Category Archives for Airlines.
On Tuesday Dominican low cost carrier Red Air had a landing gear collapse on arrival in Miami. The McDonnell Douglas MD-82 operating flight L5-203 from Santo Domingo with 126 people on board “came to a stand still off the runway with a fire developing at the right hand wing, where a fuel spill occurred.” Three people were hospitalized from minor injuries during the evacuation.
One of the more common pet peeves among American Airlines business class passengers is the tendency for flight attendants to collect headphones an hour or more prior to arrival.
On an overnight flight this means that announcements about headphones are disturbing passengers who may still be trying to sleep. And it means that passengers can’t continue to use the headphones for the remainder of their flight.
Spirit’s board almost has to take JetBlue’s offer now unless Frontier comes up with more cash. The federal government then has to make a choice whether to sign off on it in order to kill the JetBlue-American Airlines Northeast Alliance. If they make that offer, JetBlue almost has to take it.
Frontier winds up with divested slots and gates in the Northeast anyway. JetBlue massively overpays. American loses its New York strategy. And the big winners wind up Delta and United, who face less competition for New York (and Boston).
When American Airlines announced the end of the ‘Shuttle’ product in November they shared that they would turn over New York LaGuardia – Boston flying to JetBlue and introduce Shuttle-like fares to several markets.
New “Main Select” fares would be refundable, bundling priority boarding and check-in, free seat assignments for any coach seat (including extra legroom) and free same-day confirmed changes. According to a spokesperson these fares are now available on several routes:
Covering how to prepare yourself for the turmoil of air travel this summer – since so many flights are cancelling, and there are few seats available for rebooking – I suggested booking a backup itinerary using miles for travel later in the day or the next day, and then cancelling the award ticket when your planned flight works out.
However I was asked, “Isn’t United charging for redeposit?” The answer is no, and it wouldn’t matter if they did.
Delta eliminated traditional mileage upgrades in 2019, and they no longer let top tier elite members upgrade paid coach tickets to business class. Upgrades with miles can now cost as much as one million miles roundtrip.
Back in September Oman Air announced its intention to join oneworld alliance and that it is working with Qatar Airways on its application as a sponsor.
Now joining is official.
A reader asked why I haven’t covered this past weekend’s drama. The truth is I’ve gotten numb it all because it is largely the same story week after week with passengers stranded amidst cancellations, and with flights full there’s no slack – very few seats for people to get rebooked onto – which means that the consequences of cancellations are greater than ever.
Here’s why airlines are struggling, and what you can do about it.
Point.me lets you search award space across pretty much every airline, shows you the best way to book a flight, with the lowest prices, and which points to use, and even walks you through the process – click by click – of transferring points and creating your booking (this is the past I like the best).
The United Airlines is fundamentally intertwined with George Gershwin’s 1924 Rhapsody in Blue. It’s hard to imagine that when Continental Airlines management took over they considered dropping the song which the airline has used since the 1980s. United was the first commercial brand ever to license it, for an annual fee of $300,000 at the time.
The Gershwin piece wasn’t just used on board and in commercials but also a version was recorded for the ‘trippy tunnel’ connecting United concourses at Chicago O’Hare. But United didn’t always use this song.
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 »
