Category Archives for Airlines.
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.
It can be jarring to be told to weighh your carry on as you’re about to board, not just put it in the sizer to make sure its measurements are compliant. But it’s all part of updating data for safety.
Last month I broke the news that Southwest Airlines would start selling overnight connection flights for the first time. The plan was initially to launch this on June 26, but it was delayed. The airline has a new date this time: Wednesday, July 19th.
Since a majority of miles are earned via credit card, and American’s U.S. co-brands earn 1 Loyalty Point per dollar spent, a lot of status is being generated by credit card.
And that means not just more people earning status overall than before, but different people earning status.
Two Delta passengers, one with the lowest level of status (Silver), were heading off on their honeymoon. They were flying Detroit to San Juan back in February where they’d pick up a cruise the following day. But right after their flight took off, the bride realized she left her passport at home. That would mean no cruise, since it would head to international destinations and she wouldn’t be permitted to board. There was no way to get the passport in time, they thought.
Sometime over the past day, the Rocketmiles hotel booking website has seen it’s AAdvantage mileage-earning chopped by several orders of magnitude. Hotels that might earn 10,000 or more miles (and status-qualifying Loyalty Points) per night are now earning 200 or 300 miles. This is a strange development, but it does not appear to be a mistake.
A woman on board American Airlines flight 2962 from Charlotte to Des Moines says she was told she had to cover up while breastfeeding her 5 month old daughter as ‘common courtesy’ when men or children are around.
American has a special phone number for use by passengers during weather events and similar breakdowns. This is part of the Reservations Irregular Ops Customer Assistance Program and gates have “RICAP cards.”
American Airlines internal reference materials show that they’ve begun the wind-down process for the Northeast Alliance.
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 »
