Two passengers on Argentinian ultra-low cost carrier Flybondi are dancing – not in the aisles or at their seats, but on other passengers’ seats, standing up and using the overhead bins to keep themselves upright. The woman manages to get jiggy with it sans the assistance of the bins, while her male counterpart launches himself backwards into the mosh pit of fans at their seats.
Reconfiguring planes and buying new seats is expensive, and JetBlue is slashing costs. But perhaps the biggest takeaway is that squeezing these seats in is expected to mean less legroom in the coach cabin. JetBlue is, once again, making itself more like the rest of the industry.
A passenger took a photo of the refugee camp setup that Brazil’s Gol airlines uses as the crew rest area on its Boeing 737 MAX, flying from Brasilia to Orlando. That flight is scheduled at 8 hours 20 minutes. One person on social media offered, “I believe most people call this a blanket fort.”
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.
Mileage Plan has 11 million active members, over 3 million cobrand cardmembers, and over 600,000 elite members. They value their program at over $12 billion.
The American Airlines fleet of Airbus A320s is a mess, and should really be put out of their misery. Since the airline has gone over a decade without investing in them, they’re dragging down already low expectations for customer experience at the airline.
It’s usually first class on these planes, but here’s a coach seat that’s allowed to fly.
The pair then found themselves without tickets home. They were treated as no shows for their outbound flight, so their return trip was cancelled. They bought Alaska Airlines flights again, Seattle to San Diego.
This is a mess all the way around, but there are lessons.
Alaska has shared that the move to a single loyalty program will come this summer, and that they’ll also launch a premium credit card at that time.
To build a marketing list for the premium credit card in support of its launch, they’ve created an ‘early access list’ with free miles.
Plans for Alaska Airlines to bring widebody flying to Seattle and launch long haul routes are big news, and the airline is also sharing the timeline to merge frequent flyer programs with Hawaiian Airlines and introduce a premium credit card.
To keep crewmembers fired up, the union sent out a communication to members listing all of the items that United has sought to change in their favor in the new contract.
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 »
