Category Archives for Airlines.
HEPA air filtration seems to be one of the reasons that Covid-19 doesn’t appear to spread very much on planes.
Many smaller planes, including 50 seat regional jets, do not usually have HEPA air filtration. That’s one reason why I’ve suggested staying away from small planes during the pandemic. However Piedmont Airlines, a regional carrier owned by American Airlines, now has FAA permission to change that.
On August 30 someone in a jetpack was reported by pilots of an American Airlines flight near LAX. Now it’s happened again. China Airlines flight 215 crew inbound from Taipei reported another man in jetpack at LAX Wednesday afternoon.
At first they flagged a “flying object” but wasn’t sure if it was “a UAV or was it a jet pack?” It was a man in a jetpack flying at 6000 feet over Century City.
WestJet says customers will get travel credits, and since it may be years before they return to a customer’s city they “will extend the travel credit expiry date” beyond 24 months. WestJet may never return to some cities, may never return with service that works for a customer, and years into the future the name of the game is breakage. Indeed, customers may actually die while waiting to use their WestJet credits.
Yet the airline “notes the Canadian Transportation Agency has deemed acceptable given the realities of COVID-19” to offer flight credits and not refunds. Perhaps this brazen move will challenge that earlier guidance.
New video circulating on social media appears to show an African American Trump supporter kicked off of a Southwest Airlines flight for taking down his mask ‘while eating’. The suggestion is that he’s really being kicked off for being a Trump supporter while following the rules.
What the video really shows is anti-mask protestors on a plane who don’t understand what it means to be a conservative.
American Airlines announced that earning next year’s status – normally from travel in 2021 for status valid the rest of the year and all of the following year (through January 2023) – will have lower requirements to earn, and members can get started earning now. Travel in October 2020 through December 2020 will count twice: towards earning status this year, and towards earning status next year.
In addition, American will waive the reduced spending requirements for elite status up to Platinum Pro for members spending $30,000 on cobrand cards next years. Members earning Platinum Pro and Executive Platinum status will get new choice benefits.
The Government Accountability Office published a new report taking the Department of Transportation consumer complaint process to task noting that DOT doesn’t publish the results of 81% of their investigations. There’s little transparency into DOT complaints.
Aside from the recommendation to share more information about the process, what’s most interesting I think is the window that the report itself provides into what consumers are complaining about, and what complaints the Department of Transportation actually listens to.
Swiss is making tremendous business class award space available between North America and Zurich for summer 2021. You can find four or more business class awards not just from East Coast gateways like New York JFK (and Newark) and from Chicago but even from Los Angeles and San Francisco, which used to be nearly impossible to find. From Zurich you can connect beyond to myriad destinations you might like to visit.
Alison Sider of the Wall Street Journal asked whether Delta supports a CARES Act extension (airline payroll support), since Delta CEO Ed Bastian hasn’t been nearly as public on the issue as others like American’s Doug Parker.
Bastian was in a tough spot.
Delta is losing less money, making customers happy, and sees the near-term dominated by leisure travel that doesn’t touch the coasts. Business travel has tripled, but it’s off of a low base. All the forecast good news means they foresee when they’ll stop blocking middle seats.
The brightest spot is their American Express credit card deal – they are beginning to acquire customers again, excited by the performance of the current limited-time offer.
Frequent flyers know that checked baggage is never a good idea. It can get you arrested even when there’s nothing illegal inside. They say there’s only two kinds of luggage: carry on and lost. It turns out there’s a third, “accessory to a crime.”
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 »
