Category Archives for Airlines.
United Airlines now offers pre-order meals, snacks, and drinks in coach starting five days prior to departure. So far this is only available on some flights out of Chicago to 4 markets but will “expand to all flights over 1,500 miles by early fall.”
The American Airlines flight attendants union has filed a grievance against the airline because, it says, cabin crew are being forced to “in airports and outside of baggage claim” because they can’t get rooms on their layovers. And they report that pilots “are dealing with the same issues.”
There’s no “obvious place” to transfer miles. Normally I don’t want to transfer points out of a transferrable program unless I have to. The option value is too strong. However I don’t entirely trust Brex as a place to store points, especially since I’m not actively continuing to use the account.
Through August 8, 2021, Brex is offering a 20% bonus on points transfers to several mileage programs. And that caused me to work through my options.
Delta already bonused all travel towards elite status and made award trips count too. Now they’re throwing in the towel, more or less, and calling 2021 another wash as they don’t want to risk losing elite members who may again be valuable customers.
They’ve also figured out how to continue incentivizing elites to travel this year – at the expense of those who do not.
Things are getting messy between consumer airfare savings site Skiplagged and Southwest Airlines. After receiving threats from Southwest, Skiplagged filed suit in New York to get a ruling that they were acting legally. Now Southwest has sued Skiplagged, trying to get the case – which claims even companies who do not access their website are bound by its terms and conditions – heard in Texas courts.
American Airlines CEO knows that the federal mask mandate – which he lobbied for – is causing most of the problems on airplanes today. American won’t service alcohol in coach until September 13th when the mask mandate expires. But he’s frustrated. He doesn’t know what else to know. So the airline is trying to stop ‘to go’ sales of alcohol in airports and trying to get more abusive customers prosecuted.
Right now American Airlines doesn’t appear to have access to all of the British Airways award inventory that BA is offering – and that is bookable by other airline partners.
Doug Parker, Chairman and CEO of American Airlines, told employees on Thursday at a town hall question and answer session, that they’ll be watching what United’s new plan for seat back video screens – along with Delta’s current screens – means for competition. This could force the airline, he says, to install seat back screens again as well.
American Airlines revealed that in June the airline made a contribution through its PAC to an objector to the certification of the Presidential election: Sam Graves from Missouri. However American defended this saying that he may have went along with stopping the democratic process and calling into question the election – but he supports government subsidies for airlines.
It used to be common for airlines to insist on seeing the credit card used to purchase a ticket, to combat fraud. With one reader, Delta insisted on seeing the credit card used to purchase a ticket that wasn’t even purchased with a credit card. That meant it was impossible to check in. And now the passenger is out real money.
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 »
