Category Archives for Airlines.
There were over 1,350 flight cancellations in the U.S. on Saturday, led by regional carrier Republic which flies for the three largest airlines which saw 35% of flights cancel. When bad weather hits, it’s larger planes carrying more people that are usually given priority. Behind Republic were – in order – United, American, and Delta, together taking the four top spots for cancellations in the world.
Last week I wrote that American Airlines plans to serve more premium international destinations starting in 2025 and into 2026. That’s once they’ve taken delivery of new Boeing 787-9 aircraft, which they ordered in 2018 and have been delayed.
Senior Vice President of Network Planning told employees recently that these planes change the airline’s calculus.
Airlines and the major pilot union have lobbied the federal government to put premium air carrier JSX out of business, and the FAA has introduced a rulemaking to do just that.
Asking the federal government to put them out of business isn’t the only front on which JSX is under attack by major airlines and their labor unions. Reportedly airlines press airports where they have influence to refuse JSX access to private terminals, and require them to fly from main terminals.
Relations with American Airlines flight attendants are about to come to a head. The company has committed to delivering an economic proposal to the cabin crew’s union by the end of the day. It is not going to meet their demands.
The plane was over 5 hours late, and it sounds like a miserable experience for passengers, but not an instance addressed by the law. And that’s actually the problem.
United Airlines launched its Polaris business class product seven years ago. This was both a new soft product – meals, blankets, amenities – and a new seat or hard product.
United Airlines is launching Polaris 2.0 on September 20th, a refresh of the airline’s soft product. Employees are being given a mandatory one hour course on the new product.
At the TD Cowen Global Transportation Conference, airline CFO Gerald Laderman said there are “no imminent plans” to move their headquarters, noting that the airline has “a long-term lease at Willis Tower. We’ve been there for decades in Chicago. Denver is like Houston. We have lots of facilities in Houston.”
On Friday night a Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta to Barcelona had to turn around after a passenger let loose diarrhea all the way through the aircraft.
Passengers returned to Atlanta and waited while Delta cleaned the aircraft and found a new crew (as the original one timed out). They were sent on their way using the same plane at 2:57 a.m. Saturday morning. Video has now come out showing the inside of the aircraft.
Air France KLM’s Flying Blue is already the best frequent flyer program in SkyTeam. And it’s relevant to Americans because every major points transfer program partners with Air France KLM, making their points easy to get, and there are even frequent transfer bonuses.
Their points are about to get more value since Air France KLM and Etihad have announced a new partnership.
United Airlines says “good leads the way”. Yet at the other end of the spectrum is what one woman says happened to her on United Airlines flight 2084 from Denver to Jacksonville, Florida on Tuesday. Amber Rewis shares that a crewmember took a lunchbox out of the overhead bin – it contained frozen breast milk she was carrying for her child – and asked the cabin, “what the hell is this?”
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 »
