Category Archives for Airlines.
It used to be that when the doors of the aircraft closed, passengers could re-arrange themselves freely. If there were empty seats, you’d see passengers spread out for more room. That made sense.
However airlines now charge for seats, and they don’t even just charge for extra legroom seats. An aisle seat and even a window can cost more than a middle. A seat towards the front of the cabin might cost more, too.
Today’s flight from Athens to Newark was 90 minutes into its flight when it held over Sardinia. The Boeing 777 then took an overwater route back to Athens, reportedly unable to gain clearance to fly over France or Italy. As the aircraft entered Greek airspace, their Air Force scrambled jets to intercept and escort it down.
SkyTeam member Middle East Airlines had a bullet pierce an Airbus A320 that was landing in Beirut after a short 40 minute flight from Amman, Jordan.
The bullet pierced the fuselage of the aircraft before it landed on Beirut’s runway 16. It’s not believed to have been intentional or involved terrorism – careless gunfire near the airport hits several parked planes there each year, though it’s the first moving aircraft I’m aware of that was hit.
United Airlines agreed to allow an alcoholic Buddhist pilot back into the cockpit after a substance abuse program that doesn’t involve Christianity nearly two and a half years after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission backed the pilot, and pay him $305,000. The agency argued that the airline violated the pilot’s religious liberty by insisting he attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, contending he should be permitted to substitute a Buddhist alternative.
This underscores a major reason why Spirit Airlines launched a major revamp of its loyalty program, introducing a relevant program which replaced a completely irrelevant one.
This deal values Spirit’s loyalty assets, whose 2021 revenue totaled $96 million, at $4.2 billion, even though the market cap of the entire business is only a little over half that.
A Ryanair received second degree burns from buy on board pasta that a crewmember dropped on her during her flight from Marseille to London last week. It “took them 45 minutes to an hour to even open their first aid kit.” She went to the hospital on arrival in London.
Thank you so much for your help! Over the weekend I asked for help raising United miles for Give A Mile, which uses donated miles to help people spend the last days of life with a loved one. I offered a match for donations.
Over the course of that match, the Give A Mile campaign went from having raised 218,000 miles to 600,000 miles on its quest to raise one million miles. That’s incredibly generous. There’s still two weeks left to help them reach their goal.
While United Airlines made elite status easier to earn in 2022 they’re returning to their harder revenue-based spend requirements for 2023, while giving existing elite frequent flyers a small head start towards status, allowing award travel on United to count towards status, and increasing the credit members can earn by spending on United co-brand credit cards.
There’s no brand that’s been tarnished as much in Australia over the past year as Qantas. They don’t have enough seats to meet demand, and their operations have been awful as they’ve returned to international service. Stories are rampant of passengers with cancelled flights, where the airline stranded them abroad telling them they couldn’t return home for weeks.
Yet the Aussie government still protects Qantas from competition, limiting flights and keeping prices high. Citizens there should be outraged at the crazy stunts Qatar Airways has to engage in just to provide more flights in and out of the country.
Marriott has myriad airline partners – at 38 it’s way more than bank transfer programs. We’re now seeing a change to the Marriott points-to-miles transfer bonus. Specifically, the hotel chain informed customers this morning that the bonus would no longer be available on transfers to American AAdvantage, Delta SkyMiles, or Avianca LifeMiles effective October 31. Transferring 60,000 Marriott points will yield only 20,000 AAdvantage miles going forward – not 25,000.
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 »
