Category Archives for Airlines.
United and Delta are both allowing flight attendants to wear masks. Now American has reversed its policy. Flight attendants now have the option of wearing masks, and will not be disciplined for doing so.
Airlines that aren’t providing transportation that was purchased are trying to keep customers’ money, even as they seek more of their customers’ money in the form of government bailouts. While the international airline trade group is trying to get governments to legalize this theft, some carriers are doing it on their own regardless of the law.
Today Emirates announced they would suspend all passenger flights. They have already walked that back, and flights to several countries including the U.S. will continue.
Emirates CEO Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum has announced that the airline will shut down passenger operations by Wednesday, March 25. Cargo flights will continue. They had already announced a 70% scale-back of flights.
After just yesterday announcing the end of all long haul services, United Airlines on Saturday evening changed their mind and reintroduced several flights through their May schedule. They’ll fly to Europe, to Israel, to Tokyo, Sydney and even into South America.
American Airlines won’t allow flight attendants to wear masks. They also still give ‘points’ which count towards discipline and termination for a flight attendant who calls out sick unless they’ve actually tested positive for coronavirus.
Flight attendants with mild symptoms who haven’t flown internationally still report being ineligible for testing. And calling out sick when you aren’t is a firing offense.
A voicemail is making the rounds from this past Tuesday when a flight service manager called out a flight attendant for wearing a mask on a trip, and suggested they just ‘use sick time’.
The usually very reliable JonNYC, who has a lot of inside sources at major airlines but especially at American Airlines, relays a rumor that American may announce a complete shutdown for a period of 2-3 weeks.
American Airlines can’t really front-run their bailout requests with layoffs now. And since it’s in American’s interest not to shut down completely pending a government bailout, I’ve assumed the rumors are false.
Gerard Arpey led American Airlines for 9 years up until the carrier’s bankruptcy. However he lost the trust of employees half way through his tenure. That’s odd, in a way, because by insisting on pulling every lever possible to forestall bankruptcy the airline underperformed the industry financially for years, while delaying changes to employee contracts that would eventually come through Chapter 11.
The biggest area of controversy with employees was Arpey’s (and management) pay. Another piece of irony is that his pay was mostly in stock, the bulk of which he held to the end losing much of its value when the airline finally did enter bankruptcy.
A reader asks about the safety of their miles, and if some of the smaller airline currencies they have aren’t as safe whether it would be a good idea to book travel now using those miles to fly on one of their partner airlines (that’ll still be flying)?
Here’s what you need to know.
Thursday morning I laid out the realistic pessimistic view that we aren’t going to see ‘normal’ again for quite some time, and that what we even think of as normal may shift.
One indication of this is that American Airlines has extended change fee waivers for passengers traveling through May 31.
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 »
