Category Archives for Airlines.
United Airlines just lost a ruling before a federal judge in California, certifying a class action lawsuit by flight attendants who claim information is missing off of their pay stubs – even though the information is provided to them in a separate document.
Lufthansa “regrets the circumstances surrounding the decision to exclude the affected passengers from the flight” but nowhere in their statement do they say the word “Jews.” Instead they simply refer to “a large group” though they at least now acknowledge that this ‘group’ that shall not be named was banned whether or not any individual had acted improperly.
They apologize for “the offense caused and personal impact” while stating their ‘core values’ of ‘diversity and equal opportunity.’ They’re unwilling to simply say anti-semitism is unacceptable at Lufthansa. They felt the need to couch it in terms of their opposition to racism and to discrimination “of any type” though no other type was at issue here.
Not to be left behind, Air France will retrofit 12 Boeing 777s with a new business class offering doors. They expect that it will begin flying in September, first on the New York JFK – Paris route. The planes won’t have first class, so presumably will swap with existing Boeing 777-200 frequencies that do not offer first either.
We hear about stories of passengers beating up flight attendants, flight attendants having disputes with their airline or union, and flight attendants scolding customers. Maybe they’re kicking off passengers for their attire or – for much of the pandemic – over mask violations.
Most of the time, though, interactions between customers and cabin crew are genuine and human. We just don’t hear about it.
2022 is a weird year. Travel is booming, but only in certain places and only certain kinds of travel. What’s more, the Omicron surge meant the year started off slow for many members. So while we’ll see plenty of frequent flyers earning elite status, there are many still on the sidelines.
Aeroplan is out with a way for members to keep their status through 2023: earn 30,000 points with an Aeroplan co-brand credit card between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. This is on top of elite status accelerators announced in February.
Former American Airlines flight attendants union President Bob Ross had previously argued, in effect, that he shouldn’t be singled out among past union Presidents for financial impropriety, and that his improper financial practices had been approved by his subordinates.
Now he’s arguing, among other claims, that the accusations against him are all part of Sara Nelson’s plot to grow her power base.
A large group of Jewish passengers were kept from traveling on a Lufthansa connecting flight to Budapest on Wednesday after some Jewish passengers – and some non-Jews – had mask compliance issues on board Lufthansa’s flight 401 from New York JFK to Frankfurt.
A Lufthansa representative explains that Jews caused the problems, so the airline approached this as collective guilt.
What do you think, is a slip and fall necessarily the fault of an airline when another passenger’s bag protrudes into the aisle? Or – sometimes – do accidents happen, and unfortunate as it is, that’s why they’re called accidents?
Bask Bank is known for its Mileage Savings Account which awards American AAdvantage miles rather than interest – the math on this works out especially well in what’s still a low-interest rate environment.
They’ve also launched a Bask Interest Savings Account and they’ve just raised the interest rate (APY) by 56% after the recent Fed meeting.
Airlines used to regularly hand out meal vouchers during flight delays. When it was their fault, they’d cover food costs for passengers and that was expensive.
About 8 years ago, after being taken over by US Airways, American Airlines came up with a solution to save money. They’d roll out carts of snacks to gates on long delays instead of giving customers meal vouchers.
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 »
