Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

Six Men Charged In Federal Court With Stealing Millions Of American AAdvantage Miles

by Gary Leff

Dec 14 2020

Six men were charged with “stealing millions of airline frequent flier miles” in the Northern District of Texas. While the Department of Justice doesn’t say this, the court in which charges are being brought includes Dallas and almost certainly means they’re prosecuting a theft of American AAdvantage miles.

The lead defendant was arrested in Poland in May and extradited, arriving in FBI custody on Friday after weekend travel from Warsaw to Dallas. I’ve been involved in several criminal trials involving miles and points as an expert witness. This is the first one I’m aware of that involved an international arrest and extradition.

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10 Reasons Airlines Are Lying About The Need For Subsidies In Order To Distribute Vaccines

by Gary Leff

Dec 14 2020

Right now there’s a stronger likelihood of a second round of airline subsidies from the federal government than at any time in the past several months. It appears that $17 billion more for airlines is included in the next scaled-down federal stimulus bill, and legislative leaders in the House and Senate plan to bundle it with must-pass funding measures to keep the government running and avoid a shut down. Now legislators have a Friday deadline.

Airlines have deployed the argument that the vaccine means they need subsidies because they’ll have to scale up operations to be prepared for cargo shipments, and even though they’d be paid to ship cargo somehow they are unable to prepare for that on their own. This is, to put it bluntly, a lie. Here are 10 reasons why.

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OMG Why Did No Airline Think Of This Before? “The Safety Dance”

by Gary Leff

Dec 13 2020

Airlines have gone to some real lengths in recent years to make their safety videos memorable and sometimes funny. Often they’re just trying too hard. Some carriers like American Airlines have stayed away from this entirely with their new safety video, released by mistake.

Despite all of the effort and money that’s gone into safety videos, it’s apparently never occurred to anyone with enough influence to use Men Without Hats The Safety Dance – until now. How is this possible?

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Man Crashes Truck Through A Fence, Scales A Plane Headed To Portland, Slips And Falls Off

by Gary Leff

Dec 13 2020

Alaska Airlines flight 1367 from Las Vegas to Portland departed over 4 hours late on Saturday after a a man drove a truck through the fence at Las Vegas McCarran International Airport and onto the tarmac – and proceeded to climb onto the wing of the Boeing 737-900.

You can see that he doesn’t stop there. He badly wants to scale the winglet. But he struggles, so he tosses his shoes overboard – at police. The man loses his balance and falls off the plane. He’s surrounded by officers and taken into custody.

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How United Airlines May End Up Saving The Environment

by Gary Leff

sulfur dioxide emissions
Dec 11 2020

United Airlines has announced that they’ll reduce greenhouse gas emissions 100% by 2050, making a bolder claim than world airlines through trade association IATA which commit to a 50% reduction in carbon footprint by 2050. Both goals are far enough off as to be largely symbolic, but what’s got great potential here is the path United plans to pursue to get there.

The airline will invest in directly removing carbon from the atmosphere – not feel-good measures like planting trees where the accounting is murky. The technology is too expensive today, but payment processor Stripe just announced their own investments here. Adding United and perhaps soon others could help bring about critical mass that makes this technology viable to solve our environmental problems.

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Etihad Drops Belgrade Flights, Despite Controlling Air Serbia

by Gary Leff

Dec 10 2020

Etihad owns a 49% stake in Air Serbia, and the Serbian government owns the other 51%. This was one of the better airline investments previous Etihad management made in its effort to acquire stakes in airlines and redirect their traffic through its hub in Abu Dhabi. But it’s now falling apart.

Etihad has terminated flights from its Abu Dhabi hub to Belgrade, and will reportedly end its codesharing with the carrier it half owns next year.

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Alaska Airlines Changes How Elite Status Will Be Earned In 2021

by Gary Leff

alaska airlines plane
Dec 10 2020

Alaska Airlines has changed how elite status will be earned in 2021. Alaska used to require more miles flown if you include miles on partner airlines than if you’re using miles flown exclusively on Alaska. That’s gone.

Starting in 2021, Alaska and partner flights will count the same towards elite status, and the lower “Alaska-only” status requirements apply. But they’ll require a minimum number of Alaska flights for status – to keep low yielding American Airlines flyers from just dumping their American segments into Alaska.

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