Category Archives for Airlines.
Last year Walsh sold over $4 million in IAG stock to fund a divorce. The board has been made aware of an ongoing relationship he’s had with an employee. However IAG denies this is the reason for his impending departure.
Delta says they are adding Amex cardholders rapidly and the final 2019 total comes to 1.1 million. Delta also shares that they’re adding SkyMiles members at “double the rate of just three years ago” for a total of 6 million new members in 2019.
This is solid advice – not just for flight attendants – and was even prior to the latest tensions.
In a note Tuesday morning, Senior Vice President David Seymour congratulated employees on the airline’s “best-ever performance for both the holiday peak travel period and the entire fourth quarter of 2019.” Here are the numbers.
Flying between the U.S. and Australia in business and first class is among the toughest frequent flyer awards out there. Frequently it requires connecting in Asia rather than flying non-stop.
Right now though there’s incredible Qantas first class award availability using Qantas Frequent Flyer miles. While you’ll find a handful of dates between now and the end of June where a couple of seats are available, starting in July and through the end of the year things really open up.
American created ‘Project Kodiak’ to tweak first class: Fixing row 1’s legroom, fixing underseat storage, improving separation between first and coach, and adding tablet holders and USB power to first class.
Kodiak retrofits are underway. One surprise is that it appears there’s a plane with seat back video in for retrofit, ripping out TV screens. American had previously said that these planes would receive their retrofits last so that customers could keep screens as long as possible. That appears not to have been accurate.
n America Airlines passenger tells the story about buying a paid transpacific business class ticket on American Airlines but being downgraded for their Chicago – Tokyo flight a few weeks ago when their inbound Boston – Chicago flight was delayed.
The passenger says their Boston – Chicago flight was running late due to crew availability (a flight attendant “had woken up late and was on her way”) and that meant arriving into Chicago 45 minutes late. They had to run to their connecting gate, but they made it while the Tokyo flight was still boarding.
Willie Walsh is stepping down as CEO and from the board of of IAG, the parent company of British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling effective March 26 and retiring June 30. He’s 58 years old and has talked about retiring by 60, though this is ahead of schedule. He’ll be replaced by Luis Gallego, CEO of Iberia – and not by the CEO of British Airways.
The first real, tangible move from Wow Air 2.0 seems to have been spotted: a Wow Air Cafe in D.C.’s West End.
Icelandic media reported that the nascent airline planned to offer “a sales office and a facility where people can sit down, have a coffee and browse the possibilities.”
Southwest though has a long history of profits and margins that have eluded much of the industry, and they haven’t gone down the same fees and restrictions rabbit hole. They are the largest domestic airline in the country. They do not have change fees or checked bag fees (for up to 2 bags per passenger). They don’t have seat fees, without assigned seats, but they do charge to be at the front of the boarding queue which means earlier dibs at seat selection.
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 »
