Category Archives for Airlines.
JetBlue’s face mask policy says anyone who cannot wear a mask “should postpone travel until this temporary requirement is no longer in place.” And JetBlue has now enforced their policy against a two year old on a flight from Orlando to Newark.
United Airlines flight UA79 was delayed three hours on Sunday due to a crew scheduling issue. Flight delays happen all the time, and a three hour delay of an international flight isn’t usually devastating during normal times.
However with limited air service, as a result of depressed demand during the pandemic, and international border restrictions a small delay can turn much more challenging for travelers – especially those trying to connect between secondary cities.
LifeMiles is selling miles in their Star Alliance program for about 1.2 cents apiece. That’s a great deal, but associated airline Avianca is in bankruptcy. Is it safe to take advantage of the offer?
Former Spirit Airlines CEO is a JetBlue board member and naturally thinks more of that sweet, sweet taxpayer cash ought to flow to airlines. He lays out what he calls misconceptions about government aid to airlines as he makes the case for the second government bailout of the industry this year.
Baldanza’s piece is a breath of fresh air though because it honestly talks about government subsidies as more than just an unemployment program. He takes seriously government support as an airline bailout, ensuring airlines are providing capacity to the economy, and doesn’t offer the fiction that it’s only about supporting the workers.
Now we have serious arguments worth answering.
Ethiopian Airlines ran a repatriation flight this weekend from Houston to Lagos, Nigeria. There were more people who showed up at the airport than seats. The $1500 one-way flight had a waiting list, and numerous people were looking to get on.
After boarding local Nigerian officials identified no shows and empty seats and started to auction those off, reportedly pocketing an extra $250 apiece for themselves. But it took six hours to get the seats sold at the higher price, especially since the delay meant some of the passengers started getting off the plane – more seats for the officials to sell at a markup.
Airlines and their unions have asked for a ‘clean extension’ of the payroll support money, another $25 billion. However if that’s to save 75,000 jobs through March 31, 2021 that amounts to $333,333 per job and come April 1 we’ll see job losses again (when it’s not election season).
Seriously, has anybody actually done the math here?
Air Canada Aeroplan is introducing family pooling as part of their new frequent flyer program launch in November. Aeroplan will allow up to 8 people to share their miles at no cost. Many programs charge a penny a mile to accomplish something similar.
Some of you are going to be tempted to abuse this. There’s a simple reason not to try.
Air India fired 48 pilots effective Thursday at midnight. The pilots union says the move is illegal. Air India says they’re relying on a Supreme Court ruling from last year that allows the move.
Apart from Indian labor law what’s striking about the story though is that after the pilots were terminated effective August 13, one of them continued to fly passengers.
Last month American Airlines fired their Cleveland airport General Manager for using his security badge to bypass TSA screening and board a flight, and having someone else skip security to bring him his laptop charger.
Recently American reminded all of its employees not to skip TSA screening checkpoints when traveling. But the requirement for vetted people to go through regular security is dumb.
The only way to have a mask mandate is for the mandate to apply to everyone, and that mandate is in many cases the only alternative to stricter measures. Whether you agree with that scientifically or not you need to at least acknowledge that as the political reality. And that’s why an anti-masker should, I think, support mask wearing because it’s less intrusive than the policies that would happen otherwise.
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 »
