Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

Alaska Airlines Is Ditching Its Airbus A320s. But Could It Soon Order A321XLRs?

by Gary Leff

alaska airlines plane
Dec 29 2020

Alaska Airlines, based in Seattle, has been an all-Boeing operator. They acquired Virgin America which flew Airbus narrowbodies. It’s seemed from the beginning that they’d eventually dump those planes, and now the fate of Alaska Airlines Airbus A319s and A320s is sealed with Alaska’s order of 23 additional Boeing 737 MAX 9s.

Yet it appears Alaska is talking to Airbus about what to do with the 30 Airbus A320neo orders it inherited from Virgin America – and instead of cancelling, it’s possible they could be converted to A321XLRs.

Continue Reading »

Set To Expire, Bask Bank New Customer Bonus Extended – A Great Place To Park Cash

by Gary Leff

sydney opera house at sunset
Dec 29 2020

2020 has been a hard year, but it’s almost behind us. And I’m excited to start traveling again, I’ve been plotting out several trips for the summer and fall of 2021. I’m only booking my airfare with miles, though, because of how flexible that can be.

A Bask Savings Account is a great way to earn these miles, and it’s great that the new customer bonus offer has been extended.

Continue Reading »

Buy Star Alliance Miles For $0.00527 Each

by Gary Leff

Dec 29 2020

Star Alliance member TAP Air Portugal sells monthly mileage packages. They also sell miles outright through their ‘Miles Store’. Right now they are offering 75,000 bonus miles for transacting with both. Join the mileage purchase club and then within 6 days make your mileage purchase.

This allows you to buy 200,000 miles for about half a cent apiece.

Continue Reading »

Southwest Airlines Won’t Furlough Anyone Through 2021, Will Spend Airline Aid On Employees

by Gary Leff

Dec 28 2020

Southwest really is going to spend some of the bailout money on employees (perhaps 50%) which is how the government aid was sold – unlike United Airlines which is likely to receive about $3 billion and plans to only pay its 16,000 furloughed workers through March as-required keeping the rest of the taxpayer money for themselves and their shareholders.

Continue Reading »

American And United Flight Attendants Begin Push For Third Government Bailout

by Gary Leff

flight attendant with brass knuckles
Dec 28 2020

American Airlines is bringing back its furloughed employees, but no flight attendant will actually return to work until March 2. Only one-third will return in March. And the government only requires employment through March 31, in exchange for the roughly $3.5 billion they should receive.

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents American’s cabin crew, plans to push for a third bailout.

Continue Reading »

American Airlines Is Nearly Done Updating Its Boeing 737s Into ‘Torquemada Configuration’

by Gary Leff

Dec 27 2020

While other airlines minimize their spending to conserve cash during the pandemic, American has been accelerating their capital spending to convert planes more quickly to this new standard. This is the wrong product at the wrong time: exactly the moment where there are fewer customers (so planes with more seats are less needed) and customers value space between them most (so reducing space between customers makes no sense).

American is nearly done. They have now sent 200 Boeing 737-800s in for densification. That’s two-thirds of the 737-800 fleet. But it’s far more of the active fleet.

Continue Reading »

Here’s What Happened To The Class Action Refund Lawsuit Against American Airlines

by Gary Leff

Dec 25 2020

Several lawsuits were filed over airlines’ resistance to providing customers with refunds when either cancelling or substantially changing itineraries early in the Covid-19 pandemic, as required by U.S. law. A class action lawsuit against American Airlines has been resolved in a draw.

In my experience American Airlines was one of the few ‘good guys’ with refunds. The places to focus on are the airlines and online travel agencies which really did act badly against their customers – like United, JetBlue, Air Canada, and online travel agency sites.

Continue Reading »