Category Archives for Airlines.
Most of us are at the complete mercy of the airlines we fly. When things go wrong I’m a big fan of taking matters into your own hands as much as possible. Know what your alternate flight options are and suggest those instead of relying on airline agents to find you the best flights. Be willing to book alternatives yourself and seek compensation later, including from your credit card company.
One man though took a different approach.
Increasingly airlines are using technology to track bags, prevent loss, and even let you monitor your luggage throughout their journey. That doesn’t mean they’ll be handled with care by staff, and it still doesn’t mean the bags will always make it.
One of the most frustrating parts of losing luggage is waiting to have your bags delivered. It’s not fair to have to make a return trip to the airport, you may be nowhere near the airport. But relying on the airline for that ‘last mile’ getting bags reunited with their owners is tough, it’s hard to know when they’ll ever turn up once they’re handed over to a local delivery service.
I was sort of excited to be flying a widebody aircraft on such a short hop. The 1100 mile flight would take us about two and a half hours. On the other hand the Boeing 787 we’d be flying had JAL’s old business class seats. They ordered the planes so long ago, and deliveries were delayed so long, that they debuted angled business seats. They’ve been putting in their new business, but it makes sense to put the older product on a regional route.
Still within Asia customers in a premium cabin are used to a much better product than Americans are.
American Airlines cancelled its SkyWest CRJ-700 regional jet flight AA3018 from Chicago to Aspen after a passenger locked herself in the lavatory.
The event unfolded in dramatic fashion as the passenger was eventually rescued, issues with the plane required an aircraft swap and a several hours delay before the flight was eventually scrubbed.
Here are the top 10 airline routes by revenue. It’s fascinating data. And one airline’s flying generated over a billion dollars last year on a single route
American is expected to relax the most draconian restriction on their lowest-price Basic Economy fares, and that points to the failure of the overall basic economy strategy. Perhaps as early as next month they will once again allow customers on these lowest fares to bring both a personal item and a full sized carry on bag onto the plane.
Earlier I wrote that Iberia again confirmed they’re honoring the deal of the year. You could earn 9000 Avios per flight booked, even cheap sub-$30 one way flights, and you wouldn’t even need to fly in order for the points to post.
As several readers have reported the points are now posting to accounts though it can take time for everyone to get theirs, do not panic if your points have not posted as of this writing.
This morning I >a href=”https://viewfromthewing.com/2018/06/23/deal-of-the-year-through-this-weekend-only-90000-points-for-300-1-3-of-a-cent-per-point/” target=_blank>wrote about the 90,000 Avios for under $300 deal and how Iberia was freezing new accounts and even telling some customers that because they living in a country other than the one whose Iberia website they used for the booking they wouldn’t be eligible for the offer.
I suggested we needed to be patient, that it was likely a better deal than Iberia had intended, but that in the absolute worst case it appeared that Iberia would be refunding tickets purchased by those who just wanted to take advantage of the points offer and not actually fly.
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.
Around 1 p.m. Eastern this afternoon a United Express flight UA6122 experienced smoke in the cabin while taxiing for departure to Houston. The Mesa-operated Embraer regional jet stopped and crew deploy a slide.
Mesa Airlines appears to be ferrying another ERJ-175 over from Washington Dulles as United flight UA3232 to take passengers on to Houston.
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 »
