Category Archives for Airlines.
American Airlines has been serving a mass-produced 40-cent bundt cake as its domestic first class dessert for nearly four years, a perfect symbol of the carrier’s “never spend a dollar we don’t have to” era. If they’re serious about a premium pivot, it’s time to retire the cheap cake and invest in a dessert that actually matches the fares they want to charge.
I cried harder at an onboard movie in Cathay Pacific first class than at almost anything outside losing family, and there is a reason that happens in the air. Flying quietly strips away your defenses, and ordinary films and memories suddenly hit like a gut punch. Let’s break down why.
American Airlines is raising first checked bag fees on short haul international flights, including Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, Central America and Guyana, to $40each way starting Monday.
Spirit Airlines has landed back in bankruptcy and is now facing securities fraud claims from investors who say the carrier overstated its turnaround prospects after emerging from its first restructuring. As usual in these cases, the only clear winners appear to be the lawyers gearing up to litigate the airline’s latest collapse.
Ryanair is killing its new $91-a-year “Prime” loyalty program after just eight months, blaming the shutdown on being “too generous” to 55,000 subscribers. The numbers tell a different story: weak demand, bad unit economics, and a bundle that undercut the ancillaries Ryanair depends on for profit.
A JetBlue flight attendant turned the Thanksgiving bathroom line into something unexpected: a flying gratitude wall made of passenger napkins. Travelers wrote what they were thankful for – family, survival, second chances – and the galley filled up with handwritten notes, echoing earlier “Words From A Window Seat”-style acts of in-flight kindness.
Aviation insiders say an airworthiness directive may soon require software updates across the Airbus A320 fleet after investigators linked a JetBlue incident—where the aircraft entered a sudden uncommanded descent—to a faulty ELAC computer. Any grounding is expected to be short and staggered, with airlines updating the systems plane-by-plane to avoid major disruption.
The head of the largest flight attendants union, Sara Nelson, says you should never press the flight attendant call button for a drink, and even tried to get the government to ban alcohol on planes which would reduce the amount of service her members would have to provide.
This is 100% wrong.
Delta has removed the second barcode from its printed boarding passes, a change agents often describe as ‘ink-saving’ but which Delta says also improves compatibility with airport scanners. Both explanations are true — the legacy 1-D code caused read errors, and dropping it also cuts print costs at scale.
An internal email shared with employees indicates that New Pacific Airlines—formerly Northern Pacific—has now shut down for good. After failed Anchorage–Asia ambitions, multiple rebrands, short-lived domestic service, and the collapse of affiliated Ravn Alaska, the long-struggling startup appears to have reached the end of the line.
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 »
