Category Archives for Airlines.
Regular readers know that I’m skeptical of government regulation, but the reason eludes many of you since I have great concern for consumer issues. The reason is regulatory capture. Rules usually benefit large businesses, rather than tilting the playing field against them.
U.S. airlines are required to spend tens of millions of dollars in dubious carbon offsets each year under the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation. What happens if the Trump administration stops enforcing this requirement?
On Thursday, American Airlines flight 835 from Tampa to Philadelphia went out without working water. According to a passenger on the flight, a gate agent announced that everyone should use the airport restrooms prior to boarding the scheduled 2 hour 41 minute trip.
In the fall, I was first to report that Southwest Airlines would end onboard service earlier, and make passengers stow their laptops earlier. This means less time where service is available on board, and as a result Southwest is cutting drink service entirely on some flights.
At approximately 8:35 a.m. local time on Sunday, February 2, 2025, United Airlines Flight 1382 aborted its takeoff roll at Houston Bush Intercontinental airport. The Airbus A319, which was headed to New york LaGuardia, faced failure of the plane’s right engine. The crew rejected takeoff at high speed, slowed, and came to a stop on runway 15R.
U.S. and foreign airlines are granted anti-trust immunity all the time to collude on schedules and pricing, jointly deciding who will fly where and how much they’ll charge. The power the Department of Transportation has to allow this comes from an unusual, historical place, and its use has exploded in recent years.
The Sabena case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Sabena’s defense was that this was common practice in the industry. Airlines all denied it, and pointed fingers at other carriers including Pan Am and TWA as well as KLM and other foreign carriers flying across the North Atlantic. Ultimately a consent decree was entered into, and an Iberia executive was jailed for continuing the practice.
A United Airlines passenger flying a regional jet from Chicago O’Hare to Fargo snagged $2,000 in travel credits to take a later flight on Thursday.
There’s a lot suggesting that this could be under discussion. The biggest argument against it is that it hasn’t happened yet, so might not come to fruition. But here’s the argument for yes.
Lufthansa keeps making strange decisions with the interiors of its aircraft, and not learning from the experience of other airlines. They’ve crammed so many seats into their Airbus A320neo aircraft that there’s virtually none left for the galley – and this leaves them to seat a flight attendant on a folding chair.
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 »
