Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

How – and Why – You Can Almost Always Get Four First Class Award Seats to Europe

by Gary Leff

airline cabin first class
Sep 02 2018

I absolutely hate fuel surcharges. They’re a scam which is basically just a tax on frequent flyers’ loyalty. On some itineraries they can amount to $1000 roundtrip. Although bear in mind that you may pay lower fuel surcharges when you book two one way awards than a roundtrip.

When I’m in an absolute pinch I can talk myself into paying fuel surcharges for a first class award. I think of it as a discount coach ticket which doesn’t earn points but where I’m spending miles for a confirmed triple upgrade.

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Great Award Availability If You Want to Shower in the Sky: Emirates First Class, Many Cities

by Gary Leff

emirates airline cabin
Sep 02 2018

Emirates has one of the world’s best first class products. Their business class wouldn’t come close to ranking, and their new first class is only on a limited number of planes. But their decade-old first class, while a bit tight on space for its fully enclosed suites with doors, is still a marvel with great amenities, good alcohol and catering, and generally good service.

It’s very very available using miles. Perhaps that’s because there are so many first class seats on so many flights and very few people know how to redeem for these seats at a reasonable price.

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The Star Alliance Routes to Asia That Have 4 Business Class Award Seats Every Single Day

by Gary Leff

people in airline seats first class
Sep 01 2018

If you want to go to Asia with the family in business or first class, there’s one airline that’s got you covered and even one best route though there are several good routes.

Star Alliance member Asiana simply offers fantastic award space. The United website is great for seeing this quickly at a glance. Their award calendar will show you which dates have availability — in this case non-stop availability from Los Angeles to Seoul for four passengers. Dates with solid lines have coach award space and dates with dotted lines have premium cabin award space.

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American Airlines Says They Love Unionization, But Unions Don’t Love Them

by Gary Leff

american airlines hangar
Aug 31 2018

As we enter Labor Day weekend, it’s important to remember that union shop or not management cannot abdicate its responsibility to select and retain the best talent while transitioning out employees who aren’t a good fit for the company — ensuring that everyone inside the business is able to respect the contributions of their colleagues. And management has to set a vision that inspires employees to be their best.

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United Shares Member Info With Other Airlines to Combat Status Match Fraud

by Gary Leff

united plane docked
Aug 30 2018

You might want to defect from United to American or from Delta to Alaska, but it’s pretty tough to do that and start from scratch with a new airline. You’re well treated as an elite, and it’s rough out there flying without any status (although bottom tier of status can be approximated in many cases with the airline’s co-branded credit card). It’s hard to move your business when you’re used to getting upgrades!

So airlines came up first with status matches. That can be helpful but – from the perspective of the loyalty program – it can also be abused.

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How Much Money the Qantas Frequent Flyer Program Makes and What That Tells Us About US Airlines

by Gary Leff

planes on runway
Aug 30 2018

Earlier in the month I wrote about how much money US frequent flyer programs have earned so far this year.

There’s no need to do back of the envelope with Qantas, in fact Qantas shares real numbers about its frequent flyer program. It’s not hard to extrapolate to the US market, or to pinpoint devaluation of existing points as well as reduction in points-earn.

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