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.

Continue Reading »

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.

Continue Reading »

Jun 09 2017

Virgin Atlantic has launched a formal status match program. If you have elite status with another airline (but explicitly not Delta, which is 49% owner of Virgin Atlantic) and a future flight booked they’ll give you 12 months of elite status as a match to your current level.

Continue Reading »

Jun 09 2017

The Mile High Club is 100 years old. The very first couple to try it were using a Curtiss Flying Boat C‑2 off Long Island. The woman was cheating on her husband who was serving abroad in World War I. They managed to disengage the autopilot while engaged in their congress, sending the plane into the water. They were found naked by duck hunters.

Continue Reading »

Jun 08 2017

Marlin Jackson was onboard a Delta flight from Atlanta to San Diego on Sunday, sitting in a window seat on the left side of the aircraft. The passenger in the middle seat in his row was traveling with an emotional support animal — a dog weighing about 50 pounds. The dog was sitting in the passenger’s lap.

Continue Reading »

Jun 08 2017

A woman who was six months’ pregnant says she was kicked off an American Airlines flight from Dallas to Mexico City yesterday. Initially she understood she was being removed for questioning her flight’s delay.

However she was then told it was taking a photograph and that “according to FAA it’s illegal to take photos of the crew members inside the flight.”

Continue Reading »

Jun 08 2017

The biggest mistake the average member of a frequent flyer program makes when it comes to using their miles for travel is believing that you just go to your airline’s website, enter the city you’re traveling from and where you want to go, and the website will spit out your options.

It’s also a perfectly reasonable expectation in 2017, but it’s not how it works. Different airlines do better and worse jobs at this, of course. Some don’t have all their partners online. Some won’t show all possible combinations of flights.

Continue Reading »

Jun 08 2017

The President of Nigeria signed an order requiring airlines to stop manually searching passenger bags effective June 1. Bags are supposed to be searched by machines, since having your bags searched in front of you in public by another person is considered humiliating.

Continue Reading »

Jun 08 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.

Continue Reading »

Jun 08 2017

Travel is great. And I understand the world far better seeing it, tasting it, and experiencing it than merely reading about it. Once you start doing it the world does seem smaller and more accessible, and it can be less expensive or more comfortable (or less expensive and more comfortable) than you thought.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make fun of people annoying you incessantly by preaching about it.

Continue Reading »