Category Archives for Airlines.
The different payment methods American Airlines has, and the rules for each, can be complicated.
Here’s a deep dive on using trip credits and how American is adding features to make them easier to work with.
The airline “assigned [its] vice president of customer service to be his personal liaison” and Gitomer asked that VP for a consulting job. Chiames said, though, that it was his “verbal abuse of our employees.. [which] have left employees in tears” that led to the banning.
Gitomer, for his part, “described himself as a demanding, but not abusive, customer. He remembered only one time that he made an employee cry, several years ago.”
Club Europe isn’t very good on British Airways, it’s generally a coach seat without extra legroom and just a blocked middle seat, plus food. There’s less seat pitch than on Ryanair. Since the spoon is really the main differentiator between the classes on this class-conscious airline, ‘cutlery is for club class.
After years of cost cuts, one of the airline’s labor leaders has had enough. On July 2, the President of the flight attendants’ union Los Angeles crew base wrote an email to CEO Doug Parker and President Robert Isom that’s going viral within the company.
It’s not a return of hot meal service, but first class passengers on flights of 900 miles or more will again see something more than a shrink-wrapped turkey and cheese sandwich starting July 14.
The Supreme Court refused to overturn the CDC’s eviction moratorium, even though a majority of justices believe that it is illegal. And the same reasons 5 justices believe the eviction moratorium is beyond the CDC’s authority apply to the federal transportation mask mandate as well.
We are losing the men (and back then, they were all men) who gave us the modern frequent flyer program. Last year Rolfe Schellenberger passed away. Now his boss Tom Plaskett has passed away as well. Plaskett was just 77.
The Biden administration plans to crack down to require refund of fees when bags are delayed for over 12 hours.
The Department of Transportation proposed rulemaking is expected to cover refund of other fees for services that an airline charges for but doesn’t deliver, such as payment for inflight internet when the service is unusable.
During the pandemic, Air Canada cancelled the flights and kept passenger money. They didn’t deliver the service that was promised, but wouldn’t issue refunds. That’s stealing.
The DOT proposed a $25 million fine. Air Canada wants it dismissed, arguing that the law doesn’t actually forbid them from selling flights they don’t operate and pocketing the cash.
I recently wrote about a man ejected from an American Airlines flight to Miami after throwing up in the coach lavatory prior to departure. He threw up again – on a passenger in first class – as staff guided him off the aircraft.
Fortunately the first class passenger had a change of clothes in the cabin with him. Since American employees literally guided the man, leading to the mess, he wrote in to customer service about the experience. After all, this wasn’t part of the bundle of experiences purchased with a first class ticket.
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 »
