Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

New Devalued British Airways Award Chart Live

by Gary Leff

airplane cabin
May 30 2019

British Airways announced they’d be devaluing their award chart for partner flights with one month’s notice, but refused to tell customers what the new chart would look like. It wasn’t hard to sort out, to a close approximation what the new pricing would be — since it was already loaded into agents’ computers. The final numbers for what flights on partners other than Iberia and Aer Lingus (which are owned by the same company as British Airways) are close to what was expected, but there are some divergences. British Airways used to price premium economy, business, and first class as multiples of coach award prices. That no longer holds exactly. BA charges based on distance of each flight. If you are connecting, then each segment is priced separately based on its distance. Here’s the new…

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IATA Says Boeing 737 MAX Won’t Fly Until August, While Boeing’s CEO Apologizes to Victims’ Families

by Gary Leff

plane tv
May 29 2019

Last week I wrote that the FAA would be trying to convince the world’s regulators to re-certify the Boeing 737 MAX. American Airlines CEO Doug Parker said he expects the plane to fly in ‘weeks, not months’ but that the FAA would want a critical mass of other world regulators to sign off on the plane as well as part of convincing the public that it’s safe to fly — however several countries would likely be recalcitrant for political reasons.

Now the head of standards-setting trade group the International Air Transport Association says he expects the Boeing 737 MAX to return in 10 to 12 weeks – at the earliest..

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Qantas First Class Awards Available for Fall and Winter

by Gary Leff

sydney opera house
May 29 2019

Here’s a search of available first class award space for two passengers in November. I searched Los Angeles – Sydney, but it brings up Los Angeles – Melbourne space where there’s connecting availability to/from Sydney, and Dallas Fort-Worth – Sydney where there’s connecting availability on American between LA and Dallas.

Some space appears to exist October through February, in other words when Americans want to travel to Australia.

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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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