Category Archives for Airlines.
An 82-year-old American Airlines passenger says his seatmate beat him “without warning” mid-flight while a flight attendant stood within arm’s reach and watched. Now he is suing the airline — but the harder question is whether American can be blamed for failing to predict another passenger’s sudden violence.
New passenger video shows the aftermath of Frontier flight 4345’s fatal Denver runway strike: visible engine damage, evacuation slides deployed, and passengers leaving the aircraft with carry-on bags in hand. Authorities now say the person hit by the aircraft was killed, while 12 passengers reported minor injuries and five were taken to hospitals.
United CEO Scott Kirby has tried to beat American Airlines, mocked its Chicago operation, and even floated buying the airline. So naturally, there he was in first class on American — flying home to Dallas on the rival that once fired him.
A Frontier Airlines pilot aborted takeoff in Denver after reporting an engine fire and telling the tower, “We just hit somebody.” The Airbus A321 had 231 people onboard when crew said a pedestrian was walking across Runway 17L, forcing an emergency evacuation by slides.
By the time my delayed flight from D.C. blocked into Dallas, I had just eight minutes to get from A37 to D40 — or risk losing my seat home to Austin. The move that saved me was not running harder, but knowing when to skip the Skylink and how to get American Airlines to hold a backup flight.
American Airlines premium cabin wine used to be one of the weakest parts of the onboard experience. Now the airline is rolling out real $30–$40 retail bottles in first and business class, a small but telling sign that American is finally paying attention to the details again.
People pledging money to “buy Spirit Airlines” were already making a dubious bet: the campaign has no cash, no binding commitments, and no plan to fix the airline. Now scammers have spotted the obvious target — fake copycat sites are reportedly taking real money from would-be supporters.
Spirit Airlines offered taxpayers 80% of the company in exchange for a $500 million bailout. Trump wanted 90% and that extra demand may have helped kill the deal, leaving creditors to conclude they were better off liquidating the airline than giving the government nearly everything.
Airlines can fill planes and still be terrible businesses. The same competition that gives passengers cheaper fares and more choices also makes capacity hard to manage, prices easy to undercut, and profits fragile — which is why airlines keep searching for moats in hubs, loyalty programs, credit cards and premium product differentiation.
With employees gone and baggage offices empty, passengers whose luggage was found may still have no one there to give it back.
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 »
