Category Archives for Airlines.
Southwest is experimenting with bringing cleaners on board between flights — but only to clean the premium extra-legroom section, leaving the rest of the cabin to the usual quick flight-attendant “tidy.” A flight attendants union leader says the trial creates a two-tier experience, likening it to Titanic class service, and warns passengers will notice fast when the front looks freshly cleaned and the back doesn’t.
American Airlines has started flying its newly retrofitted Airbus A319 with 12 first class seats instead of 8—and it got there without removing any coach seats. The result is visible in a new back-galley photo: flight attendants say there’s nowhere to stand or work, and they end up in the aisle while passengers queue for the lavatory.
American Airlines has a new internal playbook for oversold flights — and it changes how you should think about taking a voluntary bump. A leaked memo lays out two rules that matter to passengers: everyone is supposed to be paid the highest offer the gate makes, and the third offer is usually the ceiling unless managers approve more. If you want the most compensation, that inside detail is now part of the strategy.
Singapore Airlines flight 21, the 19 hour 10 minute non-stop from Newark to Singapore, struck the tail of a Spirit Airlines plane on Tuesday morning. Video from inside the Singapore Airbus A350-900 shows the damage to Spirit’s tail.
American Airlines sells a “premium” experience and even tells coach passengers their ticket is “more than just a seat,” but customers keep documenting the opposite: broken armrests, headrests that fall off, and first class tray tables marked “out of order.” When they complain, the response is remarkably consistent—no compensation, no partial refund, product delivered—as if a functioning seat and usable meal setup were optional extras.
American Airlines quietly rewrote its Contract of Carriage in two places that matter: wheelchair damage claims now have a 24-hour clock on domestic trips, and downgrades to coach now come with a fixed 40% refund on the affected segment. That turns a mishandled mobility device into a paperwork race, and can make overselling premium cabins more profitable.
A United Boeing 787-9 bound for Newark turned back to Los Angeles and was on the ground again just 36 minutes after takeoff, after its left engine began smoking. Fire crews met the jet on the runway, and passengers were sent down the evacuation slides onto a taxiway as LAX imposed a ground stop.
United just took delivery of its first premium-heavy Boeing 787-9 with the new long-haul interior—and internal cabin photos shared with employees are giving the first real look at what “United Elevated” actually means. The images show Polaris Studio, a self-serve snack bar, and a rebalanced 222-seat layout that shifts space from coach to premium cabins ahead of the jet’s March debut and long-haul rollout.
Rove Miles just added Japan Airlines Mileage Bank as a transfer partner, and they’re kicking it off with a rare 50% bonus through March 31—unlocking premium-cabin awards on JAL and Emirates at incredible value, and making the program more compelling than ever.
American Airlines has a catering mess in London right now, so it’s loading two flights worth of meals in the U.S. and flying them over—then relying on that stock for the return trip. The result is bare-minimum service, with limited entrée choices and no ice cream up front, because there simply isn’t enough galley space to carry full catering both ways.
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 »
