Category Archives for Airlines.
On Sunday night a man frustrated by the delay of JetBlue flight 801 from Orlando to Salt Lake City ‘went crazy’ and was pepper sprayed by police. He appeared to “take a swing” at the JetBlue agent and passengers in the gate area sought to restrain him.
Then police arrived.
A British Airways business class passenger found his seat similarly soaked and BA offered 40,000 Avios as compensation.
Compensation ought to be the full cost of the ticket at a minimum. British Airways may believe that 40,000 points is generous, that all they promise is transportation from point A and point B (never mind that this was business class). However I believe that they promise transportation from point A to point B free of urine and they failed to deliver what the customer paid for.
While British Airways has increased the surcharges on award tickets Alaska Airlines is not (yet?) passing along those higher fees. Alaska Airlines is requiring about $380 less than American for the same British Airways itinerary.
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.
When Scott Kirby departed American Airlines as its President he walked away with $13 million and lifetime travel privileges. He immediately became United’s President.
Kirby probably thought the role would be even bigger. And it may still happen in 2020.
A passenger snapped two photos of a flight attendant during an AirAsia flight from Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong on October 12, posted them to Facebook, and they’ve gone viral both online and in media with worldwide coverage in China, Australia, the UK and beyond.
The flight attendant, Mabel Goo from Malaysia, doesn’t mind the attention — finds it ‘very nice people say such kind words’ but prefers “to focus my attention more on my work with AirAsia” where she’s part of their “cabin crew Fun Team.”
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.
During Delta’s earnings call the airline’s CEO said miles are worth a penny apiece.
What Delta has done is adjusted its mileage program so you get more consistent average, low value.
For more than six years I’ve been saying that inflight internet will eventually be free. Since I started making that prediction JetBlue introduced free inflight internet, Aer Lingus has announced usage-capped free wifi, and Delta’s CEO has started saying it’s going to happen.
American Airlines isn’t going to lead the industry to deliver this. Their model “will be charging for wifi.” However they could get dragged into offering free wifi if major competitors do it.
So much for notions of membership. A US airline club used to be a members-only club not just an extra amenity to pay to add onto your ticket. You could access it as a member. In the old days when you didn’t need a same day ticket to clear security you could go wait in the lounge to meet an arriving passenger.
As an historical vestige of that some airline clubs would even let you request gate passes after 9/11 as a service to its members.
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 »
