Category Archives for Airlines.
In 2019 I told you that Amazon would offer consumers a standalone alternative to UPS and FedEx, something that was delayed by the coronavirus surge in orders.
Now, though, it appears that they are close to building a shipping network to carry third party packages. And it makes perfect sense from everything we’ve seen from Amazon so far.
Under normal circumstances I’d say it was serviceable, fine, but hardly interesting or innovative by modern standards. Yet there’s one salient feature to it: a 2021 safety video that makes no reference whatsoever to Covid-19. Nobody is even wearing masks. They’re crowded into a theater, for instance – a packed house – and no one is the least bit concerned about spread in such an indoor congregant setting.
Some might call that tough deaf, but I love it – a paean to normalcy:
On Monday the carrier reportedly fired its CEO Olfa Hamdi according to a note posted by the government to Facebook. Hamdi had been on the job for just over a month, and her announced dismissal came in the midst of a general strike by some of its 6500 employees fearful of not getting paid after the airline’s bank account was seized by Turkish airport operator TAV and also fearful that her turnaround plan might include privatization.
She says she’s still running the airline, though, after a failed attempt by the government to arrest her.
American Airlines has a wide variety of policies for how many checked bags are offered free to customers. They’re simplifying their policies, which in a couple of cases means more free bags but in other cases means fewer.
They’re also adding basic economy fares to transpacific and Israel/India flights, but those fares will include a checked bag. So the major restriction is that these fares will not allow changes.
A woman was removed from a Spirit Airlines flight to Florida on Thursday over her refusal to wear a mask. She told cabin crew that they were going to have to forcibly remove her – and that she didn’t have to wear a mask because she was eating. Back in September a man used a can of Pringles to avoid wearing a mask on an entire four hour flight.
American and JetBlue announced several new routes and codesharing to move forward with their ‘Northeastern alliance’ covering New York and Boston.
One of the routes, though, is curious because of a legal quirk. By law they’ll only be permitted to operate this flight on Saturdays.
Anyone claiming a mask exception on American now also gets the seat next to them empty and priority boarding, too. But they have to sit in the last row of their cabin, whether coach or business/first class. Here’s how the process works.
A customer paid for ‘Early Bird Check-in’ in order to board earlier – their flight was cancelled and they were rebooked on another flight, they didn’t receive the earlier boarding they paid for (they had to buy it again!) or a refund of their early check-in fee.
Naturally Southwest Airlines argues the case can’t be pursued because it’s pre-empted by the Airline Deregulation Act. They lost.
Is it wrong to hope that the airline’s rehabilitation plan includes retrofitting existing long haul aircraft with a first class cabin? That’s probably more of a political move (to appease minor royal relatives and generals) than a business one, but I’ve genuinely valued access to their excess inventory through miles and points over the last two decades.
United Airlines flight UA328 from Denver to Honolulu had just taken off when the Boeing 777’s right hand engine inlet separated.
Parts from the engine fell down in a neighborhood around 17 miles west of Denver around Broomfield, Colorado. There were reports of a bang and smoke.
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 »
