Category Archives for Airlines.
United is eliminating their mimosa/bloody mary carts and wine carts from Polaris business class effective May 1.
That should speed up service, which is great. It should also reduce consumption, which is great for United’s costs.
An arbitrator ordered that a Southwest Airlines maintenance worker be re-instated and given back pay — minus funds he received during the time he wasn’t employed by Southwest.
That means his income from a job with an aviation school credits against the wages he would have earned. And it includes $25,000 donated to him via a GoFundme page.
The Department of Transportation asked what rules should be repealed and airlines responded with their Christmas lists. Most of what they ask for won’t happen, and some of it is actually worth considering.
Alaska Airlines flight AS146 from Anchorage to Seattle took off early this morning but turned around and returned to Anchorage because of a naked passenger.
The plane departed at 1:29 a.m. and returned to Anchorage at 3:47 a.m. The airline explained the delay as “due to a passenger not following flight attendants’ instructions.”
A couple of days ago I wrote about the great mileage offers on flowers that abound around Valentine’s Day. There are 30 miles per dollar offers with United, Delta, American, and Hawaiian.
I noted at the time that you could get a flat 1000 Rapid Rewards points for spending $29.99 or more (plus shipping) at 1-800-Flowers. And that’s pretty good for Southwest. However there’s a new even better offer out of 1750 Rapid Rewards points.
As I pointed out with the launch of the blockade against Qatar last June, there’s a huge shift going on in the Mideast.
While conflict with Israel gets the most press in the U.S., the primary conflict is between Saudi Arabia (along with Turkey) seeking Sunni influence in the region and working to counter Shia Iran. The conflict in Syria, for instance, is largely a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Saudis have fought Iran-backed rebels in Yemen over the past several years.
American’s new ‘Tell Me Why’ podcast is live with its third episode. While it’s geared towards employees and posted to their internet Jetnet system it’s also available on iTunes.
For the third episode Vice President of Communications Ron DeFeo interviews Kurt Stache, American’s head of marketing who used to run AAdvantage, about the airline’s inflight product and mostly inflight entertainment.
Air New Zealand has arranged for former U.S. President Barack Obama to visit New Zealand for an event on March 21. The visit is “due to be announced this [coming] week.”
Vietnam’s “Bikini Airline” low cost carrier VietJet, whose CEO is a woman, came out with their 2018 bikini calendar last month.
Sometimes their stunts are controversial.
In 2015 Etihad created an Amsterdam-based special purpose vehicle “SPV Equity Alliance Partners” which issued bonds for Etihad and other airlines it controlled. Etihad has since walked away from its investments in Alitalia and air berlin, each of which reportedly held 19% of the debt.
Etihad is discussing “how to support the bonds” given the “political and reputational pressure” not to default. It will be expensive for the Al Nahyans to cover the commitment, but embarrassing for them not to.
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 »
