Monthly Archives

Earlier today I wrote about new American Airlines international routes. New York JFK – Birmingham and Edinburgh in the UK and Miami – Frankfurt. They’re also launching a second Los Angeles – London flight at the end of March. One Mile at a Time wrote about the routes as well and comes off surprised at the two new U.K. routes. He thinks they’re inconsistent with how American describes their New York strategy. The way I’ve viewed their future in New York is that they’re trying to serve mostly “local” passengers, while most passengers connecting to Europe would route through Philadelphia, for example. I can’t imagine New York to Birmingham or Edinburgh are really big enough markets if the goal is to almost exclusively fly “local” passengers. If they were relying mostly on connecting passengers, Philadelphia…

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Southwest acquired AirTran, and it’s been a long time in process but finally the A+ Rewards program closes down today. Many folks have already linked their accounts and transferred points. Those that didn’t have their points automatically moved over to the Rapid Rewards program. No doubt at the margins there will be some confusion, folks who did not have Rapid Rewards accounts surprised (after all the emails Southwest has been sending, no less) that they can’t access their accounts and don’t know where their points are. And with any large data migration project there will be mistakes, mostly folks that do have Southwest Rapid Rewards accounts but where addresses don’t match and so have new accounts created. No doubt some time on the phone will get that sorted. But what I want to do for…

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Christopher Elliott writes about a girl flying on Sun Country to and from Los Angeles. in both directions see what seated near a passenger traveling with a dog. The young girl “suffers from pet allergies.” She apparently didn’t say anything on the outbound flight, and suffered from her allergies. She spoke up to the flight attendant on the return flight, and got assistance in changing seats. Sounds like a good solution and problem solved, but instead it becomes the basis for a humans versus animals in the sky piece, with passengers being treated badly by airlines. And for the obligatory Animal Farm reference…

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This isn’t new at all but it was new to me, shared by D.R.. The video is a flight over Superstition Mountains East of Phoenix. It’s shot as a B17 takes off from Falcon Field in Mesa, and then flies East over the mountains past Apache Junction and on to Canyon Lakes. Stunning backdrops, gorgeous plane, hope you enjoy and feel it was worth sharing. Watch it in full screen! And while we’re doing videos, yesterday I wrote about a car-plane-helicopter that looked like it could become real. Turns out it isn’t the only flying car! Finally, a view of a JFK A380 takeoff from inside the cockpit. The paper chart the co-pilot is handling struck me as odd… You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign…

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News and Notes from Around the Interweb: Scott McCartney writes in the Wall Street Journal that United has squeezed its seat pitch down to 30 inches (ouch) on some aircraft, although they claim slimline seats – which I find uncomfortable – create an extra 1.8 inches of legroom. United has also eliminated a lavatory in its new 737-900 configuration, increasing the number of coach passengers per lavatory by about 70%. Turns out the cause of the flooded Qantas A380 was the cleaning mops. Next time you see TSA in line for a coffee… consider that DHS employees charged over $30,000 at Starbucks on their government purchasing cards. (HT: Tocqueville) New American Airlines routes launching in May: New York JFK – Birmingham and Edinburgh in the UK and Miami – Frankfurt. They’re also launching a second…

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