Category Archives for Airlines.
For several years gun crimes have been a major concern in the U.S. except when they’re happening in Chicago. A couple of things have changed, though. And protests and riots in downtown Chicago have prompted the airline based there to move operations to the suburbs and layover flight crew at airport hotels.
Air Canada has announced the details of their new frequent flyer program that will launch November 8th. I’ve had a chance to dive into the minutiae and speak with executives. Here’s your complete guide for what to expect.
This is a really thoughtful program, attractive for both casual users transferring points – because of the flexibility of redemptions and elimination of fuel surcharges – and for their most loyal customers. I especially love top elites conferring ‘status for a day’ on friends and colleagues, and earning 50% discounts on award redemption up to 11 times a year.
United’s top elite tier is Global Services. There’s no published criteria for achieving this status.
Right now though they’re offering it to targeted members for a certain amount of spending on flights within 90 days, and letting members choose the challenge period (even retroactively).
If all you care about is schedule and price then choose your airline based on schedule and price. But fewer people care about just these things than is commonly imagined – it’s just that these are the only pieces of information people have historically been given.
Say you move to Kansas City, and decide to start fresh with a new airline. That’s a competitive market with lots of airlines you can reasonably fly. Southwest is biggest but several airlines are choices you can select from.
As Brazil tops 100,000 reported deaths from Covid-19, its President Bolsonaro urges citizens to “get on with [their] lives and try to find a way of getting away with this problem.” He suggested as well that his country’s governors were inflating fatalities “to panic the population.” So blame the pillows?
Airlines are engaged in hygiene theater, cleaning surfaces and promoting electrostatic spraying. I appreciate the cleanliness and hope it sticks around after the pandemic. But the CDC and other research suggests surfaces aren’t a key vector of Covid-19 spread.
Social distancing guidance was based on the idea that large respiratory droplets are the primary way that the virus spreads, and those droplets fall to the ground quickly, so staying six feet apart from others is a good prophylactic. Masks help with large droplets. However increasingly researchers are concerned with aerosolized spread or airborne transmission.
Last year Big Bang Theory actress Mayim Bialik had a run-in with United Airlines, accusing the airline of slamming the boarding door of a Houston – Los Angeles flight in her face.
Now her co-star Kaley Cuoco is nearly ready to debut her next role in a series called “The Flight Attendant.”
Delta, United, Southwest, and JetBlue no longer expire miles, period. American Airlines does – requiring activity in your account every 18 months, or else you lose the miles you’ve already earned.
During the global pandemic, with program members not traveling, American waited until April to pause mileage expiration – and only did so through June. It appears they’ve had a change of heart.
Singapore Airlines is contributing 30 million miles and raising 70 million more in order to award up to 100 million KrisFlyer miles to first responders and essential workers.
And if you donate 1000 miles you get to pick someone to receive up to 60,000 miles.
This week American Airlines introduced “trip credits” which are automatically generated and sent by email for the unused value of a ticket. Trip credits have a ticket number and are valid for a year from date of issue. They work just like the old eVouchers did… with a catch.
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 »
