Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

Could Norwegian Air Be Days Away From Collapse?

by Gary Leff

plane on runway
Dec 21 2018

A report from Denmark’s Danske Bank says that Norwegian Air, the largest of the transatlantic discounters, could breach conditions of its debt if it doesn’t raise fresh capital by the end of the year.

Low cost transatlantic competitors Wow Air is teetering, and Primera has gone out of business. Norwegian operates both long haul and within Europe and is struggling through the most challenging time of year for a carrier in this hemisphere. How that will change the airline going forward remains to be seen.

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This Man Says He’ll Never Fly American Airlines Again. Of Course He Will!

by Gary Leff

Dec 21 2018

Ken Wimberly, who describes himself as Chief Visionary Officer for a commercial real estate firm in the Dallas area, says he’ll never fly American Airlines again.

He usually flies Southwest. He wanted first class tickets for his family of five, so he bought them from American. Then he needed to change the travel date for one member of the family.

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New Democrat House Transportation Chairman: Puppet of Big US Airlines

by Gary Leff

inside qatar plane
Dec 20 2018

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. With Republicans in control of the US House of Representatives they had Bill Shuster (R-Airlines for America) to do their bidding. He was dating a top lobbyist from the airline industry. His Chief of Staff was married to another top airline industry lobbyist. And he hired an airline industry lobbyist to run the Transportation Committee.

Now with Democrats regaining control of the House Pete DeFazio of Oregon isn’t missing a beat.

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New Delta Award Pricing Quirk Saves 44,000 Miles

by Gary Leff

delta plane
Dec 20 2018

It’s often a good idea to book Delta awards to Europe as roundtrip anyway because if you book two one way tickets then the one originating in Europe will incur fuel surcharges. Delta imposes those on members because they can and because many European programs do, so why be better than their European competitors for award travel which starts on the continent?

There’s another reason to at least search roundtrip and not just one way: Delta may charge fewer miles, too.

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The Ridiculous Reason We Haven’t Learned More About the Lion Air 737 MAX Disaster

by Gary Leff

Dec 17 2018

Lion Air flight JT610 from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang crashed 13 minutes after takeoff on October 29. 189 passengers and crew were killed in the disaster.

The aircraft’s flight data recorder was recovered last month, and provided useful information to allow for a preliminary report. The cockpit voice recorder has not yet been recovered. Unfortunately investigation of the Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX crash is stalled.

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oneworld CEO Make an “Impassioned Plea” for Qatar Airways to Stay in the Alliance

by Gary Leff

qatarplane
Dec 17 2018

Two months ago Qatar Airways threatened to leave the oneworld alliance, a threat that their CEO Akbar al-Baker has repeated several times.

Qatar’s CEO did not attend the alliance’s annual meeting in New York where their existing partner Royal Air Maroc announced its pending entry into oneworld. Any exit would logically have been announced at that meeting, though Qatar has mentioned a Christmas deadline for a decision.

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Singapore Airlines Discounting Award Tickets on U.S. Non-Stop Flights (Great Availability, Too)

by Gary Leff

flight attendants posing
Dec 17 2018

With Singapore aggressively growing service in the U.S. and with their Los Angeles and Newark non-stop flights not offering regular coach there is a glut of premium seats, especially premium economy seats. That’s great for award travel.

Right now Singapore is discounting award redemption on their U.S. non-stop flights which means San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Newark to Singapore (in each direction).

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