70 AVgeeks recently flew to all of seven of United Airlines’ continental USA hubs in one day. Here’s a review from three of the travelers who organized the trip and took part in the journey. With special thanks to Brian Won, the primary author, as well as Carl Brothers (who I wrote about here) and Scott Yep for this excellent report and photos. -Matthew
To spend 19 hours flying to every single United Airlines hub takes a certain kind of dedication. As ordinary passengers on United– elite status or not– we all paid out of our own pockets for these tickets, be it in cash or award miles– so this is not only a big commitment of time but of money. Still, the appeal of the hub run was such that when Alex Ribenboim and Carl Brothers planned the first one that our group of frequent fliers did a year ago, there was such enthusiasm and FOMO from others that Alex and Carl planned it again for this year, even organizing a Facebook group and website for it.
Over the past six or so months since planning started in earnest for 2026’s hub run, the size of the group grew and grew. At some point we hit 50, then 60, and I think peaked at nearly 70 people, double the size of last year. Life happens so the attendee list rarely gets full attendance, but before 5:00am in the morning on June 6 at Newark Airport, we had a packed gate and a full-on festive atmosphere, highlighted not only by Jon Gooda (VP of Newark Airport for United), but also Jarad Fisher (Vice President at United Airlines and President of MileagePlus) to kick off the hub run.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on Live and Let's Fly.
