Category Archives for Airlines.
United Airlines says that 3000 of its employees currently have Covid-19. The real number is probably higher than this, since the airline probably knows relatively few asymptomatic cases and only a portion of subclinical ones. However CEO Scott Kirby believes that the airline’s vaccine mandate has already saved the lives of 8-10 of his employees, and not a single one of its employees is currently hospitalized for Covid.
We were supposed to see improvements this fall. They put their boxed meals on trays to prepare for the return. And while pilots have started seeing hot meals, customers on domestic flights – other than premium cross country flights – have not.
But that, apparently, is about to finally change.
I wrote on Friday that Virgin Atlantic was expected to launch Austin – London Heathrow as its new U.S. route. Virgin is part of the joint venture across the Atlantic with Delta and Air France KLM. This is now confirmed. But they’ll be at a huge competitive disadvantage relative to British Airways on the route.
Starting January 17, unvaccinated American Airlines employees – whether they have an approved vaccine exemption or not – will face new protocols.
For unvaccinated employees working in offices it’s effectively a masking requirement. For unvaccinated employees who work in airports and on planes this amounts to completing a ‘well for work’ survey once a week. They currently have to mask under federal rules anyway.
A frequent flyer shared their amazement that the purchase of 127 bonsai trees could earn them Executive Platinum status. But it’s actually much easier – and cheaper – than that.
Air India, which is owned by the government but due to be privatized this month in a sale to Tata Group, pulled all of its inventory from global distribution systems briefly at the end of the year – where more than half of the airline’s ticket sales occur – as a court ordered all of its funds held by IATA for settlement impounded.
On October 29 American Airlines sent an eight year old Boeing 777-300ER to their Tulsa maintenance facility for insect abatement.
A couple of weeks later the plane was out and back in service – but it flew a single Miami to Dallas – Fort Worth segment before returning to Tulsa on November 14. Aircraft N724AN was still on the ground in Tulsa when I wrote about it in early December. It is now finally flying again. Here’s where it’s going.
United Airlines has forced out flight attendant Arina Bloom for her TikTok videos. She reports that someone “made an anonymous complaint” about her, and though United had previously commented positively on her online presence it became a liability.
In the 1970s it was much easier to take on a new identity than it is today. Assume the name of someone who died young and didn’t create much of a paper trail, and won’t be using it, Perhaps someone that didn’t get a social security number when they were born (it was much more common then). Get a copy of their birth certificate, apply for a social security card.
I knew someone that did this, and not the guy in Catch Me If You Can.
For years my favorite workaround was to dial Singapore reservations, using an internet calling app to avoid high rates. You’d get an English-speaking agent, and the hold times wouldn’t be bad at all most of the time. When U.S. flights were melting down, people call U.S. reservations – not foreign call centers.
Unfortunately you no longer get routed into a separate phone queue by ringing up Singapore. That is no longer a ‘trick’ to avoid the long hold times of the U.S. phone number for Delta.
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 »
