Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

Regional Jets Are Going to Get Faster 5G Inflight Internet

by Gary Leff

american eagle plane
May 29 2019

Regional jets have been stuck with slower internet speeds. In particular, they cannot be upgraded to Gogo’s 2Ku satellite system, the internet provider tells me, because “the radome is too large.” Still there’s a need to improve the inflight experience on regional jets.

Gogo announced today that it “will build a 5G network for aviation.” This is a new air-to-ground network regional jets and smaller mainline jets operating in the US and Canada, and for business jets.

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American’s Joint Venture With LATAM Rejected By Chile’s Supreme Court

by Gary Leff

plane on tarmac
May 28 2019

Several South American countries have approved the American Airlines joint venture with LATAM, and American has expected to receive approval from the U.S. In a surprising move, the Chilean Supreme Court has overturned the country’s regulatory anti-trust approval of the deal citing limited competition and barriers to entry. Presumably with US regulatory approval American and LATAM will move forward with their joint venture excluding US-Chile from the arrangement.

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Hawaiian Airlines Refuses to Honor Mistake Deal, Charges Customers Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars

by Gary Leff

hawaiian airlines plane in sky
May 26 2019

Frequent flyer award tickets are supposed to reward loyalty. They don’t feel very rewarding when they come with a cash co-pay in the form of fuel surcharges which — for economy redemptions — can be almost as much as the cost of a paid ticket. (We’ve even seen instances in the past where British Airways fuel surcharges on an award ticket were more expensive than the cheapest fare you could buy with cash.)

Hawaiian Airlines accidentally started imposing the mother of all carrier-imposed surcharges on its awards last week, and they are “deeply sorry.”

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Via Air – The Worst Airline in America – Throws in The Towel, Except for One Route

by Gary Leff

via air plane
May 26 2019

Two weeks ago I wrote that Via Air hadn’t shown up at an airport they were supposed to fly to and no one knew why. Even the airport itself couldn’t reach the airline to learn more.

Now it appears that airline has shut down its commercial service entirely, with the exception of a single route. The airline is blaming a lack of pilots. Two weeks ago they also blamed the FAA for “slower and more methodical” oversight following the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX, an aircraft Via Air did not operate.

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Airline Told Customers Flights Were Cancelled Because Their Destination Was Closed, Even Though it Wasn’t

by Gary Leff

westjet plane taking off
May 26 2019

Airlines have an incentive to blame factors beyond their control for delays. If the cause is weather, air traffic control, or a similar issue they’re going to owe customers a lot less (if anything at all) compared to when a delay is ‘controllable’ or their fault — such as when a flight goes mechanical or when crew simply don’t show up. (EU rules are somewhat stricter.)

Customers can be sitting at their home airport and will get frustrated when they’re delayed by weather only to look out the window at blue skies, knowing weather is clear at their destination.

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Should Southwest Airlines Comp Drinks During Delays?

by Gary Leff

southwest plane
May 25 2019

Prior to deregulation the Civil Aeronautics Board ‘experimented’ with the idea of price competition and allowed airlines to undercut Southwest Airlines prices. Southwest, flying only inside Texas at the time, wasn’t subject to CAB price regulation.

Texas International Airlines (which would later acquire Continental, Eastern, People Express, and Frontier) along with Braniff started offering $13 fares between Houston and Dellas. Not to be undercut, Southwest introduced a two-tiered fare structure, rebating each customer paying full fare with a bottle of liquor. Southwest became the largest liquor distributor in the state of Texas.

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Great New Zealand Business Class Award Availability, Just 49,000 Points Each Way

by Gary Leff

skyline
May 25 2019

Historically awards between the US and New Zealand have been one of the toughest things to book. Years ago Air New Zealand used to open up business class awards 60 days prior to flight. Then they stopped. With a couple of brief exceptions there really hasn’t been meaningful Air New Zealand business class award space in years.

Up until today, this was a unicorn. Or snuffaluffagus. There were rumors of Air New Zealand business class award space, but no one knew if it actually existed.

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American Airlines Catered My Flight From a Restaurant Inside the Terminal

by Gary Leff

airplane food
May 23 2019

My American Airlines flight from Austin to Chicago was delayed 5 hours on Tuesday. The plane was there, skies were clear, and though American had just sued their mechanics the day before there were no maintenance issues. Instead we didn’t have a crew.

I was up front for the flight and I wondered how the planned 8:15 a.m. flight would be catered. Usually when my morning flights have been delayed past noon we’ve still been served breakfast.

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