Category Archives for Airlines.
A swarm of bees “clamped themselves on to the window” of an Air Vistara plane parked in Kolkata. The fire department was called, and used a water cannon to disperse the bees.
Right now there’s great business and first class award availability on Star Alliance airline ANA from several US cities to Tokyo and back starting in August and running through the end of the current airline schedule (basically, October). That’s great for connecting onward to Asia.
Two passengers can fly from Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose or Seattle using miles from United (or Chase), Avianca LifeMiles, or even better Virgin Atlantic (which partners with several credit card transferable points programs).
How important are airline frequent flyer programs? United, Delta, and American Airlines have each mortgaged their frequent flyer programs for between $6.5 billion and $9 billion apiece. Stifel analyst Joe DeNardi says that without the ability to attract this cash, both American Airlines and United Airlines would be in bankruptcy.
Speaking on a panel at the Loyalty Summit online conference on Wednesday, DeNardi made this bold claim – but one that’s backed squarely by the numbers around cash burn and how much airlines have raised.
Current American AAdvantage head Rick Elieson interviewed former American Airlines Chairman Bob Crandall at the Loyalty Summit. Crandall spoke about innovations at American, from computer reservation systems to launching the AAdvantage program, the failed launch of a hub and the need for transparency with customers.
He believes “a substantial share of business travel will not come back” and shares how he’d approach the business as a result.
Passengers using fake tests in order to travel is a problem that confounds the re-opening rules several countries have put in place to reduce the amount of virus brought into the country by travel.
95% of passengers on a single flight used an identical test in order to travel, with more than 190 of 200 passengers on the November 25, 2020 Pegas Fly flight EO429 from Moscow to Zhengzhou presenting photoshopped negative results.
At the end of the current Japan Airlines schedule first class awards are wide open for two passengers on the New York JFK – Tokyo Haneda route.
Here’s availability for not just two award seats – far more widespread – but for four passengers at 34,000 miles each way per person and without big fuel surcharges.
It’s nice to see how much award space is open on Singapore Airlines non-stops from the U.S. While two business class seats are common throughout 2021, in August and September there’s a wide variety of days on the Los Angeles – Singapore route where four business class saver award seats are available.
While Qantas CEO Alan Joyce was the first to voice a plan to permit only passengers who have been vaccinated to fly internationally, U.S. airlines are considering a vaccination requirement as well.
They want to figure out whether this will give customers confidence to travel, and whether requirements can be made uniform across airlines so they don’t have to compete for customers with vaccine policies. A vaccine requirement though will be unnecessary by the time the vaccine is available enough for this to become possible.
The new American Airlines safety video was supposed to debut back in April. It was delayed due to the pandemic. They queued it for December rollout, but decided it wasn’t a good time and tried to pull it back.
Many of the employees featured in the safety video are… no longer employees. They’ve been furloughed since the video was shot.
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 »
