Category Archives for Airlines.
Republic Airways and Mesa Airlines announced a plan to merge and operate a company with a combined 310 Embraer E-175 aircraft and representing $1.9 billion in annual revenue. Currently, Republic operates regional flights for American, United and Delta while Mesa is down to a contract only to fly for United. Under the deal, Republic shareholders will have 88% of the carrier and Mesa shareholders get 6% – 12%.
There are (7) changes to United’s food and beverage program this month.
This includes a new blend of Illy coffee, new premium wines (a 3-year commitment!), new Bloody Mary mix and improvements to meal service in economy as well – an additional entree choice on transatlantic flights and new buy on board.
American Airlines has changed how customers prepay for checked bags. They’ve stopped pooling checked bags across all travelers on a reservation and now force each bag to be explicitly assigned (and charged) to the passenger who will check it.
The Chicago O’Hare Customer Service Center is currently open 6 a.m. – 11 p.m. On the upcoming employee summer shift bid, service center shifts prior to 2 p.m. have been eliminated. Usually airlines staff up for peak summer! I’ve reached out to American Airlines to learn what scheduling cuts are being made at other hubs.
American Airlines has reprogrammed their check-in kiosks so that passengers dropping off bags who have already checked in (online, or using their mobile app) won’t automatically receive printed boarding passes. The kiosk will no longer spit out a paper pass by default. The airline wants passengers to use their own electronic passes, and stop wasting paper.
American Airlines flew Airbus A319 registration N823AW from Phoenix to Roswell, New Mexico on Wednesday night to be stored. This aircraft is being returned to its lessor and leaving the fleet, even though American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said last year that they weren’t planning to retire any of their current mainline aircraft.
The International Emergency Economic Powers Act nowhere explicitly mentions tariffs or any authority to tax American imports. IEEPA has been used in the past for asset freezes, sanctions, and embargoes against foreign actors (terrorists, hostile regimes)—not for imposing a broad tax on domestic companies that import goods.
Foreign visits to the U.S. were already off about 20% in March. And there were several signs of recession. Now, we look pretty cooked.
An American Airlines flight attendant announced a new federal law this on Monday on board a trip from Charlotte to Des Moines – claiming they’re being required to vigorously enforce cell phones in airplane mode while onboard the aircraft.
A passenger is suing American Airlines because a flight attendant fell on her. The airline told the judge the incident was entirely the fault of another unruly passenger – but the judge wasn’t buying it – and the case is allowed to proceed, even though that other passenger allegedly pushed the flight attendant onto the seated customer, resulting in injuries.
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 »
