Category Archives for Airlines.
A few weeks ago I wrote that American is giving flight attendants a new tool to hand out onboard compensation for service failures. If something bad happens during your flight, they can give you AAdvantage miles on the spot.
We now know something about what situations are programmed for miles (and what will get you bupkis) and how much you can expect to get.
American Airlines was the first US airline to let first class passengers pre-select their meals, having rolled it out in fall 2012.
Now American has rolled out pre-orders to coach on a test basis.
American Airlines has been appallingly bad at offering award space on their own flights especially in premium cabins. When they’ve offered it, it’s been for a brief moment. And that space is crucial because awards on their primary transatlantic partner British Airways, while more available, incur punitive fuel surcharges.
We need American award space on American’s own flights, and when it’s available it’s worth jumping on.
There was no limitation on flights from Doha to the U.S. And it turns out that the actual agreement contains only a side letter indicating that Qatar’s civilian aviation authority is “unaware of any plans by Qatar Airlines to start” flights between third countries and the U.S. There is no promise about avoiding such flights in the future.
A 72 year old man taking his first-ever flight on Emirates from Lagos to Dubai to Chicago last week was hospitalized after being “bound and beaten” on the flight.
David Ukesone was flying on EK235 to meet his family after receiving a US Green Card. They turned up to meet the man but he didn’t get off the plane with other passengers. He was removed by police officers who were told the man had been unruly, though no charges were filed.
This week’s Airline Weekly (subscription only) interviews Delta CEO Ed Bastian. Delta doesn’t order new Boeing aircraft, but argues that foreign competition is bad for US jobs.
Despite a path towards declaring victory and going home in their fight against Gulf airline rivals, Bastian pushes back on criticisms over Delta’s purchase of subsidized Bombardier C-series jets by calling out Boeing for their willingness to sell planes to the Gulf carriers.
When Alaska Airlines obtained a single operating certificate with Virgin America, as far as the FAA was concerned they were a single airline. And I started to look at use of American AAdvantage miles on nominally Virgin America flights. However I didn’t see flights — which were offering award space — available to American AAdvantage. That’s changed.
This will eliminate an area of friction between the U.S. and Qatar, and allow Delta to claim victory, without Qatar Airways having to give up anything of significance.
Since the agreement covers only Qatar and not Emirates or Etihad it’s unclear what the future of the Delta, American, and United campaign looks like. Qatar is likely the most subsidized of the 3 carriers. Qatar’s CEO is the most likely to say offensive things. So they’ve been the target of US airline racist attacks. Will they be emboldened by progress, or stalled by the removal of their juiciest enemy?
Basic economy isn’t supposed to be a new cheaper fare. It’s supposed to be new restrictions on what used to be the cheapest fare. That way people who don’t like the restrictions are supposed to spend more money to avoid the inferior experience.
But American offered me such a spread between Basic Economy and regular coach fares that I couldn’t justify spending more money, and I wound up flying Basic for the first time.
American Airlines believes that the number one thing that they can do to make planes arrive on time is to depart on time. So they’ve made it a company priority to the exclusion of most other things to ensure that flights leave exactly on time or even early.
If gate agents don’t bother processing upgrades, let alone coming onboard to move customers up when a first class passenger no shows, that’s acceptable because D0. If seats leave empty with passengers on the standby list that’s ok. If flight attendants don’t have time to offer predeparture beverages in the 30 minutes the flight is boarding that’s fine too.
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 »
