Category Archives for Airlines.
Instead of replacing all of their domestic first class meals at once, as they’ve had in the past, American Airlines has been replacing a few items at a time on a rolling basis.
The airline has introduced four new entrees and two salads.
Samoa is requiring all passengers entering the country or transiting through it to undergo medical screening three days prior to travel to the country. The government is also enforcing reductions in international air service.
Meanwhile Micronesia banned travelers from any country where there was a confirmed coronavirus case.
Southeast Asian low cost carrier AirAsia has been a success (except for their restaurant chain). AirAsiaX, the long haul version of the airline, has struggled.
The airline had plenty of empty seats even before coronavirus, so they’re selling a one year all you can fly pass for 499 MYR (about US$118) offering “Australia, Japan, India and more.”
Delta has announced new routes and flights out of Seattle showing that they aren’t going to take American’s re-invigorated partnership with Alaska Airlines lying down.
Competition is good, and has been great for Seattle residents since Delta and Alaska began their breakup and Delta built up their own hub at the Pacific Northwest airport. Delta will grow their Seattle service to 190 peak daily departures to 56 destinations for summer 2020, with new service coming beyond that as well.
Star Alliance member TAP Air Portugal has 280,000 frequent flyer members in the U.S. market, growing at about 12,000 members per month, and now serves 9 North American cities with 81 weekly flights. They’re even launching Boston to the Azores in June. And they acknowledge that their Miles & Go program “hasn’t been as relevant as it should be.” They aim to change that.
They are offering status matches up to their top elite tier, mileage on sale for less than 9/10ths of a cent apiece, 25% discounts on award redemption, and miles just for joining the program and referring others to join as well.
American Airlines launches their new uniform with about 50,000 employees putting on their new attire today. This comes after the new 2016 Twin Hill uniforms led to thousands of complaints about irritation and worse from another manufacturer.
As a result of these issues American’s employees have been allowed to use a makeshift combination of old uniforms, including old US Airways uniforms and some off the shelf options. This will be the first time, hopefully, that all legacy American Airlines and US Airways employees all have the same look and keep it.
American Airlines has come out with their own convoluted copycat of waiving change fees on new ticket purchases. It is simultaneously less generous and also more strategically useful than what JetBlue and Alaska have done in the face of weak bookings resulting from coronavirus fears.
American Airlines flight AA198 from New York JFK to Milan was cancelled Saturday evening after crewmembers refused to make the trip to Northern Italy over coronavirus fears. On Saturday the U.S. government raised the alert for travel to Northern Italy to its highest level.
I like business class awards at a discount, and 50% off premium economy can be useful. However 25% off premium economy from Seattle is only moderately useful and really only if you’re based in Seattle. 25% off economy redemptions aren’t great since you do pay some carrier-imposed surcharges. I need to see at least 50% off economy to suggest the awards as worth pursuing.
United Airlines is cracking down on flight attendants posting photos of themselves online posing inside of overhead bins, known as the “Overhead Bin Challenge.”
It’s understandable that an airline wouldn’t want to have to take a maintenance delay if an overhead bin was damaged. And HR is certainly going to prefer to tell employees not to do it – it’s harder to sue the airline for an injury that way. On the other hand, heaven forbid a United Airlines flight attendant look like they’re having fun at their job… Last summer Southwest Airlines, for their part, backed up their flight attendant’s “brief moment of fun.”
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 »
