Category Archives for Airlines.
In June 2016 United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz unveiled the airline’s new business class product Polaris.
There would be new Saks Fifth Avenue bedding, new meals, and some new service concepts including wine tasting flights and drink carts. United also announced new Polaris business class lounges.
Thai Airways has myriad inflight products. They’re known for aircraft swaps at the last minute. Although in recent years they’ve tried to rationalize their fleet as part of an effort to stem losses, with the Thai national carrier you never quite know what you’re going to get. One of the things that’s different in the fleet is that the reverse herringbone seat in their Boeing 787-9s. And these seats have seat belts with airbags. They can’t accommodate waists larger than 56 inches, and you cannot add a seat belt extender to them or else the airbag would be misaligned. This size limit also means parents with lap infants can’t sit in these seats. So Thai Airways has banned passengers of a large size and parents with lap infants from the new business class on their…
United Airlines has 14 more gates than American at Chicago O’Hare. American is opening 5 new gates that they paid for, reducing the gap to 9. But the new O’Hare expansion plan re-opens the gap and returns United to a 14 gate advantage.
After escalating things by FOIAing communications between the Chicago’s Mayor and United this week — and as the city was scheduled to approve the plan, American’s lack of assent notwithstanding — there are now reports of a stand down and a deal.
American Airlines is making a move that should better align themselves with joint venture partner Japan Airlines on flights from Tokyo to the U.S. and with hoped-for joint venture partner Qantas on flights between Australia and New Zealand and the U.S.
They’ve collaborated with chefs for each of those markets with new menus live today.
United Airlines President Scott Kirby told a JP Morgan Chase conference yesterday that it’s considering premium economy for domestic flights. He didn’t provide any details on what that would mean, but it seems clear enough to anyone paying attention.
Watch as passengers look on in amazement as a spinner bag rolls on its own, away from aircraft and down the alleyway between American Airlines and Delta operations.
Hint: the white woman on the plane who was tricked into putting her feet down and behaving like something more of a human being isn’t actually getting $1000 from United for doing so. That’s not racism, that’s just gullibility trumping passenger shaming.
And this, Department of Homeland Security, is why you don’t require passengers to check electronics with lithium ion batteries as baggage. If they hadn’t caught this prior to departure they could have had a much more serious situation on their hands.
Yesterday morning a United gate agent in Atlanta ‘sounds like a coach’ giving a pregame speech commends his team passengers for making it to the plane on time. “You’re here, you’re on time. I’m commending you for it. I’m high-fiving you for it,” he says.
But he warns everyone, they may be tempted to go get breakfast at the nearby bagel place. “Goldberg’s have lethargic lines,” he says. “They don’t move as quick as they should this time of the morning.”
Air Peace is a 5 year old carrier based in Lagos, Nigeria. They’ve only been flying internationally for a year (their first service beyond Nigeria was to Accra, Ghana). They fly mostly Boeing 737s.
Their call sign is ‘Peace Bird’ and their two letter IATA designator is ‘P4’. So on that basis alone I’m rooting for them.
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 »
