Category Archives for Airlines.
A lot of European concern over the environment is virtue signaling that winds up counterproductive, or just cheap talk. At least France uses nuclear power!
Any criticisms of the aviation industry in Europe are unserious though because European aviation is more carbon intensive than U.S. aviation as a result of European government policies.
Delta Air Lines just announced a 5% across-the-board pay increase for its non-union workforce. It’s the third year in a row of pay increases, and follows February’s $1.4 billion profit-sharing payout.
The airline is also instituting a new $19 per hour minimum starting wage. Both changes go into effect June 1, and combine for an annualized expected cost of $500 million in increased wages. Minimum starting wage employees will earn $5,000 more per year than they currently do.
You can usually hold a reservation – preserving its price, though technically not guaranteed until ticketing – for 24 hours. But customers could pay a fee to extend this to 3, 5, or 7 days. Those paid extended hold options are no longer being sold.
Delta Air Lines is working with the U.S. government so that connecting passengers arriving off of international flights won’t have to collect their checked baggage and drag it through customs themselves. Starting with flights arriving from Tokyo Haneda, and potentially by the end of the year, passengers will be able to check bags through to their final connecting destinations in the United States. Update: the pilot of this program will begin at Seoul Incheon airport, not Tokyo Haneda.
There has been an absolute rash of American Airlines AAdvantage account fraud lately. I must have heard from a dozen readers in the past two weeks who had miles stolen.
The American Airlines New York flight attendants base is holding an in-person meeting at the TWA Hotel and wow, does the Association of Professional Flight Attendants have a cruel sense of irony. The American Airlines flight attendants union took a boot to the throats of all ex-TWA flight attendants when that airline was acquired by American in 2001.
Former American Airlines Chairman and CEO has waged a public and disingenuous campaign to cajole and scare TSA into quashing competition.
He called operating out of private terminals a “national disaster just waiting to happen” that is “hopefully not being ignored, but not as urgently addressed as I think it should be.” But the safety arguments he makes apply more to his own former airline than to the ones he wants to shut down.
Cathay Pacific is surveying customers on what sustainability practices they’d be willing to accept when they fly.
Within the confines of what American Airlines is going to be willing to do – space on the aircraft comes at an incredible premium, so I while I wish the space for midflight snacks was larger I accept certain tradeoffs – they’ve clearly gone much further in working on the details of this product.
Of course I haven’t seen it in person yet. The first plane hasn’t been delivered, and we’re a couple of months until the first Boeing 777-300ER goes in for retrofit to create a model for future work. But the imagery that’s coming out is exceeding my expectations.
American Airlines is the last remaining U.S. carrier to sell a true ‘first class’. Ever since Continental Airlines began selling a ‘premium business class’ that they called BusinessFirst, and dropped first class, the trend has gone in that direction. Delta has had a first class cabin in years, and United’s top product is now business class.
Now American plans to eliminate first class, too. Or do they?
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 »
