Category Archives for Airlines.
There’s a 30% bonus on transfers from Amex to Virgin Atlantic right now and Virgin offers the cheapest US-Asia first class awards on their partner ANA.
So it seemed worth taking a look at ANA first class availability. And right now the Houston and Chicago routes especially have great availability beginning in 2019 through end of schedule.
China Eastern flies Shanghai – New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco (they also serve Honolulu, but with equipment that lacks a first class cabin). Beyond Shanghai of course you can connect to myriad destinations.
Delta of course owns a piece of China Eastern, so I choose to believe this is intentional, making that airline’s best product available for redemption by SkyMiles members.
A passenger on United’s flight 1697 from New York LaGuardia to Chicago O’Hare this morning reports that the 11 a.m. Airbus A319 departure was overbooked. United solicited 10 volunteers, offering each $800 travel vouchers.
The plane boards full, the door is shut, and the safety video begins. However the passenger says “I hear [one flight attendant] say to other [flight attendant,] ‘They’re bringing the jetway back out.’”
The federal government requires airlines to allow musicians to bring small instruments onboard as carry on items and to allow the purchase of an extra seat for larger instruments.
It seems American refused to fly a DePaul University School of Music student home to Chicago because her 10 pound cello – that was fine on her outbound trip – was deemed too large for a 737 departing from Miami. She was removed by police.
Two years ago American Airlines joined Delta and United in awarding miles for flights based on the cost of a ticket rather than the distance you fly.
At first you had 3 choices where the cheapest American Airlines tickets still earned 100% of flown miles.
When Air Canada announced that it would drop Aeroplan and start a new frequent flyer program, Aimia (the company that owns the Aeroplan) saw its stock fall from about CAD$8.80 down to as low as about CAD$1.50 per share.
Activist shareholders replaced Aimia’s leadership, and they quickly announced aggressive plans to offer a competitive program that might continue to be attractive to customers. That gave the stock a bit of a bounce. But when Air Canada made their offer to buy the Aeroplan program from Aimia, Aimia’s stock shot up.
This gives Aeroplan an airline partner, but Porter Airlines is no Air Canada. They operate of a fleet of 29 Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 turboprops with 74 seats. They fly to 16 destinations in Canada and 7 in the United States (although half a dozen of their routes are seasonal). And it doesn’t appear that they’d even be the exclusive frequent flyer program for Porter, which presumably will continue to operate the VIPorter program.
Air Canada wants to buy back the Aeroplan program, which is spun off into a separate company. The program is owned by Aimia, which also owns 49% of Aeromexico’s frequent flyer program. Either Aimia sells Aeroplan back, or Air Canada starts its own new program in July 2020.
Air Canada and its bank partners in the deal had offered $250 million plus assumption of the program’s liabilities. They had raised their offer to $325 million. Aimia was willing to sell, but they wanted $450 million.
American AAdvantage miles are tough to use for actually flying American. That’s changed somewhat over the past 9 months as American has opened up greater connecting availability in coach and also loosened its routing rules for domestic awards. But premium cabin international travel on American’s own flights remains challenging.
That’s why I highlight when even modest international business class award space opens up. When it does, it’s time to jump.
Air Canada spun off its frequent flyer program Aeroplan into a separate company. Aimia owns Aeroplan along with other loyalty programs including a 49% stake in Aeromexico’s Club Premier.
Last year Air Canada announced they weren’t going to renew their exclusive partnership with Aeroplan after their 15 year deal expires at the end of June 2020. Now Aeroplan is confirming partnership discussions with oneworld .
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 »
