Category Archives for Airlines.
Delta is moving to offer free inflight internet, matching JetBlue, and American has been explicit that an industry move in this direction could force them to do the same.
One of my most frequent and best uses of American AAdvantage miles over the past 7 years has been booking first class awards on Etihad. I’ve used them to fly to the Maldives four times, to India, to the Gulf region and from the Mideast to Australia to name just a few.
And they offer an excellent hard product in first class – on their Airbus A380 the ‘First Apartment’ with an on board shower.
American already eliminated their rule that basic economy passengers couldn’t bring on a full sized carry on bag. Now they’re making it easier for passengers on basic economy fares to get advance seat assignments – allowing paid seats 7 days prior to travel. And with bigger overhead bins, boarding last isn’t even a big deal anymore either.
The biggest mistake the average member of a frequent flyer program makes when it comes to using their miles for travel is believing that you just go to your airline’s website, enter the city you’re traveling from and where you want to go, and the website will spit out your options.
It’s a perfectly reasonable expectation in 2019, but it’s not how it works. Although with American AAdvantage it’s one step closer today.
First class currently is a cube, lacking a door. The new seat will be a suite with doors and will be called The Suite. It will offer access to windows for window seat passengers, and a better divider between middle seats offering a choice of privacy or access to a seatmate.
ANA’s business class will be a suite with doors called The Room, and according to the airline will offer twice the width of the current business seat.
The latest from Italy is that the government is driving to close on a restructuring of the airline with the government continuing to pump in money and take a majority stake of the airline (35% of which would be through the state railway) while Delta takes 10% ownership though presumably exercises outsized influence.
American Airlines went to court to get an injunction against their mechanics union, claiming they were engaged in an illegal action to sabotage the performance of the airline. But two of the airline’s lawyers failed to show up for a meeting with mechanics’ representatives — because their flight was cancelled.
British Airways is facing a proposed $230 million fine under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for a hack last summer compromised personal information on approximately 500,000 customers accessing its website.
This proposed fine is more than 3 times the total fines meted out during GDPR’s first year. In the year after GDPR’s passage there were 200,000 investigations, 64,000 of which found fault, resulting in total fines of approximately $70 million — nearly 90% of which was from a single case against Google.
Since Delta has been on a long-term path to end do.mestic first class upgrades they want you to think of extra legroom coach seats as an ‘upgrade’. They don’t let you just select these extra legroom ‘Comfort+’ seats if you have elite status.
Flewber sounds like Uber, and it’s app-based booking of private flights in the Northeast. They serve Boston, New York, East Hampton and Nantucket. And at $700 roundtrip — or $400 one-way — they even include a rebate to Uber to the airport.
They’re expanding to Philadelphia and DC and within 2 years to “Florida, Texas, California, Washington state, and Chicago.”
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 »
