Jun 11 2017

We’re going to see more transatlantic destinations coming to American Airlines, and a bunch of changes to the planes that are flying American’s international routes.

What is surprising is that we’ll be seeing this on prime international routes that flight attendants love to fly before the airline integrates flight attendants of the two airlines. American still isn’t set up to have legacy American Airlines flights attendants fly legacy US Airways aircraft and vice versa, or to mix legacy American and legacy US Airways flight attendant crews on the same flights.

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Jun 10 2017

Alaska Airlines is doing things differently, as a business strategy. It has the operational reliability of Delta (or better) and the financial performance of Delta (or better, relative to size).

And it’s working to make its customers happy, with a frequent flyer program that’s different than others in the U.S. They still award miles based on distance flown rather than ticket price. Six weeks ago they re-affirmed their commitment to a generous frequent flyer program and upgrades.

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Jun 10 2017

A week ago we learned that United would launch Los Angeles – Singapore non-stop flights in October.

The flight will feature United’s typical six-across business class on a Boeing 787-9 (eventually there should be a retrofit to Polaris business class seats) and slimline seats in economy – less padding so they can squeeze in more seats.

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Jun 10 2017

Earlier this year I wrote that it’s the golden age of air travel with cheap fares all over the world. Most of those fares have been in economy, with sub-$400 roundtrips to Europe and Asia with amazing flash sales.

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Jun 10 2017

The President is expected to announce a new policy towards Cuba as soon as Friday in a planned speech in Miami that would “tighten rules on trade and travel, rolling back parts of former President Barack Obama’s opening to the island.”

Any return to a crackdown on business and tourism is likely to focus rhetoric on abuses of human rights in Cuba, which are of course true. However US policy towards Cuba has failed to foster regime change or liberalization for 50 years, at some point you declare the strategy a failure and try something different instead of doubling down.

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Jun 10 2017

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.

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Jun 09 2017

A bulkhead first class passenger on Thursday night’s Alaska Airlines flight AS755 from Seattle to Anchorage was removed from the aircraft at gunpoint on arrival in Alaska.

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Jun 09 2017

I care about my American Airlines Executive Platinum status far less than I used to. Airlines want customers to buy the product they want to fly on each trip, but that means flyers will buy it from whomever has the best schedule and price on that trip. I used to go to AA.com whenever I needed to travel, and buy the ticket American was offering. Now I fly a mix of American, United, Delta, Southwest, Virgin America and Alaska. And I’m not alone.

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Jun 09 2017

They’ve paid down significant debt, and they have similar future obligation commitments in line with Delta and far below American (largely because of American’s huge aircraft orders the last several years and into the future, but also because of low pension obligations — remember United moved a bunch of this liability onto the federal government’s Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation in bankruptcy while legacy American Airlines did not).

Here’s the United fleet plan he laid out, showing that the airline should end 2017 with the same number of aircraft as 2016.

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Jun 09 2017

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.

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