Category Archives for Airlines.
When I started predicting seven years ago that inflight wifi would be free within 10 years (so by 2022), people thought I was crazy.
However since that time JetBlue introduced free inflight internet and Aer Lingus has announced usage-capped free wifi. Southwest, Delta and Alaska now offer free inflight messaging. Delta CEO Ed Bastian says they’ll do it in a year or two so by 2021.
Another airline has just launched free wifi.
The US government is having the TSA train Saudi Arabia to stand up an air marshal program. It’s enough to almost make you feel bad for the Saudis.
Air marshals have smuggled cocaine, engaged in sex trafficking, and discharged their weapons in hotels and bars. We spend $200 million per arrest on the air marshal program. And to be clear that is not $200 million per arrest of a terror suspect, most are just passengers behaving badly. They’ve never stopped a terrorist.
ProPublica obtained and released a number of Acting FAA Administrator Dan Elwell’s emails.
Included in the batch was correspondence with United Airlines during their PR crisis surrounding the dragging and beating of passenger David Dao in April 2017, while Elwell was an advisor to the Secretary of Transportation.
Ironically Wow Air itself provided free flights to journalists to influence coverage, and of course stories about the imminent demise of the low cost carrier turned out to be accurate rather than fake news.
On Sunday I asked whether transatlantic low cost carrier Wow Air was toast. I phrased it in the form of a question but pointed out that while the answer to internet posts phrased as a question is almost always ‘no’ in this case it was probably the opposite.
This morning they ceased operations while stranding passengers. Your best recourse at this point if you hold tickets is likely to be with your credit card company. Claims by unsecured creditors with the airline’s bankruptcy administrator are far less likely to be successful.
Boeing has unveiled software changes that should make erroneously engaging the system less likely, and less challenging for pilots if it ever does happen.
You want to fly in the morning when you can. Flights later in the day are affected by each of the segments an aircraft has flown that day and delays stack up. When something goes wrong to delay a flight, usually subsequent flights with the same plane will be delayed too. At the end of the day crew may also be running out of allowable duty time.
And bring patience and plenty of backup planning because things inevitably do go wrong, whether because of weather or technical snafus. Find your own alternate flights (with availability that changes constantly). If the first airline agent doesn’t give you help try someone else. And if you can’t get through on the phone, try a foreign call center.
It’s only possible to get so comfortable in a gate area. And you don’t want to be one of those teenagers hauling around pillows and making camp on the floor.
One intrepid traveler decided to hang a hammock Sunday morning in the Charlotte airport. He apparently found it comfortable enough to doze off in.
Unionized flight attendants — and flight attendants at airlines whose procedures mirror union work rules — get to work the most desirable trips based on seniority. Senior flight attendants at large international airlines can jet away to Sydney, to Buenos Aires, to Paris while more junior flight attendants overnight in Des Moines.
Those longer trips aren’t just more exotic. They pay more (more hours) in a short amount of time, have longer layovers, and may entail staying at better hotels. Secondary markets developed. Last year I wrote about American flight attendants renting out their seniority for $200 a pop. Now United flight attendants are doing it.
Star Alliance frequent flyer program Avianca LifeMiles is offering a 125% bonus on transferred miles. For every 1000 miles you transfer from one account to the other, the recipient receives a bonus 1250 miles. That’s effectively buying miles at 1.2 cents apiece.
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 »
