Category Archives for Airlines.
Just when I wrote off upgrades, suggesting that buying them at a discount for $40 was the way, my luck with them seems to have turned around. I’ve cleared on three of my last four segments.
Month after month, American Airlines loses more checked bags than any other airline. They don’t just lose more bags in total, they also lose more bags as a percentage of those that are checked with them than any other airline.
What’s striking to me though is that American loses nearly one bag for every flight that they operate.
Qatar Airways will take a 25% stake in Virgin Australia as Bain Capital plans an IPO for Australia’s number two carrier.
JetBlue is discounting redemptions on Etihad across 44 routes from Boston, New York JFK, Washington Dulles and Chicago. This appears to be around 44% off normal pricing, and is available in economy only with stopovers not permitted. Members need to issue tickets and travel by October 31, so it’s only for close-in bookings.
The passenger didn’t even give his ex a 5-star rating in the follow-on survey after the call, he says, because “she didn’t resolve my issue!”
An American Airlines passenger brought a dog on board who defecated on the seat. The stench wafted through the cabin. Since the pet was outside of a carrier kept underneath the seat, either the airline wasn’t enforcing its pet in cabin rules or the passenger claimed this was a service animal and filled out the paperwork attesting to it.
No one seems more concerned with assigned seating on Southwest Airlines than the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance.
Of course Southwest is making a lot of changes to improve revenue, pushed by activist investor Elliott Management. They might choose to revise their policy of refunding extra seat purchases on flights that aren’t sold out. And they haven’t said they won’t do it!
Virgin Atlantic is making major changes to their frequent flyer program in one month but they refuse to give us the details of those changes.
United Airlines is holding an event in October where they’ll reveal new routes they’re launching. Aviation watchdog JonNYC says that United will be adding a “different, high volume” destination in Southeast Asia.
After Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called Ed Bastian, ‘reminding him about his airline’s responsibilities to passengers’, the airline became more reasonable covering costs for stranded passengers. Delta had previously refused to pay for tickets that travelers were stuck buying on other airlines.
However, CEO Bastian has put Buttigieg on blast over this.
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 »
