Category Archives for Airlines.
British Airways has unveiled its new first class seat for the Airbus A380, to debut in ‘early’ 2026. The seat is based off of the Collins Aerospace RTX.
United Airlines now offers an easy way to buy extra seat space for comfort and earn miles, a strategy also possible on other airlines, though occasionally complicated by gate agent errors or policy confusion.
The one thing I value most from Executive Platinum is – I suppose – not something that many flyers factor when making their decision. As often as I’ve had challenges getting where I’m going with American, the ability to put backup flights in a reservation during irregular operations has made a huge difference getting me to my destination close to as-planned.
Delta Air Lines doesn’t even upgrade their ‘secret’ 360 members very much anymore. Good luck if you’re a Diamond Medallion.
Going forward Artificial Intelligence and ‘personalized pricing’ that Delta says they are working on to present a specific price based on what they know about a customer will make sure they sell every seat – and not have to give out elite upgrades.
United Airlines flight attendants fired their negotiating team after years of stalled contract talks, underscoring a failed union strategy that delayed demands and weakened their leverage as the chance to strike diminishes under shifting political conditions.
A long-time reader shared their experience flying Delta this past weekend from Dallas to Detroit. They’re a Diamond Medallion member, and they were flying on a paid first class ticket. When they boarded the narrowbody jet, they discovered that their seat had no tray table. It was missing, “so I can’t eat, drink or do work with my computer.”
An important thing to know is that if you buzz because you’re boarding before your group is called, the gate agent can clear the flag on their screen and allow you to board. If you’re traveling with a family member or friend on a different reservation, for instance, it is actually policy according to the airline that you should still be allowed to board together in the earlier group.
With Alaska eliminating check-in kiosks and telling customers to print their bag tags at home, these would be a great step towards the future – if they could get the cost down (or subsidize them for regular flyers).
Delta’s Investor Day was held this morning, and a key theme of airline President Glen Hauenstein’s presentation was getting passengers to pay more for their seats.
There were three ways he outlined that Delta is and plans to drive more revenue from passengers out of each seat that they fly – reducing upgrades, stripping down their Comfort+ and business class products to get customers to pay extra for the services than they’re used to, and using AI to figure out the most each passenger is willing to pay at the time they search for fares.
Aer Lingus is an oddball airline. Geographically Ireland is well-placed for connections between the U.S. and Europe, in addition to serving a major tourist destination. They’re owned by the same company as British Airways and Iberia. However, they’ve historically had a stronger partnership with Untied Airlines than American Airlines.
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 »
