Monthly Archives for February 2017.
American announced last month that dreaded basic economy fares were coming. These fares are now on sale for travel starting March 1. These are not new lower fares. These are new restrictions on the lowest fares American already offers.
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.
Airport security — along with customers and border patrol — at New York JFK is something in a special league of its own. Whether it’s a plane full of passengers from Mexico being allowed to skip immigration or a plane full of passengers from Mexico being allowed to skip immigration, New York JFK is home to the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. And the (TSA) gang who ran through the terminal screaming maniacally about a bomb and a shooting victim (neither of which were real).
Last week I flew United’s pre-inaugural VIP and media flight for its new Boeing 777-300ER, the first aircraft with new Polaris business class seats, and got to try their new Polaris soft product for the first time as well.
Since the flight was from Chicago to San Francisco I was able to experience the new United Polaris business class lounge at O’Hare which is by gate C18.
Three years ago Delta declared that if inflight cell phone calls were made legal they would ban the calls themselves. Most passengers are against inflight phone calls because they find air travel to be blissful, a peaceful oasis they never complain about now.
United has now taken the same position.
Three years ago I wrote a post on getting the most value out of Virgin Atlantic miles.
My contention was that Virgin Atlantic’s miles were among the least valuable currencies, but that there are actually some incredible sweet spots that most people don’t consider.
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.
More than three years into the merger of American Airlines and US Airways, there’s been little effort to offer a consistent product across the two fleets. US Airways aircraft for the most part haven’t been given “Main Cabin Extra” extra legroom seating in coach, and they haven’t even been given power ports.
US Airways management, after all, removed power from the Airbus planes they inherited when American West took over US Airways a dozen years ago.
I’ve given American AAdvantage a hard time about award availability on American Airlines flights, and deservedly so. At one point things were so bad that the short distance Austin – Dallas had only six days during the year with a single flight offering a saver award, despite over 10 flights a day usually costing just $49.
However they’ve also been releasing a decent amount of space over the past week and a half or so. That seems to be the pattern — award space dries up, then there’s a bit of space briefly, before drying up again.
On Thursday a Jet Airways Boeing 777-300 operating from Mumbai to London Heathrow with 330 passengers and 15 crew onboard lost radio contact with air traffic control as it was handed over from Bratislava to Prague Center.
The aircraft continued flying as expected, but without radio contact Germany sent two fighter jets to intercept.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
