Category Archives for Airlines.
A program might charter a flight or four, but not enough capacity to really give members choice. Still, it’s a great stunt to highlight the efforts a program is going to for members. And with limited capacity these flights can prove popular.
What’s more, the economics can even work. These flights can be profitable.
The Biden administration was considering severe air travel restrictions out of concern for the Omicron variant of the virus, but they couldn’t make the logistics of legality of some of them work. New restrictions were expected to be announced on Thursday, and now we know what they’re actually doing.
Oman Air is now a partner of Air Canada Aeroplan. You can include Oman Air flights in Aeroplan awards, alongside other partner flights – even Star Alliance flights, or with partners like Etihad. That’s cool and even a little bit surprising since Oman Air announced their interest in joining oneworld two months ago.
The most common complaints on airline twitter seem to be about delays – flight delays, long lines, long hold times to get through especially when there’s a flight change or cancellation. The most common things we see photos of are damaged bags, dirty planes, and other passengers not wearing masks. Positives on twitter are fewer and farther between but usually focused on the trip itself, the happy people, with the airline being how they got there.
While there are certainly complaints in the Southwest Airlines feed there’s something unique there that I don’t see very often on other airline feeds: people having fun, both passengers and crew. While the tenor of most flights reported in social media resembles something out of a black-and-white rendition of George Orwell’s 1984, Southwest seems to offer a bit more technicolor.
Do you have elite status with an airline – or even a hotel chain? You might even have this just from having a credit card. Frontier Airlines wants to match your status and depending on your current elite level will even give you top tier in their program.
Frontier offers super cheap airfare with a lot of add-on fees. But Frontier’s top level waives all fees and even makes tickets refundable. Basically their incredible 2020 offer is back but they’re willing to match against a lot more programs this time.
The Biden administration is preparing new travel rules for everyone entering the U.S. by air, regardless of vaccination status. Rules are expected to be announced Thursday.
During the pandemic Virgin Atlantic’s frequent flyer program broadened out to become a coalition loyalty program called Virgin Red. That means more points-earning options and more points-redemption options, most of which haven’t been super appealing (although some people do like using their points for sausage rolls).
Now Virgin Red itself has officially launched in the U.S. and its app is now available.
During the pandemic American Airlines reduced the number of flight attendants working on Boeing 787, Boeing 777, and premium cross country Airbus A321T aircraft.
Now that travel demand has returned, the airline is keeping these lower staffing levels. And the airline is beginning to restore inflight service.
At an employee “Crew News” question and answer session this week American Airlines explained why Africa flying isn’t on their radar any time soon. A recording of the discussion was reviewed by View From The Wing.
For April, July, August, and September 2022 there are plenty of dates with availability for two passengers on the Dallas – Hong Kong flight in first class at 84,000 AAdvantage miles apiece. Next year there may be hope of visiting Hong Kong, or of using this flight to connect onward in Asia on American’s partner Cathay Pacific.
Availability on American’s Dallas flight is great because it’s a useful connecting point for most of the country.
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 »
