Category Archives for Airlines.
In 2009 a class action lawsuit was filed over the change in expiration rules. The case settled last summer. Aeroplan has now posted miles to member accounts.
If nothing else this reset the expiration of miles in my Aeroplan account. Not as lucrative as the British Airways fuel surcharge class action but better than a hole in the head, as my grandfather used to say.
The CEO of Emirates teased merger speculation with Etihad in 2017. Etihad’s CEO teased it last year. The two airlines have been cooperating more closely. Etihad is lending pilots to Emirates.
Now Emirates Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum is speaking out about the possibility of a merger – and suggesting it could happen in the future, but not right away.
Asked about the Boeing 737 MAX during Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholders meeting, Warren Buffett said that he “will never hesitate even for a second to fly on a 737 MAX” once it returns to service.
You may have an opportunity to fly the MAX again sometime this summer. Will you let it take you where you’re going?
Frontier Airlines flight 827 from Trenton, New Jersey to Charleston, South Carolina was delayed for an unusual reason. A passenger on board reports that “someone stole an exit sign” from the exit row so the plane couldn’t take off.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
If an airline doesn’t arrive on time, customers will be unhappy. That’s simple enough, right? As American Airlines ties the attempt to improve their operation to the happiness of customers, it’s arriving on time that they find matters (“A14” or arriving within 14 minutes of schedule) rather the merely departing on time. Customers won’t be ‘likely to recommend’ if they landing early and find they have no gate for half an hour!
But is that all that matters? Obviously people want to get where they’re going, but they may still be unhappy. And several airlines can deliver well on performance, that’s not enough to distinguish one airline from another.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
American Airlines isn’t known for making business class award seats available on their own flights, so this is notable. And since awards on their primary transatlantic British Airways incur huge fuel surcharges, the ability to fly at the saver level in business class and no fuel surcharges with American AAdvantage miles is notable. You can also use Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles for these flights, of course.
I recently shared the strange story of how Baltimore’s Friendship Airport (“BAL”) became BWI even though that code was already taken by Bewani, Papua New Guinea.
A lot of aviation codes have unique histories. Southwest Airlines couldn’t have SW — that belonged to Seaborn World at the time (it’s now Air Namibia). So they took WN which approximates Western and ultimately works nicely because it can be said to stand for We’re Nuts! Although sadly Southwest no longer serves peanuts.
I’d have been happy to have this meal for dinner at home, constraints of an aircraft galley aside. I cannot remember the last time I said that about a meal on a domestic flight.
It’s a shame that Alaska is scaling back on the quality of its first class hard product as it standardizes its fleet after the the Virgin America merger. However on board catering they’re doing right — more so than my experiences in the past year with American, United, and Delta.
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 »
