When you’re flying a European holiday airline, you’re likely if passengers are wearing any clothing at all. And if the budget carrier is flying between the UK and the south of Spain it’s a miracle if they’re sober enough to make it to their seats unassisted.
So the biggest news in a woman being booted off an easyJet flight from Malaga to London Stansted on June 23 was that she still had on her top at all.
American Airlines is going to fly a Stand Up to Cancer-wrapped plane and anyone who contributes $25 or more can add a name to the wrapping that will go on the aircraft as a way of honoring a survivor of cancer, someone who is battling it now, or someone that has passed.
Make a donation of $25 or more to Stand Up To Cancer in July and add the name of someone you’d like to honor to an American Airlines Airbus A321.
Last night Brenda Berg reported on Twitter that her son had flown as an unaccompanied minor on United Airlines from Raleigh Durham to Newark, intending to connect on to Stockholm on SAS. However United put him on a Eurowings flight to Germany instead.
I can only imagine this woman’s horror because she couldn’t even get through to United. If you don’t have elite status telephone wait times are interminable, and that’s just to get access to an agent without much motivation or empowerment to do anything that requires more than keystrokes on their computer.
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The campaign by U.S. airlines for trade subsidies from the federal government could backfire, because if the U.S. violates its treaty obligations and Europe then sees the treaty as non-absolute, United, Delta, and American could face their own challenges with operating rights in Europe.
Capital One has just announced a 25% bonus on all miles transferred to Avianca LifeMiles in July.
Already on their fourth transfer bonus of the year, having just launched transferable points, and Capital One notes “limited-time offers like this will be another major perk for Venture and Spark Miles account holders to take advantage of.” So we can certainly expect to see more.
While it doesn’t happen often, lithium ion batteries catch fire. The fire can usually be contained in the passenger cabin. It’s harder to deal with as cargo, which is why airlines don’t allow these sorts of batteries to travel in checked luggage.
As a result of this risk American Airlines now boards fire containment bags and heat resistant gloves on all of their aircraft.
Government-granted airline privileges are a driver of industry consolidation. The primary reason Alaska Airlines acquired Virgin America was for access to gates and slots at congested airports. Badly run carriers, that provide poor passenger experience, are protected from market discipline because more innovative startups aren’t permitted to compete and incumbents can continue earning off inferior products because passengers lack other options.
The 20% redemption discount is interesting, It could be well worth upgrading from a base United Explorer to this card — but wouldn’t be worth spending money on this card over more compelling alternative transferable points products.
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 »
