Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

Virgin Award Discount: Fly To Europe For 7,000 Miles, Or Under 34,000 Miles In Business Class

by Gary Leff

Jun 25 2023

Virgin is offering 30% off the number of miles required for upgrades and award travel on several routes. Eligible routes: London Heathrow and Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York JFK, Orlando, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa, Washington Dulles; Manchester and Atlanta, Las Vegas, New York JFK, Orlando; Edinburgh and Orlando. Book June 23 – July 24 for flights departing by September 30. Cash cost (taxes, fees, and surcharges) are not discounted. Chase, Capital One, Citibank, American Express and Bilt points all transfer to Virgin so it’s easy to access these points if you don’t already have them. Pay attention to the aircraft you’re flying, for instance Airbus A350s have the 2019 seat and there’s a new seat for A330s while you’ll want to avoid 787s. Retreat Suite, Credit: Virgin Atlantic In the…

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11 Hospitalized After Los Angeles-Bound Cathay Pacific Flight Aborted Takeoff At High Speed

by Gary Leff

Jun 24 2023

Cathay Pacific flight 800 rejected takeoff at high speed from Hong Kong airport on Saturday morning. 11 people out of 293 passengers and 17 crew who had been headed to Los Angeles were hospitalized during the event.

The Boeing 777-300 slowed down on runway 7R and taxied back to the apron, but the event caused three tires to deflate. Crew evacuated everyone from the aircraft, and you can see passengers ignoring instructions not to take their belongings with them as they left the aircraft.

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Southwest Airlines Raising Fees Starting August 15th

by Gary Leff

Jun 23 2023

Southwest Airlines, the largest U.S. domestic airline, is raising several fees effective August 15, 2023, the carrier has revealed to employees in a document reviewed by View From The Wing. They will be raising pet and unaccompanied minor fees, as well as fees for additional, oversize, and overweight bags. Third and beyond checked bag goes from $75 to 125. Overweight bags go from $75 for up to 100 pounds to $100 for up to 70 pounds or $125 for up to 100 pounds. Oversized bags go from $75 to $125. Unaccompanied minor fees go from $50 to $100. Pets go from $95 to $125 per carrier, with no change to intra-Hawaii pet fees. Southwest still doesn’t charge for seats (they don’t pre-assign seats), don’t have change fees or basic economy fares that are unchangeable, and…

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The FAA Goes After The Points Guy: Who Is At Fault For Airline Delays?

by Gary Leff

air traffic control
Jun 22 2023

The FAA is calling out Brian Kelly (‘The Points Guy’) who sold his eponymous website years ago, and no longer manages it, but still represents them in media. He blamed summer 2023 flight delays on FAA staffing, but the FAA points out that weather is a bigger cause of delays.

The FAA also calls out volume of flights and runway capacity as bigger issues with delays than staffing, though this is misleading.

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Is Domestic First Class Air Travel For The Poors?

by Gary Leff

economy seats
Jun 21 2023

Airline domestic first class isn’t a marker of wealth, since a large subset of passengers able to pay for air travel can pay for first class as well as it often isn’t that much more. But it hasn’t really ever been a marker of wealth.

Twenty years ago 90% of seats up front were going to upgrades, which frequently meant business travelers who weren’t poor by any stretch but often in the middle rungs of the corporate ladder. Who is flying up front has changed a bit, especially with managed business travel still down, but it hasn’t matched the mythology of the product in decades.

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