Category Archives for Airlines.
I’ve held off writing about the Air China flight which lost cabin pressure and quickly descended 21,000 feet because there were missing pieces to the story that just didn’t make sense. The incident was being blamed on a pilot smoking in the cockpit.
While it’s understandable that a pilot doing so wouldn’t want to be outed out of fear for their job, it was not clear how the smoking was in any way related to the incident. Until now, that is.
During yesterday’s second quarter earnings call, Duane Pfennigwerth of Evercore ISI asked whether the way “the rest of the industry has implemented basic economy so far… the more punitive implementations of it, no carry-on” has led to “positive share gain” (people choosing to fly Delta instead of United and American).
Last week I wrote about the 10 highest revenue airline routes in the world. British Airways New York JFK – London Heathrow exceeds a billion dollars a year.
Here are the top 10 revenue routes from Dallas Fort-Worth (all airlines) using OAG data, a fascinating mix.
Award availability on American Airlines can be tough. I love my AAdvantage miles, mostly for booking travel on partners rather than on American. They’ve made coach award space better over the last 8 months or so, but premium cabin international award space can still be tough to get.
That’s why it’s notable when awards become booking on American flights, whether you’re using American AAdvantage miles or partner airline miles. And right now awards on South America flights in business class for spring are especially bookable.
Singapore Airlines has loaded their new Los Angeles – Singapore non-stop into the schedule. It’s bookable, and business class awards are wide open with 2 seats available on most flights in both directions. Hurry because that won’t last.
There’s been a lot of speculation about what Singapore Airlines would do with its extra Airbus A350ULR (ultra long range) capacity beyond a daily Newark and Los Angeles flight. And the answer is additional Los Angeles flying and additional San Francisco flying. San Francisco will not only have 2 United non-stops to Singapore and a Singapore Airlines non-stop to Singapore, they’ll have a second non-daily Singapore Airlines flight as well.
American’s employees believe the current state of affairs where a flight departing a hurricane region could easily adopt the call sign ‘Noah’s Ark’ is disruptive. Employees agree the best approach is to allow service animals as defined under the Americans with Disabilities Act — and not other animals — on board outside of existing ‘pet in cabin’ guidelines. In other words, accommodate passengers under the ADA instead of applying the more ambiguous Air Carrier Access Act rules.
That seems a reasonable policy response, using existing legal frameworks to provide for people with real needs while eliminating untrained animals of all stripes from the passenger cabin. Do you agree with the majority of American’s employees? What do you think?
Southwest Airlines will stop serving peanuts August 1 citing passenger allergies. That’s really notable because of the history of ‘peanuts’ intertwined with the airline since its founding.
While peanuts are now a snack, they once stood for how frugal the airline was: other airlines served meals while Southwest served just peanuts. Peanuts at Southwest were once known as ‘Love Bites.’..
Flying has become increasingly accessible and democratic around the world. More people than ever have access to the skies but load factors are up, airlines are squeezing more seats into the same amount of space, and looking for areas to cut back on costs.
So when we see passengers spontaneously break out cheering? That video will go viral with millions of views on Facebook, for sure. And that alone may be enough reason to justify an airline’s investment in inflight entertainment.`
Most of us are at the complete mercy of the airlines we fly. When things go wrong I’m a big fan of taking matters into your own hands as much as possible. Know what your alternate flight options are and suggest those instead of relying on airline agents to find you the best flights. Be willing to book alternatives yourself and seek compensation later, including from your credit card company.
One man though took a different approach.
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 »
