Category Archives for Airlines.
There aren’t too many $9 fares anymore, and the program has recently been rebranded the Spirit Saver$ Club.
You can definitely make your money back on the program, especially traveling with family, but there are no refunds on membership. Not even when you cancel the same day the annual fee is charged. But a cancelled membership can’t take advantage of its benefits.
The U.S. is targeting mid-May for lifting border restrictions in order to allow land crossings from Canada and Mexico, and international flights from the U.K., Europe and Brazil.
The Biden administration will be revisiting its border restrictions weekly, evaluating how the risk of new variants (already spreading wildly in the U.S. especially B.1.1.7) and protection from vaccines.
American Airlines crew headed to the airport for Tuesday’s 5:20 a.m. flight American Airlines 1204 from San Jose, Costa Rica to Miami were robbed when their hotel van stopped after hitting an object in the road.
Crew left their hotel in early darkness. The van stopped in the road and the driver got out to clear debris from under the vehicle. One man got into the drivers seat with a knife, another opened the van’s sliding door and brandished a gun. He threatened crew with the firearm and demanded their electronics.
Already Wheels Up offers Delta miles for members joining or renewing with their jet card program, as well as SkyMiles elite status.
They plan to introduce benefits and offers to Delta 360, Diamond, and Platinum members and to offer SkyMiles redemptions for private jet travel.
Award prices in British Airways Avios have increased without notice for flights up to 2000 miles.
The British Airways Executive Club pricing system is based on flight distance. Flights in the first 3 distance bands (1-650 miles; 651 – 1150 miles; 1151 – 2000 miles) have gone up by 750 Avios each way (1500 roundtrip).
JetBlue first announced they’d be flying to London two years ago. They have a brand new Airbus A321LR with new premium seats to carry passengers across the Pond. And they have landing slots in London.
However it wasn’t the slots they’d wanted. They couldn’t get into London Heathrow, and they weren’t given enough slots to operate their desired flights into Gatwick either. Three hints from JetBlue today – since removed – suggest this may all have changed.
After the January 6th riots at the U.S. Capitol, the FAA instituted a zero tolerance policy for inflight disturbances including failure to follow airline masking rules. These were temporary rules set to expire March 30, 2021. They have now been extended indefinitely, at least until the end of the mask mandate.
Air Serbia is replacing its lone 13 year old long haul Airbus A330 aircraft with a new one – a twelve year old ex-Aeroflot A330-200 in new livery featuring Nikola Tesla on the tail.
The airline uses this aircraft to fly to New York JFK, and plans to increase its frequency from 2 to 3 times weekly and then 5 times a week over the summer. And it’s getting a new business class product.
Despite a years-long campaign against government subsidies for airlines, Delta CEO Ed Bastian thanked Congress for subsidies at the JP Morgan Industrials Conference and criticized foreign governments for not ponying up as much cash as the U.S. has given to its airlines.
Norwegian ceased its transatlantic business and is trying to stay afloat as an intra-European carrier. But the founder of Norwegian thinks his ultra low cost long haul business model – that has never worked before – is suddenly ripe for success. And he’s trying again with Norse Atlantic Airways.
OSM Aviation, which provided staff outsourcing to Norwegian, is 53% owner of the new venture. Expect low cost labor flying 9 to 12 ex-Norwegian Boeing 787s and even planning to offer connections with Norwegian.
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 »
