Category Archives for Airlines.
There’s a great deal of discussion of a rumor that Etihad could sever ties with American Airlines and partner with United or even join Star Alliance instead.
I first covered these discussions over the summer but now it’s getting much broader attention.
The airline has been consistently down aircraft over the past couple of weeks and they haven’t been able to fly a portion of their schedule. The carrier has been down 60 planes a day because a group of mechanics are writing up everything they can find to write up.
The airline is almost certainly right that there’s a coordinated illegal job action on the part of mechanics, and it’s causing damage to the airline. However the carrier has maintained a strong culture of working with its employees. It didn’t engage in layoffs during economic downturns. It has managed to retain a culture where employees generally like their jobs. Southwest Airlines isn’t the same place it was under Herb Kelleher but these sorts of confrontations chip away at what’s left of the culture little by little.
After many years of speculation, sixteen months ago Southwest finally announced they would fly to Hawaii. How long have we been waiting? In December 2010 they advertised for an ETOPS manager suggesting they were planning long overwater flights.
They have yet to begin selling tickets but details of their plans have been trickling out ever since. Last year they confirmed several Hawaii routes: Oakland, San Diego, San Jose, and Sacramento will see Hawaii service and they’ll fly to Honolulu, Maui, Kauai, and Lihue.
And now we know what they will serve inflight, too.
Back in February American Airilines went apoplectic over a deal to disproportionately increase United’s gate count at Chicago O’Hare. They said they would not sign a new lease under those conditions.
The Chicago Deputy Mayor charged with handling O’Hare expansion has now been… hired by United. Robert Rivkin was named United’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel.
These flights represent 5% of American’s flights but the airline says they generate more than half of premium cabin revenue. They touch 80% of American’s cargo. And “[n]early 50 percent of first and business passengers” on these flights are elites.
Whether you have PreCheck because you’ve signed up for that program, or gotten it through another service like Global Entry, it only works with participating airlines that have invested in integrating with TSA for screening customer information.
TSA announced today that 9 more airlines support PreCheck: Air India, Asiana Airlines, China Airlines, Eastern Airlines, Elite Airways, EVA Airways, Japan Airlines, TAP Air Portugal, and Volaris.
Advice on how to get the best airfare deals has remained largely the same, here are the 8 best ways to save money on airfare and I don’t think it alters much based on new research from the Airline Reporting Corporation and Expedia.
However there are significant findings you should know about.
Virgin Atlantic flight VS8 from Los Angeles to London hit 801 miles per hour over Pennsylvania yesterday.
A ground speed of 801 miles per hour (obtained only briefly, as the plane remained in the jet streak only a brief period of time) is faster than the speed of sound (767 miles per hour). However the 787 wasn’t actually breaking the sound barrier as it was not moving 767 miles per hour faster than the surrounding air.
A Singapore Airlines passenger took to twitter to share that he had discovered his inflight entertainment system appeared to have a camera installed in it. There has been a ton of media pickup of this.
I’m not aware of any inflight entertainment systems currently in service that are actually ‘spying’ on passengers, though some airlines do have cameras in their cabins.
More premium services on offer are better and American Airlines just announced several. It can be better to buy LAX private terminal access via American, in conjunction with a premium flight, than to buy it direct. Whether helicopter transfers represent a deal is more questionable. Both offerings have been done by competitors over the past two years.
The more innovative piece is monetizing access to their excellent Flagship lounge and dining products, which is a nice perk for those interested in paying the freight. The only downside here is increased usage.
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 »
