Category Archives for Airlines.
Under new DOT requirements, airlines and ticket agents will have to fully disclose all fees for baggage, changes, and cancellations upfront at first instance of displaying itineraries and fares. Airlines will also have to automatically and promptly refund passengers in cash or their original payment method when services like checked baggage and Wi-Fi are not delivered as promised.
Alaska Airlines is buying Hawaiian Airlines, unless the government stops them. They’re paying more than three times the Hawaiian share price at the time the deal was announced, and the real question is… why? This is a great deal for Hawaiian’s shareholders. Hawaiian Airlines frequent flyers will get more valuable miles out of the deal. There will probably be some reduction in seats flying between the Hawaiian islands, but that’s happening anyway as Southwest Airlines pulls back. Southwest saturated the market. Alaska is picking up planes, pilots, and experience flying to Asia Pacific destinations which the Seattle-based carrier has never done before. It doesn’t do any long haul flying. There just isn’t that much else for Alaska in the deal. A Honolulu hub that has no moat. Mainland – Hawaii flying is highly competitive, with…
Some flight attendants are calling LOSA-C, the Line Operations Safety Audit-Cabin program the “snitch” program. It was announced this was coming 15 months ago and was supposed to start this past fall, but the airline is only just now recruiting flight attendant observers for it.
American Airlines debuts new amenities kits in advance of Memorial Day weekend, part of its premium cabin soft product refresh meant to accompany new business class suites that are delayed by Boeing 787 production problems.
I had the opportunity to get my hands on a first class, business class, and premium economy amenity kit.
Reportedly flight safety incidents more than doubled between 2022 and 2023 as parts inventories ran low.
Now it seems that one way Russian airlines have kept flying – acquiring the spare parts they’ve needed – is having passengers check the parts in their luggage.
American Airlines flight attendants haven’t had a raise since 2019. At the end of that year their contract became amendable, and the value of their wages has been substantially eroded since then by more than 20% inflation. A new contract was delayed first by the pandemic The process of negotiating all the myriad details is a long one. The current agreement (that flight attendants didn’t even approve) runs over 325 pages. And that doesn’t count a separate 15 page attendance policy and 18 page uniform policy among others. Plus, union politics (effectively needing to wait for incumbent officers to be re-elected) meant further delay. Boston-based first and second year American Airlines flight attendants are eligible for food stamps. American Airlines even gives newly-hired flight attendants a letter attesting to their poverty. The letter states that…
Several Southwest Airlines pilots have been refusing to allow United pilots to fly in their jump seats, following an incident where a ‘relatively new’ United pilot (recently hired from a regional carrier) reported a safety incident she observed while jumpseating.
A strong showing may signal ‘resolve’ to the company – that flight attendants are united in getting a good deal and won’t settle. But they probably do little else. Picketing in front of the White House might get more media, and make a point to the President not to intervene the way President Clinton did, halting an American Airlines flight attendants strike in 1993. I’m quite optimistic that a strike can be avoided altogether.
JetBlue is in a rough spot. They’re losing money. Their primary strategic plays – acquiring Spirit to have the planes and pilots to benefit from their American Airlines partnership – have been lost to Biden administration opposition. Now both Spirit and JetBlue fight for their lives, as the DOJ anti-trust suits may turn out to reduce competition in the industry (and of course help United but especially Delta in New York and Boston).
In March I wrote that JetBlue would cut some transatlantic flying and this announcement would come in April. It looks like the timing was off by about a week, but that they are pulling back on winter trips across the Pond. That’s a sinkhole for money and JetBlue can’t afford losses right now.
Fighting for San Juan, and offering premium service to winter long distance domestic destinations from New York makes good sense.
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 »
