Category Archives for Airlines.
Monday night I wrote about the American Airlines flight from Miami to London that diverted to Bermuda stranding passengers inside the terminal for 21 hours.
For the first 11 overnight hours of their stay passengers report that they received water and pretzels. American Airlines says this is because of Bermuda’s Covid rules, but the government there says this isn’t true.
Throughout the pandemic I’ve been telling people they needed to pay attention to Covid-era entry rules not just for their destination – did they need a test? proof of vaccination? could they visit at all? – but also for any connecting points along the way. You don’t want to get stuck in an airport where you can’t enter the country, in case your flight gets cancelled or you miss your connection.
But there’s not a lot you can do when your plane goes mechanical and you’re not allowed into the country. Unfortunately that’s exactly what happened to American Airlines flight 38 from Miami to London Heathrow on Sunday evening.
One of the questions I’m asked most frequently is ‘how can I donate miles to charity?’ And the problem is that you really can’t unless you want to give to one of a handful of pre-selected groups your frequent flyer program endorses, or you want to directly book an award for someone out of your account. But this is not always true and you can make a difference.
An American Airlines passenger needed to get travel for work, and work involved using an empty bucket. He had to be at work before stores opened the next morning. And that meant he’d have to bring the bucket with him on his flight. So he brought it along as checked luggage. The bucket made it!
I’m shocked to see that Alaska Airlines appears to have wide open award availability for Singapore Airlines business class awards between the U.S. and Asia. In fact it seems they have at least as good availability as is offered to Singapore’s own members.
Alaska Airlines does a nice job taking care of customers one at a time – not always and in every case, of course, but on the whole my dealings with them have been just a touch more ‘human’ than average for the U.S. airline industry. So it didn’t surprise me to see this tweet about Alaska successfully recovering a laptop left on one of their planes.
This shouldn’t be a standout, but how often do you expect to actually receive valuables returned to you if you’ve left them on a plane?
Business class award space flying long distances can be tough to get when you want it. There’s one approach that isn’t written about very much, but that can get you the seats you want – when you want it – on a great airline: waitlisting.
When Scott Kirby criticizes the government what he wants is more government. And specifically, more government that benefits him and his airline.
Some passengers simply will not change seats when asked, and that is ok. One woman absolutely won’t change seats, unless it is a celebrity doing the asking. She insists on seat 8A on Virgin Atlantic, and will take a different flight if she cannot have it. And she absolutely won’t fly in a backwards-facing business class seat.
The woman reports that a father was furious when she wouldn’t switch seats so that family could sit together – wishing her “ill for the future” and “storm[ing] off.”
Last year pilots were making announcements “Let’s Go Brandon” and that made it into air traffic control chatter too. I thought this had died out, and was now being crowded out by the counter Dark Brandon meme but pilots are still bringing their politics on board with them.
Here’s a Southwest Airlines pilot with a “I used to be liberal / Then I left home and got a job” sticker on his bag.
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 »
