Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

You Can Still Book Delta 65,000 Mile Transatlantic Business Class, Despite Devaluation

by Gary Leff on March 1, 2021

At the beginning of February Delta devalued SkyMiles partner award pricing for the second time during the pandemic, and in a big way. Since the start of Covid-19 one way business class between the US and Europe on Air France and KLM went from 75,000 to 95,000 miles and now starts at 120,000 SkyMiles – for a 60% increase in less than a year at a time when flights are empty and prices low. Because they can.

Delta says they have no award charts any longer, but that isn’t true. They just hide their award charts. Mexico is a separate region from the United States, and while they’ve massively increased their award chart pricing for partner travel to and from the U.S., they haven’t (yet) done so for travel to and from Mexico.

Lufthansa Setting Up Duty Free Vaccination Center, $1200 For Flights And Shots

by Gary Leff on February 28, 2021

Feb 28 2021

Lufthansa will set up a Covid-19 vaccination site inside Moscow Domodedovo airport so that people can fly in, get the Sputnik V vaccine without clearing immigration or customs, and then fly back.

Ultimately we need more jabs in arms, the quicker the better, through whatever means necessary. Many governments have been more focused on who gets shots out of a limited supply than making sure people get shots, and increasing supply. That prolongs the pandemic and costs lives.

Airlines Are Exempting Business Class Passengers From Mask Wearing, And It Makes Good Sense

by Gary Leff on February 28, 2021

Feb 28 2021

It seems to me that this take is both typical and likely wrong: “These new premium cabin mask exemptions are honestly, hilarious. Cathay Pacific’s logic here is essentially, as long as you lie at a 180° angle, you can’t get COVID.”

United Airlines Will Pay $49 Million To Resolve Criminal Fraud Charges

by Gary Leff on February 27, 2021

Feb 27 2021

United Airlines will pay a $49 million fine to the federal government to resolve criminal fraud charges for falsifying records that allowed it to collect payments for transporting U.S. mail on time, when in fact it failed to do so.

United “falsified parcel delivery information…[b]etween 2012 and 2015..by submitting false delivery scan data to make it appear that United and partner airlines with which it worked were complying with the [on time mail delivery] requirements, when in fact they were not.”

American Airlines Should Spend Government Payroll Subsidies On.. Payroll

by Gary Leff on February 27, 2021

Feb 27 2021

American Airlines is bringing 11 pilots back to work after furlough. They’ll start requalification training on March 2, 2021. All of them have received a WARN Act notice, letting them know they may be re-furloughed at the start of April.

One thing that’s boosted how much money American Airlines keeps for itself out of the second bailout is voluntary leaves. They’ve convinced employees to go on unpaid leaves. Many thought they would collect unemployment, understanding that American would not contest these claims.