Monthly Archives for October 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.
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.
Effective today Bask Bank is now awarding 1.5 American AAdvantage miles per dollar annually on its Bask Mileage Savings Account, an increase of 25% over the previous 1.2 miles per dollar. And that rate had only gone into effect on August 1. From the time of product inception (about two and a half years ago) until that point, the account had earned 1 mile per dollar. So that’s a 50% increase in earn rate in just over two months.
Donald Trump, who himself used to own an airline that lost so much money it was taken back by the bank, launched a “bizarre rant” about the airline industry at a campaign rally on Saturday.
In a speech during which he thanked Ginni Thomas, spouse of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, for “telling the January 6 House Select Committee that she believed the 2020 election was stolen from him,” he transitioned from the issue of crime to the state of U.S. airlines and airports.
By law, any plane that’s certified starting in 2023 requires new cockpit alerts. That’s part of the U.S. government reaction to problems with the Boeing 737 MAX.
Boeing doesn’t want to implement these new safety requirements for the 737 MAX 10, and as a result has been rushing to either get the largest variant of the MAX certified before the end of 2022, or get legislators to pass an exemption. Certification before end of year is not going to happen.
Delta Air Lines is considering an order for 20 Airbus A350-1000s, the largest aircraft that Airbus is currently producing. These may be the planes that Qatar Airways was going to buy, before Airbus cancelled their purchase agreement in a spat with the Doha-based carrier over paint.
There are some absolutely brutal schedules that many flights attendants have to work. Flight attendants who used to work 3 days trips may have worked 4 day trips when airlines were short staffed. These longer trips may have had more waiting time between flights, or more running from flight to flight, often with legal minimum rest. Complaints of burnout are common.
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.
With American Airlines CEO Robert Isom on the witness stand, government lawyers in the anti-trust trial trying to break up his airline’s partnership with JetBlue asked the executive about JetBlue’s “Mint” product – a lie flat business class that operates on certain domestic and short haul international routes (as well as on their transatlantic routes which are not part of the partnership).
Isom explained that he had know idea what Mint was, or what it entailed, never having flown it or paid attention to it, it seems.
Delta’s CEO called for a national no fly list for unruly behavior, act poorly on one airline be unable to fly any airline. Highly problematic, with no standards for being placed on that list (each airline applies its own!) or opportunity for judicial review. That didn’t go anywhere though it’s something the Biden administration toyed with.
Now Dutch airlines KLM and Transavia want this as an international system, and will begin by sharing unruly passenger behavior which each other.
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 »
