Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

Iberia Freezing Accounts, Offering Ticket Refunds For Some Who Took Advantage Of 9000 Bonus

by Gary Leff

stock airline bed
Jul 03 2018

I view this as good news. First, don’t panic. The promotion was ill-thought out by Iberia. It was more generous than they would have wanted to be. It was also taken advantage by customers at scale, which is a benefit, it’s easy for a company to stick it to or ignore one customer by Iberia is going to have to deal with this.

We’ll just wait it out and see how it resolves, but in the mean time they’re already seeming to understand that if they don’t honor the offer the absolute minimum they’re going to have to do is refund tickets.

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Delta Raises Roundtrip Europe Business Awards to 164,000 Miles

by Gary Leff

black and white photo plane
Jun 29 2018

Last month I asked why people still collect SkyMiles. There has to be some limit to how much programs can devalue their currency.

Truly the only reason I care what Delta charges for awards is because other airline executives think people at Delta are smarter, and blindly copy what Delta does. And because higher Delta pricing may make those executives feel they have headroom in their own award pricing.

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Passengers Kicked Off Delta After Woman Sasses Crew Who Insisted She Put Phone in Airplane Mode

by Gary Leff

delta plane
Jun 28 2018

Four passengers were kicked off of Saturday’s Delta flight DL4527 from Fort Wayne to Atlanta as a result of a flight attendant and passenger arguing over putting a cell phone into airplane mode.

Since the ban on use of electronic devices during taxi and takeoff was lifted, passengers are still supposed to have devices in airplane mode (non-transmitting) once the doors of the aircraft are closed. However this is almost never enforced at all, and certainly not systematically, on the hundreds of flights I take in the U.S.

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American’s CEO Says His Airline’s New Miniature Lavatory Is Just Fine (He Still Hasn’t Flown the Product)

by Gary Leff

lavatory
Jun 26 2018

Prior to the plane going into service, and before American began retrofitting its fleet with this new interior, the airline’s CEO Doug Parker hadn’t even tried the product. And it told me that domestic passenger experience isn’t central to the product the airline believes it is offering.

He now at least says he’s seen the lavatory, though he still hasn’t flown on a plane that has it. He also doesn’t seem to know that his airline has an ongoing effort to reconfigure its existing domestic fleet with more seats and smaller planes, in fact he denies it outright.

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Fantastic Business Class Award Availability to Europe for 4 Passengers (Air France/KLM/Delta)

by Gary Leff

flight chart
Jun 26 2018

Right now there’s great Air France award space for four or more passengers New York – Paris in both directions in February and March. Pretty much every day. And that’s not all.

You’ll note plenty of New York – Amsterdam space. That’s KLM. New York – Madrid is generally Air Europa. There are several Delta flights offering four or more seats as well — such as London, Zurich, Barcelona, Dublin, Frankfurt, and Lisbon.

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American Airlines is Having a Hard Time Delivering Their New Extra Legroom Product With Free Drinks

by Gary Leff

airline drinks
Jun 26 2018

American Airlines now offers free drinks in Main Cabin Extra seating. First class and Main Cabin Extra also have reserved signs on the overhead bins, though this isn’t something flight attendants are expected to enforce and I watch customers walking to the back of coach storing their backs up front all the time.

Last week at an employee town hall a flight attendant brought up to the carrier’s CEO Doug Parker that they’re having difficulty delivering the free drink benefit to customers in extra legroom seats.

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