Category Archives for Airlines.
United Airlines has fired back at the American Airlines lawsuit which seeks to block Chicago from redistributing gates away from American and to United. United’s message came in the form of a letter to employees from airline President Brett Hart.
Awards for new American Airlines business class suites are wide open between Chicago and London Heathrow this summer as well as between Philadelphia and London. The new American Airlines 787-9s debuts June 5. That’s when the first plane flies Chicago – Los Angeles and back and then on to London. Come July all three of American’s Chicago – London flights transition to this new aircraft (“789P”). It features business class suites with doors, including an enhanced bulkhead row, as well as new premium economy seats. The plane is also equipped with ViaSat wifi which is far more functional than the Panasonic installs that have been featured on all of American’s wifis prior to the ‘block 2’ 787-8s which were delivered after the pandemic. American has these flights available for a variety of points prices, for…
A customer tried to use their American Airlines systemwide upgrades 40 minutes to midnight on the day they expired – except the airline doesn’t specify in their terms and conditions what time zone midnight is. The upgrades, which were available for the customer to confirm, could not be used – because they’d already expired 80 minutes earlier.
Hacktivist group Anonymous breached Global Crossing Airlines (GlobalX), the charter carrier heavily used by the Trump administration for deportation flights. The cyberattack involved defacing their website and taking sensitive passenger information that could expose critical details regarding deportations.
First class cabins are shrinking around the world, even as airlines add more premium seats to planes. Business class has gotten better. But the traditional narrative about the end of the first class is wrong, and not just for airlines like Air France that remain committed to the product. In fact, Air France is among the smaller players with first class, dwarfed not just by Emirates but even by Lufthansa and BA.
The Essential Air Service program was created 47 years ago as a temporary measure to soften the blow of airline deregulation. It provided for a ’10 year transition’ period in which small community service could receive subsidies. The program was supposed to end in 1988.
Etihad’s new Airbus A321LRs will feature a first class suite in addition to lie flat business class product. That’s a surprising choice considering that the market for first class is usually on the longest flights, rather than medium-distance routes likely to be service with these aircraft, and because even most of the airline’s long haul widebodies do not offer first class. I absolutely love the idea of better products and to see Etihad’s return to the super-premium space after years of cutbacks. The airline is also going to offer concierge service, car service to and from the airport, and escorts at the airport through check-in to lounge and to the gate (and car service for flights departing from a remote stand) and from arrival door to car service at the destination. They’re also going to…
Here’s the state of an American Airlines A321T seat. These just haven’t seen much maintenance lately at all. Airline executives acknowledged that the A321Ts were getting long in the tooth as far back as 2019, but didn’t want to refresh them. They did promise to clean them better.
An American Airlines passenger showed up at the airport on time. Their flight took off on time and landed on time. They made it to their connecting gate – but the airline told them that because of a “delay” they wouldn’t be allowed to board. Their seat was given to someone else. And they were forced to add 7 hours onto their trip, flying to Dallas via Moline, Illinois.
A reader was refused check-in by Frontier Airlines in Raleigh when they were trying to fly to Boston. They report showing up at the airport counter 50 minutes prior to departure, thinking that’s plenty since they have CLEAR for security and didn’t expect more than 5 minutes to the gate.
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 »
