Category Archives for Airlines.
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.
United just launched non-stop Los Angeles – Singapore service at the end of October. They’ve been flying with a Boeing 787-9 using old business class seats.
United will be dropping Los Angeles – Singapore on that route’s one year anniversary, and adding a second San Francisco non-stop.
Last month I asked why people still collect SkyMiles. There has to be some limit to how much programs can devalue their currency.
Truly the only reason I care what Delta charges for awards is because other airline executives think people at Delta are smarter, and blindly copy what Delta does. And because higher Delta pricing may make those executives feel they have headroom in their own award pricing.
At last week’s American Airlines employee town hall one flight attendant asked CEO Doug Parker whether he regrets American’s decision to let airline President Scott Kirby go and elevate Chief Operating Officer Robert Isom to the role of President. Kirby has since gone on to become United’s President.
Four passengers were kicked off of Saturday’s Delta flight DL4527 from Fort Wayne to Atlanta as a result of a flight attendant and passenger arguing over putting a cell phone into airplane mode.
Since the ban on use of electronic devices during taxi and takeoff was lifted, passengers are still supposed to have devices in airplane mode (non-transmitting) once the doors of the aircraft are closed. However this is almost never enforced at all, and certainly not systematically, on the hundreds of flights I take in the U.S.
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 »
