Category Archives for Airlines.
The airline wants to prevent a mass exodus of staff when they need those staff most. So they impose penalties for using sick time at inconvenient times even when someone is sick (and likely to get customers sick, too). In years past sick calls with documentation were excused but under the point system, they aren’t.
Every airline has a cursed plane that consistently has more problems than the rest. At United Airlines one of these seems to be Boeing 767-300 registration N641UA.
This aircraft keeps having problems. Just last month the plane diverted to Newark. The same 32-year old aircraft had a gear problem on arrival in Chicago from London and a fuel imbalance reported over the Atlantic that caused a diversion to Iceland. Now it’s an engine fire.
For anyone who ever thought, “I’d like my whiskey to smell like cake,” Glenmorangie makes a $100 single malt aged in ex-bourbon barrels and finished in a Tokaji dessert wine cask.
Christopher Ambler packed a bottle in his checked luggage and entrusted it to United. Then, he says, it was returned to him one-third empty.
Even before the pandemic United cut flight attendant staffing in business class. They replaced proper plating of meals in the galley by a flight attendant with less attractive pre-plated meals.
The union wants staffing levels restored, and to pressure the airline as part of slow-moving contract negotiations they’re asking flight attendants to report their own poor service.
9,000 people signed a petition asking Delta Air Lines to reconsider. Delta did not respond to the petition.
Now the AFA-CWA union, which is trying to organize Delta flight attendants, is using that to drum up anger at the airline that might help their cause.
American sees itself as having “the best hubs in the business for domestic and international short haul network” in Charlotte, DFW, and Phoenix. They’re working to build New York JFK working with Alaska to build Seattle on the West Coast, according to executives in a recording of comments to employees last week that’s been shared with View From The Wing. However their approach to long haul is different.
The Department of Transportation entered into an agreement to approve the “Northeast Alliance” between American Airlines and JetBlue, indeed wrung concessions out of the two airlines before doing so (giving up takeoff and landing slots in New York, and a commitment to expand supply of seats in the market with larger aircraft under penalty of losing even more slots to other airlines).
Then, after the alliance moved forward, the Department of Justice Continue Reading »
Given what we know about American’s tendency to operate shorter flights, and to try to fly where others aren’t operating, I’d expect that American’s entry into Africa would be a close-in destination along the lines of Casablanca – which also offers connectivity beyond Morocco and which clocks in at under 4,000 miles. That will allow them to fly the Airbus A321XLR rather than a more expensive widebody.
President Biden’s nominee to head the FAA, Denver airport chief Phil Washington, has withdrawn from the nomination process. I was, frankly, surprised to see him re-nominated in January after a Democrat-controlled Senate saw him as too vulnerable to move forward with a hearing in 2022. And though he led the Biden Presidential campaign’s Department of Transportation transition, he hardly seemed the best fit for the role.
Etihad’s Airbus A380 is returning to the skies, and with it their “First Apartment” which are among the most impressive inflight suites in the world. And award space is currently wide open on the London Heathrow – Abu Dhabi route with as many as 9 award seats per flight in some cases (book the whole cabin), and up to two daily flights on the aircraft.
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 »
