Category Archives for Airlines.
Point.me lets you search award space across pretty much every airline, shows you the best way to book a flight, with the lowest prices, and which points to use, and even walks you through the process – click by click – of transferring points and creating your booking (this is the past I like the best).
The United Airlines is fundamentally intertwined with George Gershwin’s 1924 Rhapsody in Blue. It’s hard to imagine that when Continental Airlines management took over they considered dropping the song which the airline has used since the 1980s. United was the first commercial brand ever to license it, for an annual fee of $300,000 at the time.
The Gershwin piece wasn’t just used on board and in commercials but also a version was recorded for the ‘trippy tunnel’ connecting United concourses at Chicago O’Hare. But United didn’t always use this song.
Buttigieg scolds the U.S. airlines but he could have done – and could still do – things that would help improve operational reliability. He’d rather jawbone though than do the hard work – even if it means feeling the consequences of cancellations himself.
Singapore Airlines saver award space is wide open for those who want to travel business class between the U.S. and Europe. It’s available starting August and running all the way through end of schedule in June 2023. And it’s available on both transatlantic routes that Singapore Airlines flies.
American Airlines has added change fees back to some international-originating itineraries. Southwest Airlines – which doesn’t have change fees, but also doesn’t do long haul international flying, reacted on twitter. Southwest’s pilots reacted, too.
U.S. airlines began permanently eliminating change fees during the pandemic, starting with United Airlines though others quickly followed suit.
You can expect many international fares for trips originating outside the United States to come with change fees.
When American Airlines dropped most change fees in fall 2020 they also introduced free standby.
There are customers that are pure price buyers. That’s the market Spirit Airlines and Frontier cater to. There are also coach passengers who will pay more for a better experience. And premium cabin customers are going to be paying substantially more to get a better product.
High cost airlines like American, United and Delta need to appeal to customers that will spend more money. They need to earn a revenue premium since they aren’t going to be the low-cost producers of seats.
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards will never be the stuff dreams are made of. There are no first class upgrades (Southwest has no premium cabin). You can’t redeem your miles to the Maldives or Seychelles (no partner airline redemptions). But there are some simple changes that could supercharge the value of the Rapid Rewards program.
American Airlines Platinum elites and higher now have access to extra legroom coach seats on Qatar Airways, complimentary at the time of booking, and Qatar Airways elites receive similar benefits on American.
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 »
