In November American Airlines rolled out a schedule change — a plan to fly their Boeing 737 MAX to Brazil and to Bolivia swapping out Boeing 757s with lie flat business class for their new, least comfortable domestic aircraft. This was supposed to start in May.
I would love it if it were more possible to follow the facts and not the mob. We don’t yet know where the facts on the Ethiopian Airlines disaster will lead.
American Airlines pilots have come out in support of the 737 MAX. Contrary to the Chinese regulator’s lack of confidence in their pilots flying aircraft manually, they remain confident in their ability to operate the MAX, the performance of their planes has been exemplary, and their planes have a difference that they highlight from other MAX jets that may make them less vulnerable to mistaken Angle of Attack readings.
The Allied Pilots Association (APA), representing the 15,000 pilots of American Airlines, remains confident in the Boeing 737 Max and in our members’ ability to safely fly it.
The pilots for the world’s largest airline have the necessary training and experience to troubleshoot problems and take decisive actions on the flight deck to protect our passengers and crew.
It appears that SkyMiles is now charging 105,000 miles each way for transatlantic business class awards, up from 86,000 miles. That’s a 22% devaluation without notice on top of Delta’s already most-expensive saver awards compared to competitors, and a 50% increase in a year.
When Delta raised transatlantic prices to 86,000 miles just over a year ago they rolled back the increase briefly, before bumping it up again to 82,000 miles in June. So we don’t know if this new highest price will hold in the immediate term.
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The New York Times is reporting that Boeing’s CEO spoke to President Trump today and asked him not to ground the 737 MAX.
Meanwhile China’s Civil Aviation Administration Deputy Director offered pilot confidence and experience as a reason why it makes sense to ground the aircraft in Asia even though similar measures aren’t being taken in North America.
Apparently American Airlines is performing an evacuation test on their Airbus A321neo, which is required before they’re certified to fly it in revenue operations.
There’s controversy over whether today’s more densely packed planes — more seats, closer together, with higher load factors — can be evacuated that quickly under real world conditions, but I’ve argued that misses the point. Evacuation standards need to be so stringent in order to account for the delays that happen when frightened passengers actually leave the aircraft in real world stress.
Regulators are risk-averse. There’s almost nothing for a regulator to gain by not banning something that could be dangerous that turns out not to be. However they’re going to face significant blame if something bad comes to pass and they did nothing.
So it’s not surprising to see country after country ground the Boeing 737 MAX in light of the tragic Ethiopian Airlines incident. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has now grounded the MAX. However the FAA has not. Outside of Aeromexico North American airlines continue to stand by the aircraft.
The President takes an intellectually consistent position with his views on trade, focusing on displaced workers when new technologies compete away older products.
Filed under: bad news for Uber and self-driving cars, good news for those who like the continued use of paper flight strips by air traffic controllers.
For seven years I’ve been saying that inflight internet will eventually be free. Since I started making that prediction JetBlue introduced free inflight internet and Aer Lingus has announced usage-capped free wifi. Southwest, Delta and Alaska now offer free inflight messaging.
My 2012 prediction was that inflight wifi would be free in 10 years (so by 2022). Delta CEO Ed Bastian says they’ll do it in a year or two so by 2021.
Saturday’s Saudia flight SV832 from Jeddah to Kuala Lumpur turned back to the gate because a woman on board forgot her baby at the gate and insisted the plane return.
Since communications between a commercial airliner and the ground are available, it’s worth a listen to this exchange. The pilot asks, “May God be with us. Can we come back or what?”
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 »
