Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

Delta Announces Rollback Of Severe SkyMiles Changes

by Gary Leff

Oct 18 2023

After Delta’s evisceration of elite qualification rules for next year, announcing the end of earning status by miles and flights flown; moving entirely to dollars spent; and increasing the amount of spending required for status substantially, as well as severely restricting access by premium credit card customers to its lounges, Delta acknowledged that they had moved ‘too quickly’ by ‘pulling the band aid off all at once’ and promised to moderate their changes for the coming year.

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United Promises Not To Follow Delta In Obliterating Elite Program Next Year

by Gary Leff

Oct 18 2023

During the United Airlines third quarter earnings call the carrier announced that they would not be making changes to their elite program. Normally the lack of changes aren’t noteworthy, but it’s been a big question from members since Delta has announced big changes and even in the face of backlash has merely suggested they rolled changes out too quickly not that the changes themselves were a mistake.

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Emirates First Class Upgrades Are Easy, Great Deal

by Gary Leff

shower in plane
Oct 16 2023

You can upgrade award tickets! This isn’t limited to buying business class with cash and upgrading with miles. If your upgrade doesn’t clear in advance, you can upgrade at the airport. And there there are no capacity controls. And there are no cash co-pays in addition to miles for the upgrade.

Plus their first class is a special product.

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New American Airlines Small Business Program Earns AAdvantage Miles, Faster Elite Status

by Gary Leff

Oct 16 2023

American Airlines is replacing its small business loyalty program Business ExtrAA with the new AAdvantage Business which is now available. Instead of having a completely separate program, small businesses will earn AAdvantage miles in their own account on top of the miles earned by travelers, and they’ll redeem miles just like consumers will.

That’s a simpler system, and there’s one clear benefit for travelers: they will earn one additional loyalty point towards their status per dollar spent when adding an AAdvantage for Business account number to their reservation.

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With More Passengers Than Seats, Dozens Sit On Floor Of El Al Flight To Israel

by Gary Leff

Oct 15 2023

One passenger who flew from Tokyo to Bangkok in order to catch the 9 hour 45 minute El Al flight from Tel Aviv shared the story of scores of young people trying to get on in order to heed their call up in the reserves or enlist in the Israeli Defense Forces. There were far more hopeful passengers than seats. With the captain’s permission, those people flew anyway.

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Delta Air Lines Concedes: United Or American Will Take Our Slot At Tokyo Haneda Airport

by Gary Leff

Oct 15 2023

I thought Delta would have a good chance keeping the slot if it proposed a New York JFK flight (a new competitor on the route in an important market, and ironically one with much better connectivity now that the Department of Justice forced American and JetBlue to break up their partnership). I also thought that the best shot of winning would be new service from a market that currently lacks a non-stop to Tokyo, such as Miami (or Orlando).

However Delta is telling its employees that the slot will go to American or to United.

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United Airlines Demands $400 To Gate Check Bags, But Passengers Didn’t Have The Money

by Gary Leff

Oct 13 2023

What happens if you’ve purchased a ticket, you’re about to board your flight, and the airline demands $400 that you don’t have? Two women traveling United Airlines had to find out. And they were only able to fly, along with all of their belongings, thanks to the kindness of a stranger traveling on the same flight that day who pulled out her own credit card.

The Oregon-based musician, singer, and Rhodes scholar JT Flowers shared what he witnessed at the boarding gate. Two passengers, that he noted were “black women speaking broken English,” were told that they could not board because “they can’t afford to pay $400 to check two tiny purses at the gate.”

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