Category Archives for Airlines.
The Chief Marketing Officer for Star Alliance member Turkish Airlines, who outlines plans for their new business class which will be introduced for Boeing 787 and Airbus A350s which will be entering the fleet, beginning with the 787s in 2019.
They’ll be moving from 2-2-2 seating to four-across direct aisle access. And since “High privacy is our priority,” there’s the possibility of suites with doors. However the seats are still under design.
It’s been over 3 years since I wrote about American’s ‘Goldilocks Problem’ boarding planes too early (before stated boarding time on boarding passes) and updating customers about delays too late.
I find that American won’t post flight delays until boarding time for an aircraft, even when those delays are blindingly obvious. And they won’t update delays until revised departure times have passed. That’s an issue because it wastes customers’ time.
Star Alliance member Avianca LifeMiles has Star Alliance Asia awards on sale. There are discounts up to 48% — with US-Asia awards in business and first class up to 20% off on designated routes.
This discount is available for bookings made by September 18 though you can travel any time in the future through end of schedule. Availability on many of these routes is amazing.
Twenty police vehicles along with a helicopter were deployed in the chase. Inbound aircraft were diverted and more than 80 flights were cancelled at the airport.
Politics aside Papa John’s is probably the best of the large pizza delivery chains. Thank goodness the pilot didn’t order Domino’s or Pizza Hut, that stuff is just nasty.
So whatever you think about the controversy surrounding the ex-CEO of the chain he’s the ex-CEO of the chain, it’s ok for pilots to order pizza from them in large quantity, there’s no reason to self-immolate with other chains’ cardboard with red paint.
The problem airlines face is that charging for things that are included in a ticket now, or raising fees, is really just a price increase. And passengers may not be willing to pay more, some may stay home or drive.
If a price increase meant more money for the airline, airlines would raise prices.
TravelZork shares with me data on oneworld airline S7’s co-brand credit card acquisition. The most fascinating statistics center around what’s driving customers to sign up for their credit card. One data point in particular stands out: their inflight magazine is 5 times more effective than flight attendant announcements at getting customers to sign up for their card.
S7 Airlines had to discontinue their flight attendants promoting the credit card because their crews refused to do it.
American Airlines is a lot stricter with same day confirmed changes than their competitors are.
Only Platinum Pro, Executive Platinum and ConciergeKey members can same day change for free, everyone else pays $75. You have to keep the same number of stops and keep the same connecting city or cities. You can’t connect in Dallas instead of Chicago. You can’t move to a non-stop flight from a connection or vice versa. And you can only make a same day change when specific inventory is available.
Two years ago American launched a new program to e-mail non-elite flyers with offers to sell first class seats starting a week before departure. I haven’t heard much about it recently, but JonNYC says that the program is back. AA “Early upgrades” — upgrades offered via email, UP TO a week in advance (that’s when they could be offered, they clear later on), have been re-launched. Offers will be emailed to targeted/selected customers. — JonNYC (@xJonNYC) September 7, 2018 .. It states that early upgrades will only be cleared if there’s enough room to accommodate -all- forms of requested elite upgrades — JonNYC (@xJonNYC) September 7, 2018 United is known to sell first class seats cheap to non-elites. They do this while elite frequent flyers remain on the upgrade waitlist and are not given the…
Last Friday, on August 31, American Airlines flight AA663 from Phoenix to Kona lost all of its functioning lavatories. A passenger reports that “only one restroom at the front of the plane was open, but that the toilet was overflowing.” This gives new meaning to the age-old question of whether coach passengers should use the first class lavatory.
A passenger flushed a diaper down the toilet and that caused the whole system to stop functioning midway through the six and a half hour flight.
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 »
