Category Archives for Airlines.
American Airlines is going to start handing out masks to passengers on some flights. Several airlines are requiring flight attendants to wear masks.
And now JetBlue is becoming the first U.S. airline to require it of passengers starting May 4. Masks provide some measure of protection for other passengers in the event the wearer is asymptomatic but spreading the virus.
United has made a change to elite qualification, making status harder to earn, and they’re putting the change into effect in the middle of this year. Travel on partner airlines won’t count as much towards earning MileagePlus premier levels – the amount of qualifying dollars you can earn will be capped.
American is rolling out deeper cleaning of aircraft between all flights, eventually extending to all of their domestic operation, and – supplies permitting – will begin offering masks and hand sanitizer to passengers. Starting May 1 flight attendants will be required to wear masks as well.
American Airlines has updated its rules have been tightened to require customers to be at the gate earlier, and to board flights earlier.
Requiring passengers to spend more time congregating in cramped gate areas is the opposite direction from where the airline should be moving in the current era which calls for greater social distancing. And closing the doors earlier means more passengers missing more flights.
Starting in early September, and running through end of schedule, it’s possible to get business class award seats on the longest flight in the world – the Singapore Airlines Newark – Singapore flight – and you do not even need to use Singapore’s own miles to do it.
It’s incredibly rare when Singapore Airlines makes long haul business class award space to partner airlines. In fact I don’t think I’ve seen things this open since a glitch back in July 2012.
I’ve been saying we’ll start to see travel incentive programs investing in generous promotions, though frankly didn’t expect to see any this soon. American Airlines Business ExtrAA will give you points for a free roundtrip if you sign up for the program and take a single flight by June 30.
We do not need a vaccine to travel again. Widespread availability of a vaccine is probably two years away even if it’s developed in a year, since it has to be manufactured and distributed at massive scale. However a gimmick like an immunity passport, given our limited knowledge of the virus right now, isn’t likely to get us back in the sky.
So don’t get infected just because you think recovering from the virus will help you to travel, because it probably won’t.
President Trump has an idea to help the airlines make it through to the future, while getting a deal for taxpayers: pay up front for several years of travel, but get a bigger discount from the airlines for doing it.
You can cancel an American Airlines award ticket online – there’s a cancel link in your account’s itineraries. Cancelling, through, doesn’t put miles back into your account. To get miles redeposited you’ve had to call American – until now, under certain limited conditions.
The advice with LifeMiles – which has a good award chart, no fuel surcharges, and sells miles cheap – has long been to buy what you need to use right away, not to invest in the program long term.
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 »
