Category Archives for Airlines.
Airlines are generally requiring passengers to wear face masks on board. They aren’t necessarily enforcing the requirement, though. And though the requirement says face masks there’s not much definition of what constitutes an acceptable mask. One passenger decided to test the limits.
Air Canada continues to refuse to provide refunds for flights that they themselves cancel. If those flights are to or from the United States this is in violation of black letter law. It’s time for small claims court.
While the Federal Flight Deck Officer Program has had its scrapes and embarrassments, its record remains better than that of the Federal Air Marshal Program. Indeed frustrations with the air marshals are the reason that these post-9/11 efforts to arm pilots were hardly the first time this was considered.
Eastern Airlines commissioned a Colt revolver in the 1970s to combat hijackings. The charge was to develop a special revolver that wouldn’t cause problems for the aircraft if they penetrated the plane’s skin or its windows.
Passengers keep complaining on social media that planes are too full. They aren’t subject to social distancing orders. They are, however, caught in a Catch 22. Blocking the middle seat makes people more comfortable, and people need to be more comfortable in order to return to travel. Air travel is a lot safer than people think but they need to feel safe and not all airlines are helping people do that.
Many people will stay away from flying precisely because there’s not going to be social distancing on planes, and they do not feel safe. Airlines can’t make money blocking all middle seats but they can’t make money until we decide we’re done with the need to block middle seats.
A person in Lansing, Michigan tested positive for COVID-19 and decided to go to the airport anyway. They were under a quarantine order but “attempted to board a plane” but were stopped “after local health officials issued a cease-and-desist order.”
It takes a lot to get people out of the habit of staying in, and overcoming the fear that’s been built up about regular activities like haircuts, let alone travel. Six weeks ago I wrote that airlines are going to have to extend flexible booking policies or customers won’t have the confidence to buy travel in the face of uncertainty.
We’re now seeing policies become even more generous, and more flexible.
The cockpit crew had aborted the flight’s approach to the Karachi airport with landing gear issues, performed a go around, but then declared a Mayday reporting that they had lost both of the plane’s engines. The Airbus A320 crashed into a residential neighborhood.
It may be a good idea to mandate passengers wear masks, and to take their temperatures as they arrive at the airport. However it’s a bad idea for government to charge TSA with taking temperatures of passengers who are already inside the airport at security checkpoints.
Airlines have lobbied for TSA to do this, and TSA has prepared to do it, however Aviation Policy News points out that neither the FAA nor TSA have the legal authority to mandate masks or take temperatures.
The late co-founder of the airline Herb Kelleher wrote in 2011 about the airline’s legacy of never having to furlough an employee, saying it was because their employees work hard and never forget the customers paying the bills. In the early 1970s they had to return one of their Boeing 737s due to financial challenges, but they kept their employees on.
Of course we’ve never seen travel demand collapse the way we have with the coronavirus pandemic though Southwest Airlines is actually well-positioned relative to its peers to recover.
Without people traveling, and with fewer immediate opportunities to spend accumulated miles, the airline has a challenge with its co-brand credit cards. They earn around $3 billion a year in revenue through their partnerships with Citibank and Barclays, but spending is going to fall both because of less travel and also because of the economy in recession.
The airline has an interesting approach to this, encouraging spend on their cards between May 1 and December 31, 2020. Spending on their Citibank and Barclays cards will earn credit towards lifetime elite status. Here are answers to questions not available in American’s original release.
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 »
