Category Archives for Airlines.
Eleven years ago Delta Air Lines prepared to move to a revenue-based frequent flyer program and other airlines took notice.
American Airlines executives used to say that Delta management was who they admired most. The truth is that this was true across the industry. Everyone just assumed Delta was smarter than they were. If Delta did it, it must be the right thing to do. A decade later consultants are still selling it to… everyone.
U.S. ultra-low cost carrier Frontier Airlines is adding European-style business class seating where extra legroom seats at the front of the plane will also allow a passenger to buy the seat next to them so that it stays empty.
Ryanair’s CEO says this is stupid, and it won’t last.
The FAA reportedly won’t let United Airlines grow. They’re taking an active presence at the airline. Reportedly no new planes can enter commercial service, pilots can’t get certified, and new routes can’t be announced.
It’s been broadly covered that the FAA is stepping up inspections of United’s operation. United itself shared this with its employees, and made its employee note public. However the FAAs involvement is far greater than has been revealed publicly.
Southwest Airlines doesn’t run any redeye flights but their CEO teased that they were coming back in the fall. There’s now a timeline for when we’ll see redeye flights from Southwest.
Without a vision for higher value work to be insourced from other airlines, there’s just not going to be as much high value work to do and legacy airline mechanics are too expensive for the lower value work. These broad trends almost ensure conflict between American Airlines and its mechanics union once negotiations begin in earnest.
A passenger was told that if they wanted to remove an item from their checked bag to get under their 50 pound allowance, they would have to go to the back of the line and start over – and then they would miss their flight (or, presumably, the cut-off time for checking bags before their flight).
Of course paying the overweight bag fee would likely take at least as long as avoiding the overweight bag fee.
The city doesn’t have a single Asia flight. It’s a big American Airlines hub. JAL has been studying the route. There are subsidies available. And the route doesn’t require overflying Russian airspace.
United Airlines plans to announce ‘family pooling’ of mileage this wee. This is a nice benefit where your kids can help you earn miles towards an award more quickly, and your once a year traveling in-laws can too. Miles get used faster, and become more useful.
JetBlue is eliminating a third of its Los Angeles flying, dropping four cities completely from its route networks, and pulling down other flights including several out of Fort Lauderdale. But it turns out they aren’t done cutting – and more route cuts will come next month.
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 »
