Category Archives for Airlines.
Emirates is in negotiations to acquire Etihad, forming the world’s largest airline by number of passengers carried.
Etihad has been cutting costs and slashing routes after a $1.5 billion loss last year and a $2 billion loss the year before. They’ve been expected to walk away from some aircraft orders. I’ve read much of the changes at Emirates as cleaning up the balance sheet before getting acquired.
Singapore Airlines offers much better award availability to people using their own KrisFlyer miles than to people using miles from partner frequent flyer programs like United.
Right now Singapore Airlines is offering discounts on awards for their non-stop flights between the US and Singapore: business for the price of premium economy, and premium economy for the price of coach, which means up to 43% off.
Ever since David Dao was dragged off a United Express flight by police and beaten last April it’s been clear to most people that we have a problem in the airline industry. Customer service problems are turned into law enforcement problems.
Delta called the police on a woman who began taping her interaction in the baggage service office at Boston Logan airport. No law was being broken and no one was in physical danger.
A month ago JetBlue raised its first checked bag fee to $30. United followed the Friday afternoon of Labor Day Weekend presumably looking for the news to get buried with the rest of the trash when no one was watching.
Now Delta has jumped on board with $30 first checked bag fees (up from $25) and $40 second checked bag fees (up from $35).
Cathay Pacific misspelled their own name on a freshly painted plane. Apparently the painters doing the job had no F’s left to give.
The airline dubbed this ‘a special livery’ while acknowledging the plane would need to go in for warranty work.
Delta and Alaska offer free inflight messaging, you don’t have to buy internet. Days after Delta announced it in September of last year, American announced that they would do it also. Yesterday I got an admission from American that they were walking away from their promise to offer free inflight messaging.
It turns out that Southwest is rolling free messaging too. That’ll leave only major U.S. airlines that have been run by Scott Kirby not offering it.
Singapore’s Los Angeles – Tokyo flight is wide open with saver award availability for two passengers in first class.
The best availability seems to be May onward although you’ll find space at other times as well.
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.
Earlier in the month when American Airlines promoted that they had added live TV to over 100 planes I pointed out that they still hadn’t added free inflight texting the way they had promised one year ago and which Delta and Alaska already offer.
American had announced free texting right after Delta made their announcement. But American didn’t follow through. They aren’t saying never, but will no longer even say it’s coming.
Here are the results from a survey of Berlusconi Market, Dream Market, and Olympus Market. Where they present more than one data point I average them for this chart. It’s important to note that these are asking prices. The people selling miles may or may not have a good idea of what they’re worth, and in some cases may be looking for a sucker (buying 500 Expedia points?).
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 »
