News and notes from around the interweb:
- 1000 free airberlin topbonus miles just for registering for a Sixt car rental promotion (HT: Free Frequent Flyer Miles)
- Delta is testing a service to take your carry on onboard and put it in the overhead above your seat.
Gary Leff, co-founder of frequent-flier website MilePoint, said the service will be the biggest help to passengers in the final boarding groups — the ones most likely to find the overhead bins full. Their bags will go in the cabin instead of being gate-checked as cargo.
“This has the potential to come across as a nice, high-end service,” Leff said, “but I’m skeptical that it will go mainstream” because of labor costs.
- Aegean Miles & Bonus is offering 50% bonus miles on Greek domestic flights through August
- A few interesting data points on American’s soon-to-launch Airbus A321 service from Los Angeles to Hawaii. Arrived in my email box:
Q: How many A321H aircraft will we take delivery of?
We will have a total of 16 A321H (321 ETOPS) in our fleet.Q: Do we have plans to put the A321H aircraft on routes between PHX and Hawaii?
We don’t currently have plans to operate PHX- Hawaii with the A321H. The 757s will continue to operate between PHX and Hawaii.Q: Will we have to take weight restrictions on the aircraft?
Due to shorter runways in LIH and OGG, we will need to take year-round payload restrictions when operating the aircraft. This means that the aircraft will not be able to carry the full 181 passengers when traveling from these two destinations to LAX. These restrictions will vary over the year due to factors such as seasonal wind and weather conditions. - Cranky Flier gets it on the plan to expand US immigration preclearance to 10 additional airports.
…pleasing the traveler isn’t really the point of these facilities anyway as far as the feds are concerned.
- Alaska Airlines is launching Portland – Austin and Eugene – San Jose, both flown with regional jets, the Austin flight a SkyWest Embraer 175.
Interesting concept but the people who do need it the most tend to be the people who board last. They have the least amount of status or fly infrequently and they most likely are not going to pay any extra money for this service. If Delta is doing this strictly to speed up the boarding process and not charge for it it will be interesting to see how it works out. I think it will require a lot of extra labor and I doubt Delta is going to spring for it. It probably makes more sense just to start the boarding process earlier and let people stow their own bags.
So where in the cabin do these bags go when the overhead bins above the passenger’s seat are full?