Category Archives for Airlines.
One customer reports that American Airlines was unwilling to waive a change fee when his 3 year old’s appendix ruptured — because the appendix did not rupture on day of travel.
Here’s what he should do.
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.
At the start of the Trump administration there was tremendous media attention over the travel ban for nationals of several countries, but I pointed out at the time one of the lesser-noticed provisions was expediting implementation of exit controls at the border. This wasn’t just about keeping people out, it was also about keeping them in.
The plan has become more ambitious in fact a Department of Homeland Security report details the plan to require all departing passengers, including all citizens, to have photos (mug shots) taken when leaving the United States — expanding to land and sea crossings as well.
American’s plan was for more extra legroom coach seats while a few seats would have just 29 inches of pitch which is the distance from seat back to seat back. Word leaked about these changes and employees were up in arms (and thoroughly embarrassed). The airline backed down, and didn’t ultimately go to 29 inch pitch.
There’s a brilliant video about that plan. I keep watching it and completely losing it, this is hilarious.
Earlier in the month I wrote about $63 fares to Europe. That’s not a sustainable business model, it works for a few seats and for a short period of time. But what happens when you’re not even filling your planes at low low prices?
The Star Alliance member airline faces a challenge selling flights to Americans, he says, because we all think New Zealand is 40 hours away by air. According to Luxon “geography’s not the strong suit for the average American.”
In 2012 I wrote that once bandwidth increases substantially for inflight internet, it would eventually become free (included in ticket price). I predicted that would happen within 10 years.
Now JetBlue offers it for free. Aer Lingus announced they’ll be offering it for free. Southwest, Delta, and Alaska offer free messaging. And the trend is going to spread because it is a profit maximizing strategy once bandwidth no longer needs to be rationed.
This is an option for linked customers, not for everyone. The corporate rate box does not show up without being logged in, and it does not show up for me when I log in.
When American Airlines rolled out ‘basic economy’ fares last year one of the less-publicized restrictions was that if a flight cancelled or was delayed they wouldn’t put these passengers on another airline.
Now at American regular economy fares are the new basic economy because coach passengers without elite status will no longer be placed on other airlines in the event of irregular operations. If American’s operation has problems, you wait, just like if you were flying Spirit.
I find that booking six months out gives great options for award redemption. Booking towards the ‘end of the schedule’ around 11 months out is even better if you want to redeem for four or more seats. Right now there’s a great example of the theory from several of Cathay Pacific’s U.S. gateways.
Searching for two passengers is much easier of course but the ability to redeem a top flight business class product for four or more passengers is worth noting when availability is this good.
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 »
