Category Archives for Airlines.
An Australian government intelligence operation has determined that Qantas has been infiltrated by organized crime with up to 150 employees linked to criminal gangs in an effort to smuggle drugs into the country, and for other nefarious purposes.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, speaking at the Alliance Bernstein 37th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference on Thursday, explained his cost-cutting vision as eliminating fat from management and unnecessary processes without touching product investment.
He offered that they will “save $2 billion in expense, not a single penny is going to come from customer product, in fact we’re going to spend more on those things” and noted upcoming product announcements will be coming. And he declared a goal of doubling MileagePlus revenue in four years.
While the TSA began requiring passengers to select a gender as part of their security identification system, passengers can now choose ‘unspecified’ or ‘undisclosed’ just as many states now offer an “X” for gender on their drivers licenses. But flight attendants can’t choose X when selecting a uniform to wear.
On tight connections American Airlines sometimes meets their ConciergeKey members on the jetway of their arriving flight and driven across the tarmac to their onward gate in hub cities. They’ve done this since 2014 in a partnership with Cadillac. That partnership has ended.
It’s a new test at some airports where customers checking in at self-service machines get offered to check their carry-on for free. According to an internal memo on the project, “Offers will be random and may not apply to every customer.”
American Airlines and Southwest Airlines have delayed the return of alcohol to their flights, ostensibly because of poor behaving passengers – although they’ve behaving badly while also not being served alcohol inflight so it seems an odd connection to make. American Airlines continues to serve alcohol in first class.
Facing a call by the international head of their flight attendants union for federal action to ban alcohol during air travel, United Airlines has joined the mix in a rather odd way.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian spoke at the Alliance Bernstein 37th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference on Thursday, trumpeting the turnaround for his airline – they’re going to be profitable in June and expect to make money for the second half of 2021.
He dropped several interesting tidbits along the way about their American Express card partnership, blocked middle seats, and Delta’s strategy going forward.
Last summer the CEO of the global oneworld alliance – which includes airlines like American, British Airways, Japan Airlines, Qantas and others – was talking up a project to let members of one frequent flyer program upgrade on other airlines in the alliance
Now they’re saying it’ll launch this year.
On the heels of extending systemwide upgrades that were scheduled to expire in 2021 out to July 31, 2022, American Airlines has also extended its pause on mileage expiration. Miles won’t expire until April 1, 2022.
United Airlines has aggressively bet on new technologies, like its billion dollar order in February for electric aircraft from Archer Aviation to provide quick, efficient connections to the airline’s hubs.
Now they’ve become the first major U.S. carrier to place an order for Boom supersonic jets putting themselves down for 15 with an option for 35 more.
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 »
