Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

American Now Has Live TV With No Screens But Hasn’t Delivered Promised Free Texting

by Gary Leff

airline cabin
Sep 07 2018

American Airlines announced that they now have high speed internet and live tv on 100 domestic narrowbody aircraft. The plan is to roll it out across the rest of their domestic fleet over the coming year as they add high speed satellite internet to the aircraft.

There are 111 aircraft equipped with Gogo’s 2Ku satellite internet and these planes offer free live TV. All of the airline’s Airbus A320s have the product along with “more than 60 A319s” according to internal documents. Today the product is available only on legacy US Airways aircraft and the A320s do not yet have seat power, so bring a backup battery if you want to watch something.

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American Reveals How They’re Doing Improving Award Availability

by Gary Leff

american plane
Sep 06 2018

The percentage of American Airlines seats occupied by award customers has been lower than that of competitor airlines and had been declining ever since US Airways management took over at the airline. American was been filling about 6% of seats with awards compared to nearly 8% at United and Delta and 13% at Southwest.

AAdvantage President Bridget Blaise-Shamai reported in June that they’re “on a path towards putting our availability much more closer to the competitive levels of like a Delta or a United.”

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Guess Who Says He Was On the Quarantined Emirates Flight Today? This is Awesome

by Gary Leff

private airplane bar
Sep 05 2018

This morning an Emirates flight was quarantined on arrival at New York JFK with sick passengers on board.

Some initial reports suggested that 100 were ill. Emirates said it was 10. The most recent information we have is that 19 passengers were deemed to have medical issues. Ten were transported to the hospital, while nine declined medical treatment and were released.

What do we know at this point? That Vanilla Ice says he was on board.

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People Pay More to Fly Delta for One Simple Reason

by Gary Leff

delta check in airport
Sep 05 2018

Delta’s Executive Vice President and CFO Paul Jacobson spoke this morning at the Cowen and Company Global Transportation Conference. He put up a standard Delta chart showing that customers like the airline more than their competitors, and so customers are willing to spend more to fly Delta.

Jacobson offered this startling statistic. Delta had 5000 cancellations due to maintenance in 2010 and this year there will be “fewer than 100.” He says that’s “down 99% since 2010.”

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Emirates Flight Quarantined at New York JFK With Sick Passengers On Board

by Gary Leff

ambulance outside plane
Sep 05 2018

Emirates flight EK203 from Dubai to New York JFK landed this morning and was been placed under quarantine awaiting a response from the Centers for Disease Control.

Immediately reaction on twitter suggested possible terror, or pandemic, however such speculation is premature at best. So far there are no reports of other flights with similar issues, or of similar illnesses being reported at the Dubai airport or in Dubai more generally.

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American Relaxes Basic Economy Restrictions Today, Admits It Was All About Making You Pay More

by Gary Leff

airline cabin
Sep 05 2018

American Airlines Basic Economy fares are highly restrictive. The purpose of these fares is to make the travel experience worse, in hopes that you will spend more money to avoid them. However they need to balance that with the risk that you will just give up on them and choose to fly someone else instead.

American Airlines President Robert Isom, speaking at the Cowen and Company Global Transportation Conference, admits that “the premise of basic economy, it wasn’t a price cut…[but] an upsell.”

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This Worst Thing a Passenger Can Do Keeps Happening and We’re All at Risk

by Gary Leff

lavatory
Sep 02 2018

While passengers urinating on seat opponents doesn’t happen frequently compared to the number of flights and number of passengers each year, it happens frequently enough to make me wonder whether an airline would attract business by requiring passengers to certify that they’re potty trained, and to blow into a breathalyzer at the boarding gate. And it makes me wonder if airlines not doing this suggests they’d rather have the ticket revenue than discourage the behavior.

For fee-happy airlines like Spirit, Allegiant and United another approach could be onboard sale of Depends.

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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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