Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

Emirates No Longer Able To Book JetBlue Business Class Awards

by Gary Leff on July 5, 2022

Jul 05 2022

A year ago Emirates introduced the ability to book award travel on JetBlue. Awards could be booked online, and over the phone they’d even put award space on hold for you to transfer points. And all the major credit card currencies transfer into Emirates Skywards plus they have their own U.S. credit card.

The pricing was good – cheaper, for instance, than using American AAdvantage miles on JetBlue. Routes like New York JFK – Los Angeles (or LA-Miami or Boston – San Francisco) ran 52,000 miles each way, while New York JFK – Aruba would be 40,000 miles.

Star Alliance Member SAS Declares Bankruptcy

by Gary Leff on July 5, 2022

Jul 05 2022

Scandinavian, or SAS, the Swedish-Danish-Norwegian Star Alliance carrier headquartered in Stockholm, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. following the start of a pilots strike that the carrier expects will cancel half of its flights.

Siri Dials Fake Delta Air Lines Call Center, Costs Passenger $125

by Gary Leff on July 4, 2022

Jul 04 2022

Siri called the wrong phone number when a passenger tried to reach Delta. And it wasn’t just a wrong number, it was a scam number for someone impersonating Delta. They trusted it because they trusted Siri – and it cost them a fee.

This reinforces my priors that digital assistants don’t add as much value as people addicted to them think they do.

For Airline Pilots, The Struggle Is Real

by Gary Leff on July 3, 2022

Jul 03 2022

Listen to pilots talk publicly, posturing in contract negotiations, it’s a grueling career that no one should want. Privately, though, many realize that being entrusted with $100 million machines and flying them around for a living is a pretty great gig. Many also build side businesses in their time off (insurance is a common one).

Picketing by pilots is a bad look, though. Pilots do not realize how they come across. They simply aren’t successful marketing themselves as the exploited worker class.

American Airlines Pilots Union To Members: “Enjoy Your Time Off” You Don’t Have To Fly

by Gary Leff on July 2, 2022

Jul 02 2022

It’s a mess, but a mess that can be fixed with money. As a result if American somehow doesn’t fix it, it’s a huge failure of management. So it’s also a test of the new management team whose orders are normally to not spend a dollar more than they need to.

Secretary Pete Buttigieg Estimates The Value Of Miles, Strands Himself Mid-Trip

by Gary Leff on July 2, 2022

Jul 02 2022

Secretary Pete Buttigieg says he was taking a connecting flight Friday evening and the airline (which he doesn’t name) cancelled his connection, so he insisted on refunding the segment. If things happened the way he describes, he stranded himself mid-trip in a city that wasn’t his destination, and he doesn’t ell us how he wound up making it the rest of the journey.

Along the way he offers commentary on the value of frequent flyer miles, which he estimates are worth ‘between 1 and 1.5 cents apiece’ (he’s right!) and settles on a value of 1.2 cents for the particular miles he was offered.

Emirates A380 May Have Flown 13 Hours With A Hole In Its Fuselage

by Gary Leff on July 2, 2022

Jul 02 2022

A three year old Emirates Airbus A380 from Dubai to Brisbane may have flown for 13 hours with a hole in its fuselage.

Flight EK430 took off from Dubai International Airport and that may be the point at which the aircraft received damage. However it wasn’t until approach into Brisbane that flight crew advised air traffic control that they suspected “they blew a tyre on takeoff” and asked for emergency response services to on standby as they arrived.

Man Fakes Sprained Ankle, Uses Wheelchair To Skip All The Lines At The Airport

by Gary Leff on July 1, 2022

Jul 01 2022

Some unscrupulous people request wheelchair assistance at the airport when they don’t need it, using their ‘injury’ for a whole bunch of benefits: skip the security line, early boarding, and even better better seats on board.

When Frequent Flyer Programs Are Worth More Than The Airlines That Own Them

by Gary Leff on June 30, 2022

Jun 30 2022

El Al is spinning off its frequent flyer program at a $500 million valuation. The entire airline, including the frequent flyer program, has a market cap of less than $180 million. They’re not alone. American’s frequent flyer program was appraised at up to $30 billion (and they borrowed $10 billion against it) while their market cap is less than $9 billion.

Frontier’s Deal To Acquire Spirit Airlines Has Problems

by Gary Leff on June 29, 2022

Jun 29 2022

Spirit Airlines sent me their release indicating that tomorrow will not be the day that shareholders vote on whether to sell to Frontier Airlines.

Instead the shareholder meeting will be adjourned and reconvened on July 8. Spirit wouldn’t do this if all their ducks were lined up to gain approval for the Frontier deal that their board has endorsed.

Airlines

Emirates No Longer Able To Book JetBlue Business Class Awards

Star Alliance Member SAS Declares Bankruptcy

Siri Dials Fake Delta Air Lines Call Center, Costs Passenger $125

For Airline Pilots, The Struggle Is Real

American Airlines Pilots Union To Members: “Enjoy Your Time Off” You Don’t Have To Fly

Secretary Pete Buttigieg Estimates The Value Of Miles, Strands Himself Mid-Trip

Emirates A380 May Have Flown 13 Hours With A Hole In Its Fuselage

Man Fakes Sprained Ankle, Uses Wheelchair To Skip All The Lines At The Airport

When Frequent Flyer Programs Are Worth More Than The Airlines That Own Them

Frontier’s Deal To Acquire Spirit Airlines Has Problems

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