Category Archives for Airlines.
American Airlines has gone for an injunction against their mechanics’ union, accusing them of a work slowdown leading to “650 flight cancellations and more than 1500 maintenance delays” affecting 125,000 customers, according to a letter sent to employees. They contend that the degree of issues they’ve faced would be “one-in-one billion” if left to chance rather than the result of “concerted activity.”
Delta’s new SkyClub in the Austin airport opens Tuesday morning. It’s gorgeous on the inside, features more substantive food options than the United and American clubs in the same airport, and features an furnished outdoor observation deck area with misters for the summer heat and heat lamps for the few days each year it’s cold.
For an outstation hoping to become a focus city like Austin this new club is an absolute winner — and will be a draw for flying Delta.
Throwaway ticketing – buying a ticket to a different city than the one you’re actually traveling to in order to save money – is against the rules at most airlines. It’s against the rules, that is, unless you get your ticket issued in Italy with certain airlines, which turns out to be surprisingly easy to do.
It’s a mistake to start with the operation rather than the customer. It’s also a mistake to start with competitors rather than customers. Understand what your customers need, and use that to make decisions around how best to provide that.
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.
A couple of days ago I wrote about Delta One business class suites to Asia for as little as 47,000 points each way with availability for 4 or more and sometimes even 9 passengers per flight.
Now two transferable points programs are running transfer bonuses to Virgin at the same time. In addition to a 30% bonus transferring American Express Membership Rewards points to Virgin Atlantic through July 1, points transfers from Citi ThankYou Rewards to Virgin Atlantic receive a 30% bonus through June 22.
You can use Chase Ultimate Rewards points for Southwest Airlines award tickets. You can do this either by transferring Chase points from a Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, or Ink Business Preferred Card to Southwest’s Rapid Rewards program, or by using Chase points directly to purchase the ticket.
For some time it hasn’t been possible to use Chase points to buy Southwest Airlines tickets. But the ability to do this over the phone is back.
The leaks coming out of American recently largely seem to be about making positive investments for customers and improving the travel experience. That’s certainly a departure from what we’ve seen over the past few years.
Delta saver award availability to Asia, especially for two or more passengers, can be challenging. Right now though availability for late fall and winter is outstanding on a variety of routes, for the whole family — in some cases 9 or more saver awards.
Specifically flights out of Detroit, Minneapolis, Seattle, Atlanta and Los Angeles are bookable to Tokyo and to China (from Shanghai connecting options on China Eastern are good as well) for November through March.. Notably availability on the Detroit – Beijing, LA – Shanghai, and LA – Tokyo Haneda routes means flying Delta’s business class suites.
Good availability in business class to Asia from 75,000 miles one way without significant add-on fees is worth paying attention to. There are worthwhile Star Alliance (Europe and Mideast especially) and round-the-world awards, too.
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 »
