Category Archives for Airlines.
I love premium products, and innovative ideas. So I’m rooting for Beond to succeed. But I’ve been skeptical of filling an all business class plane (most airlines go with a mix of products for a reason), based in a highly seasonal destination, operating only a few flights a week to each destination.
Fortunately on Thursday I had the opportunity to speak with the airline’s Chairman and CEO, Tero Taskila, to see whether he could turn around my skepticism.
American Airlines sent a redeye flight from Los Angeles to New York on February 2 without working electrical systems. There was only emergency lighting in the cabin. Flight attendants couldn’t prepare food in the galley of the cross country flight, and business and first class seats didn’t have power so could not recline. Toilets did not flush.
United Airlines has been warning flight attendants not to have their face in their phones. It’s bad for customer service, and ostensibly cabin crew are there to be paying attention to safety not Candy Crush.
I have seen no such warning memos from American. I have, however, heard flight attendants talk to each other about performing the minimum required service because of contract negotiations that are dragging on.
Last week Southwest Airlines unveiled images of its new cabin and seats. It was striking that these seats look thin and not well padded – a genuine downgrade from the older tan seats that are still flying and even less comfortable than the seats in the 737 MAX 8 today.
They’re not adding more seats to the planes. So what are they doing with the extra room they create?
What’s it like to fly the smallest commercial plane out of Los Angeles? Eli McCann bought his $100 ticket and boarded a plane with just a few other people – cramped, but cozy, “Succession, but for poor people.” The pilot gave the safety briefing, asking passengers not to leave barf bags on the plane. And he ran an icebreaker for everyone on board to get to know each other.
The Italian government stopped a British Airways flight from Milan to London Heathrow from leaving on Monday, because it offered passengers seat cushions with too much padding.
After the country’s aviation authority performed a surprise inspection on the BA flight at Milan’s Linate airport, they discovered that seats near the overwing exists of the Airbus A320neo had the wrong seat cushions. They were too thick.
American Airlines has introduced a new ‘shelf stable’ “Meal of the Moment 3 Cheese Pasta” that flight attendants will mix hot water into prior to serving. This replaces the shelf stable MyPasta introduced in fall 2022.
This flight attendant has been arrested and charged with taking video of five young girls on separate flights as they go to the lavatory. This was discovered after a 14 year old girl reported being asked to wait to use the lav, and then invited in where she found an iPhone taped to the toilet to watch her.
The 9 year old learned about the incident when FBI officers showed up at their home, since they’d found more content on the crewmember’s phone than just the one incident that was first reported. She wasn’t the youngest.
I won’t tell you exactly what the baggage handler wrote on the luggage, but it’s the same as a tourism slogan for Australia’s Northern Territory. You can see for yourself in the photos.
Passengers express frustration as pilots receive upgrade priority over them, prompting a reassessment of the value of top-tier elite status versus the advantages of mid-tier benefits.
While there’s a tradeoff upgrading pilots versus passengers along a certain margin, that’s not the reason most elites are sitting in back most of the time – just a visible lightning rod. Still, re-evaluating loyalty and status makes sense.
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 »
