Category Archives for Airlines.
A Frontier Airlines gate agent acted erratically, yelling at passengers as she tried to board the aircraft before a flight from Denver to Norfolk this month in a clip that’s going viral. When a passenger told the gate agent she was rude, the employee responded, NO I AM NOT YOU ARE!”
American Airlines flight 715 today from Venice to Philadelphia diverted today for a medical emergency. It was a crewmember on board in distress. And unfortunately 38-year veteran flight attendant Carol Wright passed away unexpectedly.
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.
Qatar has prioritized their loyalty program over the past three years, making improvements like awarding miles even before you fly, at a time when Emirates has largely been lighting its program on fire and Etihad has undergone a series of more modest devaluations. This change makes Privilege Club more than just a program for redeeming QSuites.
If your status is ending, consider booking as much future travel as you can, because some of your benefits will likely apply to trips booked before your status expires for trips that occur after.
You can book extra legroom coach seats with your status, where that benefit applies, and those seat assignments will usually stick. And here’s an interesting wrinkle with checked baggage, too.
American Airlines is slowly rolling out multi-factor authentication for AAdvantage account login. This started with a small number of customers on June 13, and more customers are being added to this requirement weekly.
American will not tell you in advance that this change affects you.
Southwest will start selling overnight connection flights for the first time on June 26. They won’t offer redeye flights, but will use their current schedule to sell itineraries that involve an overnight at six airports – Baltimore; Denver; Las Vegas; Phoenix; Chicago Midway; and Oakland.
No new flights are being added to the schedule, this just adds flight options to sell… that customers should be on the lookout for, because they’re options that many will potentially want to avoid.
Right now anyone with a travel credit card can get Frontier Airlines elite status. And that’s a real offer. I’ve seen plenty of people use photoshop over the years when asking for an airline to ‘match’ the status they already have in order to move their business.
It’s normally advisable to check in online when you’re flying an ultra low cost carrier. There are often fees for airport check-in, and lines at the airport can be extremely long because ground staff costs are one area for cost savings – passengers don’t pay much for their ticket, but they’ll pay with their time.
Steve didn’t do this, so when he arrived at the Kuala Lumpur he went to use a check-in kiosk. Not checking in in advance, he hadn’t been automatically assigned a seat. This turned out both to be an inconvenience and a benefit.
Even though marijuana is legal in many states, it remains against federal law. You can’t take it on interstate flights. Still, some people apparently pack their pot in checked luggage. And United Airlines baggage handlers steal it.
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 »
