Category Archives for Airlines.
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.
It’s usually risky to fly one itinerary on separate tickets. That’s because when you’re on one ticket, if you face a flight delay or cancellation the airline responsible for the irregularity has to get you to your final destination. But if you’re on separate tickets they usually don’t have to do anything more than get you as far as the end of the ticket you’re flying on.
Fortunately — in a world where little seems to go the way of the customer — American Airlines has a policy of taking care of customers connecting on separate tickets as long as one flight is with American and the next is with either American itself or a oneworld partner. And I’ve confirmed that this policy is still in force.
Nothing renews an airline like new planes but absent a giant plane order there always seems to be the thought that the airline can be refreshed by painting planes. It’s a years-long process and costly to undertake.
Ultimately though what United is unveiling is just an evolution. So for me at least it doesn’t induce a strong reaction at all, which is good compared to so many other attempts. But that leads me to wonder why bother at all?
United’s CEO Munoz says they’ve reached the limit on how much they can shrink seats personally I already avoid flying United coach, and would choose JetBlue or Southwest domestically and many foreign airlines internationally.
Last Thursday Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly express confidence in the Boeing 737 MAX and said they had no plans to alter their order for new jets. Southwest has more 737 MAX aircraft on order than any other airline.
At least that’s how his remarks were broadly reported, when he actually hedged a bit more. Now we learn that members of their team have been off in Europe evaluating the Airbus A220.
You can buy more than one seat if you want extra space (ghetto premium economy or business class). The major US airlines let you do this in fact it’s one of the very best, least well known tricks in travel.
What’s surprising is how cheap it can be.
Cathay Pacific is now cracking down on flight attendants stealing from their aircraft and the list of items they’re interested in — from pens to ice cream — is surprising. Several flight attendants have been ‘caught red handed’ in searches of employees on arrival in Hong Kong.
Regular readers know that it’s almost always a good idea to pre-order your meal in American Airlines domestic first class, if you’re in the cabin at least 24 hours prior to departure. They have special meals you can order in addition to the two choices that’ll otherwise be on board. For lunch I’ll often take the kosher meal or the muslim meal (I do not like the kosher meal at breakfast).
Since launching a partnership with Zoës Kitchen American Airlines has introduced a pre-order charcuterie plate.
In November American Airlines revamped their first class meal lineup and included a cheeseburger option at lunch.
My initial reaction was that it looked very similar to United’s cheeseburger, right down to the Sir Kensington condiments, however it appeared to have a proper bun rather than United’s pretzel bun. On Tuesday I finally got to try the cheeseburger.
In a speech at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London British Airways CEO Alex Cruz declared that ‘the main threat to BA’s future’ is the airline’s employees.
He’s been forced to walk that back and clarify his remarks on an internal website,
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 »
