Category Archives for General.
US airline CEOs were reported to be having a meeting with the President where they could press their case for protectionism.
Two things turned out to be very different than expected: Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al-Baker was there and Delta CEO Ed Bastian didn’t show up.
Boy what a rough past week for KLM in social media as a result of three separate instances of self-pwnage.
The first incident is dumb, airlines don’t question the safety of air travel, that’s been a basic rule since the earliest days. However the second and third instances may be more revealing than they may seem at first blush — culturally and institutionally rather than saying something unique to the airline itself.
Pocketing $150 in Southwest travel (10,000 points) from renting your car out is huge, it could make sense to rent it to a friend for $50++ since for the net cost of transaction charges they’d pocket 2000 points and you’d have 10,000.
There’s a viral essay circulating, “Dear American Airlines, I Hate You With My Whole Heart”. It’s not really about American Airlines, but what it’s like to deal with how complex airlines have made buying air travel for the once a year flyer. Read that way it’s one of the most important things airline executives can read this year, because profiting primarily by not delivering travel for customer money isn’t going to be a great strategy in the long run.
My view is that you should only buy things in your purchase plan on major shopping days. Get a discount for what you’d buy anyway, don’t make impulse purchases of things you don’t need. I’ve mostly ignored Amazon Prime Day.
For many travelers though ‘stuff in your purchase plan’ may include noise cancelling headphones.
The plane could be re-certified before November 2, but the airline will need time to complete required procedures after that. And once again they need to send out packets for employees to bid on schedules that either will or won’t include the MAX. What the November 2 date says to me is that American is pretty sure the plane won’t be ready to fly in revenue service at the beginning of October. They cannot guarantee of course that they won’t push back the aircraft’s return date again.
Thirty years ago airlines offered a mostly flat comfortable seat at the front of the plane with upgraded dining. They called it first class. They also offered a middle cabin featuring recliners and 38 to 40 inches between seats, along with upgraded privileges like priority boarding. They called it business class.
Today airlines offer mostly flat seating up front with upgraded dining. They call it business class. They offer a middle cabin featuring recliners and 38 to 40 inches between seats, along with upgraded privileges like priority boarding. They call it premium economy.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
We all know the usual tropes, like ‘there are only two kinds of luggage: carry on and lost’ and that someone who checks a bag for a trip every week is spending at least 2 days a year at baggage claim. Checking bags is something you want to avoid if you possibly can.
Here’s how to avoid being forced to gate check a bag when the contents inside are too important to risk.
I recently wrote about American’s two different award search tools, and how to access the old one for the better ‘calendar view’ that will also tell you whether you’re getting a saver award or more expensive AAnytime award.
I mentioned that the new award search tool won’t show ‘web special’ awards. That actually isn’t true. They’re just not well-disclosed on the new award search tool.
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 »
