Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

How To Get A Free Empty Middle Seat On Southwest Airlines

by Gary Leff

May 27 2023

What makes the biggest difference in comfort on any flight, regardless of airline, is having an empty seat next to you. And if your flight is full, that’s something which is largely within your control when flying on Southwest Airlines. If you fly Delta you hope they didn’t assign the seat next to you. If you fly Southwest, seats aren’t pre-assigned, so you hope no one decides to sit next to you.

There’s a whole subculture of people who have their own strategies for making sure sitting beside them is… undesirable.

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Southwest Airlines Pilot Climbed Through The Window After Passenger Locked Him Out Of Cockpit

by Gary Leff

May 26 2023

A Southwest Airlines pilot of a Boeing 737 bound for Sacramento got locked out of the cockpit prior to departure on Thursday – and had to climb back in through the window – after a passenger shut the door.

Thanks to the reinforced cockpit door, it was the quickest way in. A customer had boarded the plane and, needing to use the restroom, closed the door to the cockpit in order to access the aircraft’s lavatory. The hijinks caused an 8 minute delay.

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Anyone With A Travel Credit Card Can Get Frontier Airlines Elite Status

by Gary Leff

frontier plane docked
May 26 2023

There are a lot more first-tier elites than top elites, and more people still who fly a lot but not quite enough to earn status. Here’s an opportunity for those people to have elite status for a small fee. It isn’t a status match offer, no current status is required.

Instead, anyone with a travel credit card can have elite status with Frontier Airlines.

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Airline Passenger Opens Emergency Exit Door 800 Feet From Landing, Sending Six To Hospital

by Gary Leff

May 26 2023

A passenger managed to open the emergency exit door of Asiana flight 8124 on Friday as the 205-mile overwater domestic flight from Jeju to Daegu, South Korea was landing and the aircraft was about 820 feet above the ground.

There were 194 passengers on board the Airbus A321. Six were hospitalized on arrival. The man, in his 30s, reported tried to jump out of the aircraft.

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Penelope Cruz Signs On To Promote Emirates, What Do Airlines Get Out Of Celebrity Ads Anyway?

by Gary Leff

May 25 2023

The point in a celebrity campaign is to associate the brand with something. At its worst, the celebrity’s gravitas rubs off, or their likeability. It’s good enough for this person, I’m sure to like it!

But at its best – and nobody does celebrity advertising like Nike – it creates a brand purpose that makes the product a celebrity. Nike celebrates the athletes they have endorsement deals with. They celebrate greatness in sport. And though they’re selling a commodity (shoes, but in many ways airplane seats are similar) they become something consumers want an attachment to as a result.

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A Former American Airlines Plane is Still Missing After 20 Years

by Gary Leff

Big American Plane
May 25 2023

Disappearing planes, and no clear answers, just isn’t something that happens in aviation. There hadn’t been a single commercial aircraft go missing in the prior 13 years. Nearly all the aircraft that have disappeared have been probable crashes. Perhaps surprisingly commercial planes simply aren’t ever stolen. At least they almost never are.

Yet a Boeing 727 disappeared on May 25, 2003 from the international airport in Luanda, Angola. The plane used to belong to American Airlines. It was never found.

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Here’s The Latest Southwest Airlines Strategy To Avoid Another Meltdown This Summer

by Gary Leff

May 24 2023

It’s been five months since Southwest Airlines experienced an unprecedented meltdown. They initially blamed weather, but they were cancelling over 60% of their flights a day even while other airlines throughout the country were operating normally. They found themselves short-staffed, and without the systems to recover. Their phone system broke. And they had to rebuild schedules manually, getting in touch with crews one at a time. And this went on for a week.

Now the airline is headed into summer – peak travel – so observers both inside and outside the company are asking whether they’re ready.

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How Airlines Collude To Raise Prices, Right In Front Of Regulators

by Gary Leff

May 24 2023

The Department of Justice successfully sued in District Court to block American Airlines and JetBlue from continuing to cooperate in their ‘Northeast Alliance’ where they divvied up which carrier flew to which city, and shared revenue.

The judge’s decision cites some pretty interesting coordination over pricing that happens in the airline industry prior to and outside of this alliance. Competitors talking about pricing, and in particular how to raise prices, is forbidden, and yet they seem to do it in plain sight without actually saying “let’s do the crime” so that they can get away with it.

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American Airlines Pilot Comps Drinks For The Whole Flight

by Gary Leff

May 23 2023

The captain of an American Airlines flight comes out into the cabin – into economy, no less – to talk to passengers about their flight delay. He explains what happened, that the aircraft had arrived late from Puerto Vallarta, and he offered that they planned to make up a few minutes in the air if they could. He even offered to take passenger questions. But talking to passengers in person isn’t all that the captain did.

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