Monthly Archives for February 2022.
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.
Along with the move to qualifying for elite status based on Loyalty Points rather than qualifying miles and qualifying dollars, American Airlines is eliminating 500 mile upgrade certificates and they are also processing elite upgrades earlier at the airport.
Here’s what it means and why they’re doing it.
It’s hard to imagine cutting food costs in U.S. Sheraton club lounges and lower than they’d go prior to the pandemic, given the cheap version of eggs and breakfast meats you could expect. Having pushed down the cost of items perhaps as low as they can go, now we can expect fewer items to be offered.
Sunday night’s Aeroflot 124 Moscow – New York flight turned around midflight. The U.S. hasn’t banned Russian aircraft from its airspace, but it’s tough for them to get here without overflying EU and Canadian airspace. They flew 8 hours and wound up where they started.
At the same time Aeroflot 111 from Miami to Moscow made it to its destination, violating airspace restrictions. They’re accused of lying claiming that this was a humanitarian flight, rather than a standard commercial flight.
An American spokesperson told me they’d only honor business class awards in their original class of service if Qantas had business class award space available. Since of course they do not, American will only rebook in coach. And, “you can have your miles reinstated or rebook to travel once we begin offering service between LAX-SYD again in November.”
The notion that when American exits a market it will not honor reservations in their ticketed class of service on a joint venture partner has important implications, I think, for the notion of consumer benefit that they are claiming as they defend a government lawsuit against their JetBlue joint venture.
This 1990 United Airlines commercial really nailed why business travel will return in some form, how a ‘phone call and a fax’ doesn’t replace face-to-face business meetings. And yet business travel will be forever changed.
There are trips that used to happen that won’t, trips that do happen with fewer people on them, and the trips that happen won’t happen on the same days or necessarily for as long.
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.
This isn’t just limited to majority state-owned Aeroflot. It applies to all Russian airlines (even private ones, like oneworld member S7). Even Germany is now sending munitions to Ukraine. European airlines, including most recently Lufthansa
What can Americans do?
Police bodycam footage has been shared online of an officer removing a passenger from a Delta flight prior to departure over mask non-compliance.
Usually we see cell phone video from other passengers of someone being taken off the plane. Rarely do we see what happens before that – the discussion between officer and cabin crew – or after, when the passenger is back in the police vehicle or finally at the police station.
At the ‘State Of The Airline’ employee forum last month current American Airlines President and incoming CEO Robert Isom laid out his vision for the airline. It was mostly about operating reliably as the priority that matters most. One line, though, struck me at the time. I didn’t write about it. Instead it’s been tossing around in my head ever since.
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 »
