Category Archives for Airlines.
Spirit Airlines’ collapse has become a political Rorschach test: one side says blocked mergers killed it, another says deregulation and Wall Street did, and some are using it to argue for nationalizing the airlines entirely. They are all reaching too hard. Spirit’s failure says less about capitalism failing than about what happens when policy tries to over-engineer an industry.
British Airways is cutting one of the last visual cues that Club Europe is supposed to be business class. Starting this week, the airline is removing fabric headrest covers from intra-Europe business class seats — a small premium touch BA says will save cleaning time and help punctuality.
A photo of a Singapore Airlines flight attendant assisting a passenger’s foot has gone viral with claims that first class includes on-demand foot rubs or “foot cleansing.” The image may be real, but the service almost certainly is not: this looks far more like first aid or assistance with an injured passenger than some secret Singapore Airlines luxury perk
British Airways managed to damage a 787-10 on the ground at Heathrow. Engineering steps were placed under the aircraft, then the jet was fueled, got heavier, settled lower, and sank onto them. The Chicago flight was canceled, passengers waited packed on buses for 90 minutes, and BA may now owe roughly $352,000 in delay compensation before hotels and meals.
American Airlines passengers made it to the gate on time in Miami, with boarding still underway — but their seats were already gone. The likely culprit is American’s automated rebooking system, which can give away seats from passengers it predicts will miss a connection before they actually do, leaving these travelers turned away and one missing a wedding.
A United Airlines Boeing 767 landed safely at Newark after striking a light pole on approach — but video and news reports suggest the incident was worse than first disclosed. The aircraft also appears to have hit a bakery truck on the New Jersey Turnpike, with its wheel smashing into the driver’s window and leaving the driver cut by broken glass.
Delta has canceled hundreds of flights while rivals kept running normally, and the airline’s own executives have already warned that the underlying reliability problem will take time to fix. Delta is blaming weather, but the deeper issue appears to be crew recovery and pilot scheduling — meltdowns can be expected to repeat as summer storms roll in.
China Eastern Flight MU5735 did not simply fall out of the sky. NTSB recorder data shows pilots shut off both engines before the Boeing 737 plunged from cruise, killing all 132 people aboard — and four years later, China still refuses to release the crash report, citing “national security” and social stability.
American Airlines has had to remind agents that not everything passengers call a medical device qualifies for free checked-bag treatment, because people are apparently showing up with items like hospital beds, massage tables, wagons, and even soap. The update is useful not just for what it says about baggage policy, but for what it reveals about the inventiveness of travelers trying to turn oversized or oddball items into fee-free luggage.
A “people-owned” rescue effort for Spirit Airlines has gone viral, claiming $22 million in pledges from would-be founding patrons. It has no cash, no actual bid, and no business plan to fix an airline that was losing money before it shut down.
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 »
