Category Archives for Airlines.
The French government has placed several conditions on the 7.5 billion euro bailout it’s providing. The biggest one is that the airline will no longer be allowed to sell purely domestic trips between Paris and domestic cities that are within a 2.5 hour train ride of the capital.
United is effectively saying that they will not provide refunds for cancelled flights, only for significant delays, because cancelled flights do not exist. They are treating DOT rules – which specifically provide for two separate reasons for a refund – as though they only provide for one.
If an airline used to fly 8 times a day between two cities, and now flies just 3 times a day, that airline has cancelled 5 flights even though the airline can still accommodate the customer. United disagrees, but that is absurd on its face.
The Essential Air Service program pays airlines to fly routes that aren’t economically viable. Now the program will pay airlines to not fly those same routes.
Airlines are cancelling flights and downsizing their operations because of the global coronavirus pandemic. When they don’t fly the flights they’ve sold, they have to refund customers’ money.
The European Union’s rule 261 applies and requires these refunds. The E.U. reiterated that last month. However European airlines have been ignoring this and not processing refunds, at least for their European customers.
Now 12 European nations are siding with airlines against their people.
Yesterday United Airlines removed partner award charts from its website. The only reason a loyalty program removes award charts is so that they can raise the price of awards while trying to hide what they’re doing. I have never seen a program eliminate award charts and become more valuable.
We now know exactly why United pulled these charts yesterday without any notice to members. Seriously, they’re doing this now?
Data shows people are still searching for trips – searches for April and May travel were down significantly, but travel searches for later in the year are way up compared to 2019.
Airlines haven’t had difficulty borrowing billions of dollars against assets like planes, gates, hangars and parts. What’s not often pointed out, though, is that the liquidity Delta and other major companies are securing is itself part of another federal bailout program.
Velocity Frequent Flyer built cash in a trust and if the program failed it would, in theory, pay out money to members for their accumulated miles. That’s great in theory except… that trust lent AU$200 million [US$129 million] to the airline. Whoops.
United said that partner awards would continue to price as they always had even once award charts were removed for United flights. This wasn’t true – since they were charging extra for booking partner flights close to departure.
Nevertheless they kept a copy of the Star Alliance award chart on their website. Now they’ve removed it. And a spokesperson says this is exactly what you should have expected!
Stop blaming and shaming airlines on social media for full flights. I guess I’m shocked that people are shocked there would be others sitting near them on a plane. Why would anyone think the airline was selling them a ticket but not selling tickets to other people?
Ultimately if you do not feel it is safe to fly, then do not fly. If you do fly, wear a mask (whether the government is requiring it or not). Bring hand sanitizer – the TSA has relaxed carry on liquid rules for this purpose. And wash your hands.
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 »
