Category Archives for Airlines.
Turkish Airlines just wiped out the last meaningful value in its Miles & Smiles program. After raising United domestic awards last year, Turkish has hit them again: mainland–Hawaii business class jumps to 40,000 miles each way when two years ago it was 12,500.
British Airways will raise the cost of award travel on December 15, increasing both the Avios required and the surcharges you’ll pay — but the airline won’t publish the new prices in advance. The limited examples they’ve shared point to roughly 10% higher points and surcharges rising anywhere from a few percent to potentially doubling on some routes. The full extent of the devaluation won’t be known until it’s already live.
Flight attendants are sharing the funniest, cringiest, and most inappropriate pickup lines passengers actually try on them. A few of the lines surprisingly worked — but many crossed the line into awkward, gross, or outright harassment.
A Southwest Airlines customer service agent at Chicago Midway discovered he could print LUV vouchers even when no passenger was owed compensation — and teamed up with a Chicago teacher to sell them for cash. Now the teacher has been sentenced to federal prison for buying them.
Delta isn’t raising SkyMiles status requirements for 2026, but it is reshuffling the Choice Benefits that Platinum and Diamond members can select. Three options improve, while the American Express statement credit quietly drops in value — a detail Delta doesn’t call out in its announcement.
A social media pile-on claims Alaska Airlines is “obstructing justice” because a poster tells employees not to hand passenger data to law enforcement on demand. In reality, it instructs staff to call a supervisor and insist on proper legal process — exactly what privacy laws, corporate policy, and rule of law require.
An urgent software problem with Airbus A320 flight computers forced thousands of jets worldwide into maintenance this weekend, but most airlines handled the fix with barely a ripple in their operations. JetBlue, by contrast, has been cancelling a huge chunk of its schedule while it scrambles to source replacement computers and catch up.
American Airlines has been serving a mass-produced 40-cent bundt cake as its domestic first class dessert for nearly four years, a perfect symbol of the carrier’s “never spend a dollar we don’t have to” era. If they’re serious about a premium pivot, it’s time to retire the cheap cake and invest in a dessert that actually matches the fares they want to charge.
I cried harder at an onboard movie in Cathay Pacific first class than at almost anything outside losing family, and there is a reason that happens in the air. Flying quietly strips away your defenses, and ordinary films and memories suddenly hit like a gut punch. Let’s break down why.
American Airlines is raising first checked bag fees on short haul international flights, including Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, Central America and Guyana, to $40each way starting Monday.
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 »
