Category Archives for Airlines.
The Attorney General of Texas is suing the Biden administration to overturn the transportation mask mandate. He’s got strong legal arguments, but the timing is suspect. He’s waited until it’s close to no longer mattering, while running for re-election and when he’s under indictment.
Singapore Airlines is offering business class saver awards on its non-stop flights between the U.S. and Singapore out of New York JFK, Newark, and San Francisco for at least two passengers through much of the year.
You’ll find the space form now through end of schedule, so you can pick whatever time works best for you and the vagaries of immigration-restricting authorities to visit Southeast Asia.
No matter what your position on continued masking on planes throughout the Omicron wave – that it no longer makes sense to extend the federal transportation mask mandate which currently runs through March 18, 2022.
Betting markets now give 3-1 odds that the mask mandate will be gone before the election. Prediction markets are frequently more reliable than expert commentary because well-informed observers put real money behind their arguments (it’s their revealed expectations, rather than cheap talk).
Any airline with the resources can buy a large flat seat and pay for good catering. Creating a true lifestyle brand experience creates a moat against competition – the opposite of the commodity mindset that most airlines have adopted. Rather than being unprofitable, first class therefore carries the potential to be the most profitable since it’s the most de-commoditized. And in a world where so few do it, it’s easy to get a head start.
Bill Franke is a name that should make airline passengers shudder and yet it’s hardly known. He ran America West and hired Doug Parker to be his cost-cutting CFO.
Franke is responsible for turning Spirit Airlines into an ultra low cost carrier. He divested there and bought Frontier Airlines, turning it into a Spirit clone. And now he’s merging the two. And another one of his airlines is looking to offer transatlantic service.
Hong Kong is will reportedly be suing Cathay Pacific over its latest and worst outbreak to date of Covid-19, which the government is blaming on two crewmembers.
Delta filed its SEC 10-K and buried in the 272 pages are several interesting tidbits about the SkyMiles program.
When you work in a union shop, ratting out your colleagues usually doesn’t end well for you. That was a lesson the union leaders tried to teach this flight attendant, it seems. They lost their job. But life probably is still going to be rough for the flight attendant who reported them.
There’s a big debate going on about whether flight attendants are fairly paid, based on the idea that they are generally paid only for the time flying and not for the time spent boarding an aircraft. A Change.org petition to change this has garnered over 100,000 signatures.
The petition rests on a fairly fundamental misunderstanding of how mostly-union contracts are bargained on behalf of flight attendants.
Right now there’s really good business class saver award inventory on one of American’s lesser-known partners. And even better it’s for a West Coast departure to Europe, which is even harder to get.
Air Tahiti Nui has good award space for two passengers in business class flying Los Angeles – Paris Charles de Gaulle in March, April, July, August, and December at a cost of 57,500 American AAdvantage miles apiece.
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 »
