Monthly Archives

May 18 2016

American Airlines President Scott Kirby spoke today at the Bank of America Transportation Conference and indicated that ‘premium economy’ would be coming to the domestic fleet in 2017.

‘Premium economy’ domestically sounds to me something akin to what Delta has done with their extra legroom product. American offers Main Cabin Extra which is just extra legroom seating. Delta bundles their extra legroom with free drinks and snacks (depending on flight length).

As of yesterday’s flights it’s a separate fare class that passengers get upgraded into on the basis of their elite status.

Continue Reading »

May 18 2016

A passenger once left something in a British Airways lavatory so horrible the plane had to turn around and go back to Heathrow.

On the other end of the spectrum, a different passenger once left 24 gold bars in the lavatory of a Jet Airways flight. They were found when the aircraft was being cleaned in Kolkata. And it proved to the world that Jet Airways does, in fact, clean their lavatories.

Continue Reading »

May 17 2016

The Fox Theater in Atlanta is a storied institution. It was built in the 1920s, played a role in racial integration, and was the last venue Prince played before he died. Delta has supported it for over 20 years — until now.

The non-profit theater, which rents out space for private functions, allowed Qatar Airways to rent space — and didn’t call to ask Delta’s permission first.

Continue Reading »

May 17 2016

A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.

Continue Reading »

May 17 2016

Singapore Airlines premium economy awards will become available to KrisFlyer members May 24 and mileage upgrades to premium economy will become available June 1. This is for Singapore flights only, and not for Star Alliance partner flights.

Since only one category upgrade is possible, that means on flight which offer premium economy it will no longer be possible to upgrade from coach to business. And premium economy cabins are small, those upgrades could be tough to get.

Continue Reading »

May 16 2016

Delta sees the end of first class upgrades in 2018. That’s because they’re going to be upselling coach passengers into nearly all of their first class seats instead.

With first class seats mostly upsold, Delta wants their extra legroom seats to be the upgrade. And they want elites to even buy those. Starting with today’s flights new rules ‘upgrades’ to extra legroom seats become tougher for elites.

Continue Reading »

May 16 2016

A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.

Continue Reading »

May 16 2016

“What’s grosser than gross?” I’ve had the pleasure of watching a fellow first class passenger clip their toenails during dinner service.

But this is even worse. And so is this.

Continue Reading »

May 16 2016

Uber and Lyft have left Austin since a ballot proposition that would have lifted an onerous pending City ordinance protecting taxi companies failed to pass.

I love competition, which is one reason I’ve favored Lyft of late (another is that there have been more drivers close by with Lyft than Uber for me lately). So I’m thrilled that at least four ridesharing companies are trying to pick up the business that Uber and Lyft left behind. And there are other companies out there, too.

Continue Reading »

May 15 2016

There were four air marshals onboard a United flight from London Heathrow to Los Angeles and the flight’s captain smelled alcohol on one of them.

The air marshal was released because while he was violating marshal service policy (either by drinking within four hours of the flight or having alcohol in his system while on duty) he hadn’t actually broken UK law.

Continue Reading »