Category Archives for Airlines.
An internal American Airlines memo from Jim Moses to Philadelphia staff reveals routes that the airline is cutting from their primary transatlantic gateway. American will eliminate operations to Iceland, Manchester U.K. and Prague and won’t fly to Venice in 2021 though they hope to return in 2022.
There’s no federal mask mandate. All U.S. airlines require passengers to wear masks. So most people assume that the only penalties for non-compliance are imposed by airlines. That’s not true.
Airlines only impose penalties, other than asking a passenger not to fly, when enforcing mask rules leads to an altercation. But when an altercation occurs, the FAA can impose penalties too. In other words, you don’t need a federal mask mandate to punish passengers for bad behavior.
British Airways is bringing back an almost-normal food and beverage service starting January 20, 2021, after serving cold food in snack boxes in international business class ‘due to Covid-19’.
I believe I was the first to report on the passenger with Covid-19 who died on a United Airlines flight on Monday. Initially the airline tried to wave me off the story. Now they’re acknowledging it.
United Airlines flight 591 from Orlando to Los Angeles diverted to New Orleans Monday evening. Passenger aoverhead the man’s wife telling medical personnel about the man’s Covid-19 diagnosis. Here’s what they’re telling employees.
International route networks are currently very limited, often only flights that can be supported by cargo with passengers a plus are operating. That’s both because of limited travel demand, with business travel non-existent and a raging virus keeping people at home, and because of travel restrictions and local restrictions too (there have to be activities at a destination happening to make the travel worthwhile).
But which routes are going to come back, and which ones are gone for good?
Throughout the pandemic Singapore has flown non-stop from Los Angeles. Now they’ve announced daily non-stops from New York, LA and San Francisco and will fly their premium-heavy long range A350 to New York and San Francisco.
There’s going to be a lot of excess business class seats flying all over the world for a long time, and this is a great example of adding capacity ahead of demand which will make this a flyer’s market for some time.
Now that airlines have been getting direct subsidies from the U.S. government during the pandemic, and they’re on the cusp of more, they no longer oppose airline subsidies.
One of the arguments they deployed during their campaign against Mideast airlines, though, is that the Gulf carriers weren’t just subsidized by their governments but their fortunes were too intertwined with those of the state. They pointed out that the CEO of Emirates, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, is a member of Dubai’s ruling family and in addition to founding the airline also serves as President of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg has no particular experience in transportation policy or running a large bureaucracy, but he did propose to his husband at Chicago O’Hare – though it wasn’t because of any particular love of aviation. Still, O’Hare has already changed its twitter profile and United Airlines is memorializing gate B5 online.
Nine years ago Delta started requiring all changes or cancellations of award travel be made at least 72 hours prior to departure. If you had a last minute change of plans, you’d have to forfeit your ticket and buy a new one. If better award space opened up close to departure, you were out of luck.
Delta has finally dropped the 72 hour requirement to change or cancel an award.
JetBlue was on a cost-cutting trajectory going into the pandemic. They haven’t eliminated change fees the way other U.S. airlines have on non-Basic Economy fares. But they’re having to turn to their loyalty program to drive bookings.
And they’ve announced several changes that make it easier to earn elite status, and more valuable to do so. They’re introducing lower qualification thresholds, several months of a companion pass, and new bonuses.
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 »
