Category Archives for Airlines.
Last week the U.S. House of Representatives voted down an amendment to FAA Reauthorization that would have “require[d] airlines to reinstate pilots who were fired or forced to resign because of vaccine mandates.” Republicans generally favored the amendment, but not overwhelmingly, while all but one voting Democrat opposed it.
The court wasn’t looking to impose a ‘bait and switch’. The airlines initially argued for a long wind-down of the partnership, to which the government objected. The position of American and JetBlue was, our IT systems aren’t set up to base benefits and mileage-earning on date of ticket purchase rather than date flown. So they couldn’t just grandfather old tickets.
That wasn’t flying as a reason to prolong the partnership. Instead what the two airlines came up with eliminating the ability to add each others’ frequent flyer account numbers to reservations.
The tug had “several mechanical issues” including brake faillure. It collided into a guardrail 10 days earlier. On this day the employee started to push back an aircraft, but the tug went faster than usual. It veered right. And the 14-ton vehicle crashed near gate 24 and pinned the man between the vehicle and the jetbridge. One 911 call suggested that the vehicle’s accelerator pedal got stuck.
Tug had been “marked out of service numerous times for failed brakes” it reportedly was not serviced and continued to be used. Maintenance of the vehicle is “managed by Menzies Airlines.”
American Airlines has had technical issues when AAdvantage members put frequent flyer mile award travel on hold, sometimes only holding a reservation for three days instead of the five days promised under their policy. There’s another glitch members are dealing with, and it’s costing them more miles if they don’t pay attention.
Many customers are reporting that when they put an award ticket on hold the flights are stored, but the price quoted doesn’t stick. Here’s one example where a single traveler was asked to pay an additional 122,000 miles:
Normally when passengers don’t receive their meals it’s because of a catering issue. And it’s limited to a few passengers. Maybe they didn’t get their special meal choice, or their first choice wasn’t loaded. If it’s United Airlines, maybe they just ran out of food. But British Airways flight 56 on July 20 may have had the most surprising reason I’ve seen for passengers not to get fed on a long haul flight: the crew rest seats were broken. What does that have to do with feeding passengers, especially since it doesn’t appear that there was trouble catering the aircraft? Crew on an 11 hour flight get rest breaks. Normally on a widebody aircraft they get time in the crew rest area. But if those seats are unavailable they’ll assign business class seats for this…
J.P. Morgan’s Jamie Baker points out that American Airlines has provided guidance that their third quarter operating margin will decline by over 700 basis points, and that American hasn’t done this poorly outside of Covid in the last thirteen years – and they’re guiding to performance over 800 basis points worse than Delta. And they don’t explain what’s going on.
ITA Airways is the new Alitalia. They’re a member of SkyTeam, but only partially. You can’t redeem Delta miles to travel with them, for instance. But you can now redeem Virgin Atlantic miles. Their business class is good, availability is good, and there are no fuel surcharges.
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.
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 »
