Category Archives for Airlines.
Air France KLM’s Flying Blue program has made award space wide open across the Pond for nearly all of their transatlantic routes, starting this summer (when space has been scarce!) and through the end of their schedule.
The FAA Reauthorization bill requires travel agents to provide refunds where they are the vendor of record charging the customer – even when they’ve paid the airline and the airline hasn’t given the money back to them (if they ever get the money back).
The fire started after an electrical cord was plugged into the Airbus aircraft, causing sparks to ignite near the nose of the plane. Pilots had smelled smoke and initiated the emergency evacuation. Evacuation chutes were deployed, and passengers began exiting the aircraft. Video showed some passengers walking on the wing to exit the aircraft. Some passengers were able to deplane via the jet bridge before the evacuation was fully underway. No serious injuries were reported.
Flight attendants working for US-based airlines are required to be trained in CPR and in use of the automatic external defibrillator. The FAA requires simulated AED practice scenarios. And flight attendants are trained to do this even if no onboard medical personnel are available.
Under new DOT requirements, airlines and ticket agents will have to fully disclose all fees for baggage, changes, and cancellations upfront at first instance of displaying itineraries and fares. Airlines will also have to automatically and promptly refund passengers in cash or their original payment method when services like checked baggage and Wi-Fi are not delivered as promised.
Alaska Airlines is buying Hawaiian Airlines, unless the government stops them. They’re paying more than three times the Hawaiian share price at the time the deal was announced, and the real question is… why? This is a great deal for Hawaiian’s shareholders. Hawaiian Airlines frequent flyers will get more valuable miles out of the deal. There will probably be some reduction in seats flying between the Hawaiian islands, but that’s happening anyway as Southwest Airlines pulls back. Southwest saturated the market. Alaska is picking up planes, pilots, and experience flying to Asia Pacific destinations which the Seattle-based carrier has never done before. It doesn’t do any long haul flying. There just isn’t that much else for Alaska in the deal. A Honolulu hub that has no moat. Mainland – Hawaii flying is highly competitive, with…
Some flight attendants are calling LOSA-C, the Line Operations Safety Audit-Cabin program the “snitch” program. It was announced this was coming 15 months ago and was supposed to start this past fall, but the airline is only just now recruiting flight attendant observers for it.
American Airlines debuts new amenities kits in advance of Memorial Day weekend, part of its premium cabin soft product refresh meant to accompany new business class suites that are delayed by Boeing 787 production problems.
I had the opportunity to get my hands on a first class, business class, and premium economy amenity kit.
Reportedly flight safety incidents more than doubled between 2022 and 2023 as parts inventories ran low.
Now it seems that one way Russian airlines have kept flying – acquiring the spare parts they’ve needed – is having passengers check the parts in their luggage.
American Airlines flight attendants haven’t had a raise since 2019. At the end of that year their contract became amendable, and the value of their wages has been substantially eroded since then by more than 20% inflation. A new contract was delayed first by the pandemic The process of negotiating all the myriad details is a long one. The current agreement (that flight attendants didn’t even approve) runs over 325 pages. And that doesn’t count a separate 15 page attendance policy and 18 page uniform policy among others. Plus, union politics (effectively needing to wait for incumbent officers to be re-elected) meant further delay. Boston-based first and second year American Airlines flight attendants are eligible for food stamps. American Airlines even gives newly-hired flight attendants a letter attesting to their poverty. The letter states that…
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 »
