Category Archives for Airlines.
China Eastern flight MU5735 from Kunming to Guangzhou, operated by six year old Boeing 737-800 registration B-1791, crashed near Wuzhou, China. After descending at a rate of over 30,000 feet per minute, the 123 passengers and 9 crew are presumed not to have survived though rescue crews are on the scene.
With the federal transportation mask mandate expected to come to an end in less than a month, we can expect to see many of the thousands of passengers banned by airlines over masks to return to the skies. That’s because, unlike bans for violent or other abusive behavior, banks over masks were often considered temporary.
“Fifth freedom” routes are sometimes the easiest to book on miles, and the most fun to fly. Emirates, the Dubai-based carrier, actually operates two flights between the U.S. and Europe – New York JFK to Milan and Newark to Athens. And the Newark – Athens flight is wide open for awards in business class.
Moreover, while Emirates’ program often charges quite a lot of miles for first class, relatively short distances like U.S. – Europe in business class are quite reasonable. In fact this one is a steal at just 90,000 miles roundtrip and $220.
Real service elements begin coming back on American Airlines starting April 13, and alcohol and snacks for sale start back with the expected end to the federal mask mandate on April 18. Here are the details of what to expect.
The federal transportation mask mandate should have been lifted, or allowed to expire March 18. However it was extended – for just one month. And the broad expectation is that it will end in mid-April, as part of the administration declaring victory on Covid-19. There’s a strong political reason to do so before the mid-term elections. And it makes good sense, too.
But one thing could still change this.
Any advocate for testing travelers entering the United States needs to articulate what benefit the testing provides now, why it’s enough of a benefit to justify the restriction, and what condition needs to exist to remove the rule. No one has even tried to do that, because the testing rule isn’t about protecting the country from Covid-19 (it cannot do that) it’s about optics.
Much like in the U.S., Dutch mask mandates are falling away everywhere… except on airlines and in airports. So four Dutch airlines led by KLM have decided this is so stupid, they’re just going to stop enforcing it starting March 23.
British Airways, meanwhile, announced an end to their mask mandate – but reportedly has told crew the rule remains in place definitely anyway.
The federal transportation mask mandate was extended through April 18 for no good reason, other than political fear from the Biden administration (that some new variant would come along) and political opportunism (they weren’t yet ready to declare victory and removing the ban will be useful as part of that).
The Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate has now voted 57-40 to overturn the transportation mask mandate. Here’s what to expect,
Outgoing American Airlines CEO Doug Parker spoke at the JP Morgan Industrials Conference today and suggested that since he’s leaving and won’t be responsible for results after this quarter, he shouldn’t talk about American’s future forecasts. Instead he talked about the airline industry – and revealed something about his own investing in competitor stocks.
A Captain for Russian government-owned low cost carrier Pobeda, a subsidiary of Aeroflot, demonstrated real bravery by announcing to his flight that his government’s invasion of Ukraine is a crime and must be stopped. Caveating that he was speaking for himself and not the airline that had brought passengers to Antalya, Turkey, he asked passengers to do everything they could to bring the war to an end. Passengers cheered.
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 »
