Category Archives for Airlines.
A well-known luxury travel influencer is mad at me for writing that Qatar Airways was first to outfit business class cabins with suites with doors. She had written that JetBlue was first, and one of her readers cited me in response.
This is an interesting question because it underscores the way that foundational definitions – that sometimes go unstated – are often the source of disagreement.
Here’s how to know if you’re entitled to a voucher that airlines now provide. The government declared a victory. But there’s not much discussion of “how much?” The standard answer is $12, and in an airport that doesn’t go very far.
Star Alliance is ‘losing’ many of its customers in Northern Europe. And SAS is trying to raid its members as well. So members with current SAS status can pick the Star Alliance program they’d like to stay in as an alternative to EuroBonus.
Two years ago Oman Air announced that it planned to join the oneworld alliance which is headed by American Airlines and based in Dallas, and includes members like British Airways, Japan Airlines, and Qantas.
Now it seems that the oneworld launch is on the cusp of reality.
The FAA worked with airlines on new regulations that helped them crack down on the Noah’s Ark approach to domestic pet travel. Ostensibly passengers are now limited to real service animals. In practice, though, you just have to fill out paperwork in advance and say you have a service animal.
So here are some standards you can use to tell if the animal a passenger is bringing on board is a real service animal – or if the passenger is just circumventing the rules.
Earlier in the month I took a trip to Honolulu and back on Hawaiian Airlines. They operate Austin – Honolulu non-stop three days a week, and since I hadn’t flown Hawaiian in a year and a half it seemed worth passing along some observations.
With DOT still to approve the deal, the opportunity for parties to get their wish lists in appears to be now. Approval so far has been helped by Hawaii’s supportive politicians. In exchange, Alaska has offered promises about what their stewardship of the brand and its routes will look like. It seems reasonable to expect some of those promises will be written into binding commitments by the federal government.
Congressman Ritchie Torres has attacked the CEOs of United, Delta, and American for ‘effectively boycotting Israel’ with their flight suspensions, noting that the U.S. government has not concluded these flights are unsafe to operate and that El Al continues to fly.
It is very simple to model this. Ryanair sells alcoholic beverages. Airports are competition. Limiting airport sales will boost onboard sales. And Ryanair, more than most carriers, relies on ancillary rather rather than just ticket price.
JetBlue is struggling. They’ve turned themselves into a smaller version of a fee-based legacy airline, and given up much of their competitive difference. Now they aren’t making money, and they’re trying to fend off activist investor Carl Icahn.
The airline’s turnaround plan involves shrinking to profitability.
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 »
