Category Archives for Airlines.
Emirates is adding a fourth flight between Dubai and Singapore, and the aircraft will continue on from Singapore to Phnom Penh, Cambodia and back to Singapore beginning May 1.
It was only last month that Southwest Airlines pilots approved a new contract. Late last summer American and United got pilot deals done. It may have been just in time for record-breaking pay, as demand for pilots could be cooling.
To mark 10 years of British Airways service to Austin, BA will be serving barbecue in business class and premium economy out of the Central Texas city in March and giving barbecue sauce bottles from world famous Franklin Barbecue to business class passengers. These bottles will be labeled BA-B-Q.
Bilt Rewards has been promising new elite benefits and they’ve just announced two new elements of their Platinum status: dedicated support, and Air France KLM Flying Blue Gold status. Both of these benefits launch February 29.
Starting this Friday, March 1 you must be an AAdvantage member to take advantage of free standby. So that’s a new restriction on standby, though of course people can join the program at the airport.
What wasn’t previously announced, though, but American is now telling customers is that they won’t be able to get added to the standby list by a customer service agent or gate agent. Standby requests will be self-serve only.
Soon customer service agents will be displaced en masse by chatbots, but not the kind you’re used to. AI-powered customer service agents will handle the bulk of requests.
Some businesses, including airlines, will promote human customer service as a premium experience (although eventually, perhaps, AI will be better – but at least initially this will be seen as a premium). And perhaps we’ll see airlines offering live human telephone service as an elite benefit.
ANA Mileage Club has announced an award chart devaluation effective with bookings made starting April 18, 2024. It’s been a decade since they made any changes to award prices, which is why the program’s awards have cost so many fewer miles than competitors.
A Delta Air Lines pilot came into the cabin of a delayed flight to Atlanta to let everyone know that he expected to make up time inflight – and get everyone to their destination on time – but that he had some instructions everyone was going to follow along the way.
A British Airways manager has reportedly fled to India following allegations that he orchestrated a $3.8 million immigration fraud, leveraging the airline’s check-in systems to facilitate illegal travel and allowing passengers to claim asylum in Canada when they weren’t eligible to fly there in the first place.
When asked about an upcoming elimination of the checked baggage guarantee, a Delta Air Lines spokesperson responded simply, “We have not made any announcement about a change to our program.” (I said in response, “well, if you’d made an announcement I wouldn’t be asking!”)
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 »
