Category Archives for Airlines.
When you check luggage, and your bags leave your possession, you trust the airline to handle it with care. They’re supposed to take it to your plane, load it, unload it at the destination and deliver it to baggage claim. And nothing else.
But that’s not always how it works.
American Airlines domestic awards for a single passenger can now be changed online.
American Airlines flight attendants will vote to authorize a strike next week. The union is demanding 35% raises, up to $95 per hour plus 6% annual bumps and additional increases based on what pilots are given. They aren’t going to get this. And that leaves negotiations at an impasse.
The two most common complaints I see about airlines in social media, being offered with photos, are both about baggage. Passengers share photos of checked bags being damaged, and about overhead bins with plenty of space after being forced to check their carry-ons ‘because the bins were full’.
Passengers flying Air Serbia in late June and early July were apparently having their bags lost at a very high rate. And many, perhaps most haven’t seen their bags since. Luggage is piling up at their hub airport in Belgrade. Reportedly only a couple of employees are processing large amounts of lost luggage for the Serbian national carrier, which flies to New York JFK and Chicago O’Hare, and nobody knows when or if they’ll work through the backlog.
People are literally calling the police in Belgrade to report their bags as stolen. Others are flying to Belgrade in search of their bags.
United Airlines is launching daily service from San Francisco to Manila, and bringing back Los Angeles – Tokyo Narita and Hong Kong. They’re adding Taipei flying and are trying to expand back into mainland China.
United’s flight from Zurich to Chicago O’Hare lost an emergency slide on Monday, as it floated down over a Chicago-area neighborhood prior to arrival. The Boeing 767 was discovered to have a missing slide on arrival. It landed in the backyard of a home close to the airport, damaging a roof.
British Airways is moving to revenue-based points-earning starting October 18. This applies to their own flights credited to the Executive Club program.
In the spring I wrote about scammers taking over an old Singapore Airlines phone number and pretending to be Singapore Airlines when customers call. The scammers charge high fees for basic services the airline would normally provide for free, like helping with seat assignments.
It turns out there’s another variation on this scam: the agency gets Google’s search results for the airline at a specific airport changed to display their phone number.
Buying seats that you do not intend to fly, to keep other people from buying them, creates actual harm to the airline (it prevents them from earning revenue). They won’t sit idly by. Consequences could be even greater.
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 »
