OAG schedule data shows which airlines and which regions have brought schedules back closest to pre-pandemic levels.
As Covid-19 epidemics spread like wildfire both in the U.S. and Europe, European flight schedules have been pulling back amidst lockdowns while U.S. passenger travel has held firm and grown slightly entering the Thanksgiving period. In fact the entire world’s week-over-week increase of 400,000 seats is accounted for by Southwest Airlines.
A video posted to TikTok, with nearly 70,000 likes and over 2600 comments, appears to show a woman being removed from an aircraft as she argues over the politics of Morocco, and U.S. relations towards the North African nation. Of all the things to be kicked off a flight for!
She grabs and nearly tackles the employee taking her bag off the aircraft and proceeds to lecture employees on Morocco.
SkyTeam’s Korean Air is acquiring Star Alliance member Asiana. Now the Prime Minister of Japan is talking about the need to merge ANA and Japan Airlines as part of injecting subsidies into his country’s two largest airlines.
Reprising an offer from September, LifeMiles is selling miles with a 200% bonus through December 3.
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Get an extra 8 bonus points per dollar on Amazon spending, 9 extra points on top of regular earning with Uber Eats, plus a new American Express Membership Rewards transfer bonus and an earning opportunity with my favorite soap and shampoo.
Knowing what kind of response to expect from the Chinese government, people react with chaos when news of fresh cases nearby breaks out. On Sunday night Shanghai Pudong airport “descended into chaos” after two cargo handlers there tested positive for Covid-19. Hundreds of flights were cancelled.
Authorities set up a testing site at the airport and ordered all airport cargo employees to be tested. Although passengers reportedly understood and feared that everyone was going to be tested and quarantined. That may have been the initial plan, scaled back as riots were feared.
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce says you’ll need proof of vaccination against Covid-19 to be able to fly his airline internationally, whether arriving or departing Australia.
His airline’s requirements may not be a bellwether for the world, but they do point to an expectation that travelers will need to be vaccinated in order to have access to the world. And this requirement is likely to last, when put in place by governments, for longer than is necessary.
Virgin Atlantic is running a fantastic business class sale from the UK at $1334 roundtrip on pretty much any route. Delta codeshares on Virgin may be even cheaper (from US$1083).
And incredibly Virgin Atlantic is running 50% off of award travel, too. That’s important because with taxes and fuel surcharges a roundtrip award ticket can still, at normal pricing, cost almost as much as a paid business class ticket under this sale.
Revenue-based frequent flyer programs have always been less generous. These programs were long popular with ultra low cost carriers, with low margins, where awarding customers little made sense.
When planes were full, rewarding customers less made some sense. Airlines didn’t need to spend as much marketing to fill empty seats when there weren’t many empty seats. The problem now is that revenue-based programs reward customers less in a low fare environment precisely when airlines need to invest more in marketing to fill empty seats, and it’s cheaper to offer award inventory than ever.
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 »
