Monthly Archives for January 2019.
A family was kicked off an American Airlines flight from Miami to Detroit on Wednesday. American says it was because they smelled. They say it’s because they’re Jewish.
They were given hotel and meal costs and rebooked to fly home today.
Unlike Delta which no longer publishes award charts at all, and unlike United which doesn’t publish premium economy award pricing American has added premium economy to its published award chart pricing.
What’s more, unlike United which doesn’t seem to make premium economy saver awards available, American has made saver space for premium economy available at the get go.
American Airlines has launched a new award search tool. It runs alongside – rather than, at this point, being a replacement for – their existing award search.
The calendar feature isn’t available yet and the ability to filter results isn’t either. This new tool also does not allow you to book new Economy Web Special awards either.
American Airlines Group is earning a profit, albeit less than the minimum CEO Doug Parker promised they’d ever see. Whether or not they’ll ever lose money again though hinges on the success of their frequent flyer program — and whether they can recognize they aren’t offering a flight product that customers want to pay a premium for.
A 23 year old student called in a hoax bomb threat against easyJet flight 4319 from Lyon to Rennes in France last Friday January 18th. Apparently his parents were on board and he didn’t want them to visit.
As the country has fallen apart, with mass shortages, rampant crime, and inflation over 5000%, American Airlines had found their Venezuela routes extremely profitable — because there was so little air service left.
Thanks to price controls on domestic flights, passengers waited at airports for days hoping to get on a flight. The National Guard pulls suitcases off of flights to loot them. Airlines complain they’re getting contaminated fuel.
With flight crews getting robbed by bandits airlines fly crews out of the country to overnight, and try to refuel elsewhere as well.
When Starwood picked up Le Meridien hotels they integrated most properties into Starwood Preferred Guest but the Parker Meridien properties in New York and Palm Springs were noticeably absent (presumably not wanting to pay the 5% fee).
During the depths of the Great Recession though they realized they needed the marketing muscle and joined the program in late 2008. They allegedly began stealing from Starwood Preferred Guest almost immediately.
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.
Two weeks ago I reported that American would launch award redemption for premium economy this month. Awards go live tomorrow (Thursday, January 24).
We will not see any change to upgrades at this time, or upgrade awards for premium economy. This new redemption option will be for American miles on American flights only — they will not enable redemption of premium economy seats on partners, and American’s partners won’t have access to premium economy awards either.
On Tuesday Representative Rodney Davis (R-IL) was confronted by a passenger on a Chicago – DC flight over his flying in first class during the government shutdown.
The issue here is that it may look unseemly for a member of Congress to appear to be ‘living well’ (how much of the country sees domestic first class) during the government shutdown. Indeed it’s popular to suggest that Members of Congress shouldn’t be paid while the government is shut down. I disagree.
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 »
