sussex between November and January, which left up to 70,000 homes without water. Customers were unable to access tap water, shower or flush their toilets during the supply issues between November and January. Schools were closed and some customers had to cancel work due to childcare issues as a result, while others had difficulty dealing with medical conditions, according to Ofwat. The watchdog found the company did not communicate "clearly and accurately" with customers quickly enough and did not provide those affected with adequate bottled water supplies.

South East Water must pay £30.5m for supply failures