Category Archives for Airlines.
American Airlines should be close to introducing premium economy awards. They’ve retrofitted much of their widebody fleet of Boeing 777s, 787-9s, and now some 787-8s to offer a premium economy cabin. However they have not had an option to redeem premium economy seats for miles.
I expect to see premium economy awards introduced this month, at least that’s what’s been confirmed to me by two well-placed sources at American.
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.
My own take on world’s second best business class is Star Alliance member EVA Air based in Taipei. They should be on everyone’s radar because they also frequently have very good award availability from their US gateways and offer good connectivity into Asia.
Already they offer great seats — reverse herringbone that’s similar to what Cathay Pacific has — but they take things a step beyond with pajamas, pre-order meals, great champagne, and quality amenity kits. And their service is top notch.
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.
Worldwide there’s a significant pilot shortage in commercial aviation. However at Etihad, where the airline has been scaling back from an expansive growth posture, they believe they have too many pilots.
According to an internal memo Etihad will be laying off some of their excess pilots this month.
It’s been a year since Air France started service under the ‘Joon’ brand. A separate airline with lower labor costs is one thing – and Joon had lower flight attendant costs, but not lower pilot costs. It’s hard enough to pull that off without really being a separate company. Just ask United, Delta, US Airways, and Continental about the airline within an airline experiment.
Pretending that the Air France low cost carrier without low costs was really a different brand for millennials was just silly. It was created by consultants who think millennial means “no money, doesn’t care about comfort, and is into marketing buzz.”
Air Canada, along with Aeroplan’s banking partners CIBC, TD, and Visa, completed their agreement to buy Aeroplan from Aimia.
That gives Air Canada its members to market to right away, and it eliminates expected new major competition between the two from the marketplace before it even begins.
When American ended Chicago – China service they freed up Boeing 787 aircraft and seemingly didn’t know what to do with them. They’re flying 787s now to Cancun and Anchorage.
Then they freed up even more 787-8 flying time. Since they removed business class seats from 787-8 aircraft, with the new configuration featuring only 20 seats up front, the plane no longer works for premium markets.
Delta calls moving from regular coach to extra legroom coach (“Comfort+”) seats an ‘upgrade’ the way other airlines call coach to business an upgrade.
When you buy a ticket you don’t just assign yourself an extra legroom seat, your upgrade ‘clears’ into the extra legroom section of the plane. This process is going to create a problem on several routes beginning in March.
I’ve written before about how Delta award sales don’t drive much value to the program.
Pulling up award calendars on Delta it’s indeed possible to find 44,000 mile roundtrip. What’s striking to me is how much extra legroom coach is pricing for the same flights (164,000) and how much business class costs. Imagine, 930,000 miles for business class. This isn’t even first class – and you’d better hurry, there’s only 1 seat left at this price.
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 »
