At this past week’s Crew News employee question and answer session, airline CEO Doug Parker asked Vice President of Network Planning Vasu Raja to weigh in on where they’ll fly the XLR.
Since the airline needs to put together schedules that their employees will bid to fly in September in early July they may push out the scheduled return of the 737 MAX again soon so they don’t put out “bid schedules that don’t reflect the actual flying we’re going to do.”
As a result, Parker says, “If we’re not much more certain than we are today that..it’s going to be ready on September 4, you may see us push it back another month…sometime early- to mid-July.”
A passenger on Air Canada’s flight AC1799 from Quebec City to Toronto’s Pearson airport fell asleep on Sunday, June 9th. She kept sleeping through touch down, gate arrival, and all the other customers getting off the plane. She says that when she woke up, the plane had been towed away from the gate to be parked overnight.
She was in a totally dark aircraft with no way off.
Chicago’s Aviation Police were best known for beating up David Dao when he wouldn’t give up his seat on a United Express flight two years ago. Now they have a new achievement: losing the master keys to the airport’s security.
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.
Arguing which is the best transferable points currency, between Chase, American Express, Citibank, and Capital One, is a bit like arguing whether Mickey Mantle or Ted Williams was a better baseball player. As frequent flyers we’re incredibly fortunate to have been a part of the rise in transferable currency competition.
In this post I look at which program has the best transfer partners – and argue that’s American Express. That’s only part of the story though since aerning rates and transfer rates (with bonuses) also matter.
Korean Air is considering removing first class entirely from their fleet. Before the end of the Chase partnership I transferred a bunch of points to the Skypass program. I’ll still get use out of them but my intention was as a backup way to get to Asia in first class when needed. That plan could… change.
United pajamas are given out in business class on flights over 12 hours. Now United is introducing new pajamas that are tighter (smaller size, odd for an airline primarily serving Americans) and that – in a leaked internal United photo – look horrible.
Domestically Delta works to earn a revenue premium by leveraging its two advantages: non-union mechanics and front line employees. Delta’s TechOps drive an on-time operation less likely to cancel flights, and acts as a profit center doing maintenance for other carriers. Delta customer service is generally friendlier than competitors. However the U.S. market is mature and domestic aviation is not a growth business.
Delta owns stakes in Aeromexico, China Eastern, Gol, Air France KLM and Virgin Atlantic. These investments both help Delta align the interests of those carriers with their own, and diversify their exposure beyond the U.S. market.
There’s been a trend towards airline-hotel chain tie-ups, where each loyalty program tries to capture the business of members of the other program. These are expensive to offer, granting points and frequently privileges, but they’ve expanded because their proponents have reported that they work.
Now we’re seeing the first Crossover Rewards-style offering in Europe, with the launch of a dual points-earning offer and points conversion between Air France KLM and Accor Hotels.
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 »
