Lufthansa – Germany’s national airline, the government is its largest shareholder – is continuing to do damage control after an incident where Jews were banned from travel on the carrier. Their first two statements on the issue were so bad they’re now trying to fix things putting their CEO into play.
Star Alliance, the largest of the three international partnership groups which includes United and Air Canada, plans to launch a credit card that’s separate from the co-brand cards issued by its individual member airlines. It’s expected to become available later this year.
They’ll also add a non-airline partner and are looking to bulk purchase sustainable fuel.
The airline’s Airbus A350s, slated to arrive in late 2023, will offer a one row first class cabin that’s been described as suites.
However what those first class suites would be like has been unknown. From an internal Lufthansa event we know that these first class suites will be ‘fully-enclosed’ meaning doors.
Starting June 1 they’re going to restrict club access in two ways: no access until 3 hours prior to departure of your first flight, and access will be for departure only.
The reasons I’ve seen pundits give for why airfares are so high are usually wrong. Travel hasn’t fully returned to 2019 levels, so why have prices risen so much? Fuel prices can limit which flights operate profitably, but fuel isn’t the current binding constraint on supply. And it’s not just a desire of airlines to make back the money they lost during the pandemic.
Instead it’s something far more nefarious.
Here’s video of a Delta pilot crawling through the window of a Boeing 737. Apparently if you’re locked out of the cockpit you can use the window that can be opened from the outside to get in.
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Occasionally readers question why doors are necessary in business class, going so far as to suggest doors make a seat feel claustrophobic. It’s a more expensive value proposition for airlines. Why has everyone seemingly jumped off this cliff?
One face of the lockdown is what it’s like to travel, for those few people who can. Residents in a locked down city can’t simply go to the airport. They aren’t allowed to move freely. You have to have a Covid travel permit to cross districts. If someone in your building tests positive the whole building is locked down. And if you can get to the airport, the road to international departures has frequently been closed.
Southwest offers more legroom in coach than competitors, but there’s no seat back entertainment and no seat power. The lack of power for your devices is a big deal on connecting itineraries and longer flights, such as Southwest’s service to Hawaii. That’s going to start changing.
Southwest has also selected ViaSat to provide internet for its new delivery aircraft In the meantime they’ve swapped out the hardware from their existing internet provider on 40 of their Boeing 737s to improve internet speeds, and they’ve been testing free wifi on those aircraft. Half of Southwest’s fleet is expected to have the new hardware for faster internet by the end of the year.
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 »
