Category Archives for Airlines.
American Airlines has added change fees back to some international-originating itineraries. Southwest Airlines – which doesn’t have change fees, but also doesn’t do long haul international flying, reacted on twitter. Southwest’s pilots reacted, too.
U.S. airlines began permanently eliminating change fees during the pandemic, starting with United Airlines though others quickly followed suit.
You can expect many international fares for trips originating outside the United States to come with change fees.
When American Airlines dropped most change fees in fall 2020 they also introduced free standby.
There are customers that are pure price buyers. That’s the market Spirit Airlines and Frontier cater to. There are also coach passengers who will pay more for a better experience. And premium cabin customers are going to be paying substantially more to get a better product.
High cost airlines like American, United and Delta need to appeal to customers that will spend more money. They need to earn a revenue premium since they aren’t going to be the low-cost producers of seats.
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards will never be the stuff dreams are made of. There are no first class upgrades (Southwest has no premium cabin). You can’t redeem your miles to the Maldives or Seychelles (no partner airline redemptions). But there are some simple changes that could supercharge the value of the Rapid Rewards program.
American Airlines Platinum elites and higher now have access to extra legroom coach seats on Qatar Airways, complimentary at the time of booking, and Qatar Airways elites receive similar benefits on American.
Here’s another lesson in ‘never fly a Bill Franke airline’. The CEO of Budapest-based Wizz Air doesn’t want pilots cancelling flights just because they’re too tired to fly, saying “we are all fatigued but sometimes it is required to take the extra mile.”
Too tired? Just fly anyway!
With flights selling out it’s tough to get awards, especially in business class and especially for more than a passenger or two. That’s why it’s such a great time to book any winter Europe travel. It may be off-season but it’s also when destinations aren’t overrun with European tourists.
Star Alliance award space for four or more passengers is widely available between New York and several cities in Europe for January through March.
American Airlines now sells ‘Business Plus’ fares that include Flagship check-in, Flagship First Dining access (currently only available at New York JFK, Miami and Dallas Fort-Worth) and a third checked bag.
View it as bundling Flagship First Dining into the fare, but beware this is useful only at a limited number of airports.
On Sunday aa passenger in Dallas had their bag taken at the gate. The gate agent reportedly “tag[ged] them without asking final destination,” didn’t give customer a claim tag and told them to “them to look for it at [their] connecting airport NOT final destination.” They thought they’d never see their bag again.
The flight’s captain, though, wasn’t having any of this.
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 »
