General

Sep 08 2017

In the aftermath of the David Dao dragging incident in April, several airlines revamped their policies around paying denied boarding compensation. Delta authorized gate agents to go up to $2000 in compensation, and allowed supervisors to offer up to $9950.

I’ve never heard of anyone receiving anything close to $10,000. Involuntary denied boardings are exceedingly rare already, especially on Delta. When they do guess wrong on overbooking customers usually volunteer their seats for a few hundred dollars.

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Sep 08 2017

American Airlines doesn’t ticket reservations instantly. Paid travel usually tickets within a few minutes, although complicated itineraries can take longer. When I’m paying with a gift card for instance or I confirm an upgrade prior to issuing a ticket it may take several hours.

Award tickets take longer. They’re usually queued based on date of travel and a partner award ticket (that is queued for review) a year out can take a couple of days before tickets are issued.

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Sep 08 2017

This plan for partial pilot ownership, without other employee groups involved, will fail. That’s not a bold claim since in all likelihood any new plan for Alitalia will almost certainly fail other than breaking up the carrier and buying only a handful of good assets.

But we also know a little something about employee ownership by a subset of work groups in the airline industry.

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Sep 08 2017

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.

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Sep 07 2017

Etihad fired their CEO who pioneered their premium strategy (indeed James Hogan brought the concept of an onboard chef over from his time at british midland). They’ve lost billions mostly because of failed investments in other airlines like Alitalia and air berlin.

In response they’ve cut their business and first class car service outside the U.S. and they’re monetizing access to their lounges. They’ve even closed their spa at London Heathrow and they’ve announced plans to devalue their frequent flyer program.

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Sep 07 2017

Delta has waived pet in cabin fees for passengers traveling in and out of Florida, the Dominican Republic, Bahamas, Virgin Islands and Cuba as part of their Hurricane Irma waivers.

It broke my heart to see pets being rescued in Houston — pets that had been left behind when their owners evacuated. I can’t imagine doing that, one person I saw interviewed on television about leaving their dog said they ‘didn’t think they’d be gone that long.’

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Sep 07 2017

Citibank is running a 25% bonus on ThankYou Rewards transfers to JetBlue through October 25, 2017.

And of course JetBlue is unique among Citi partners in that it’s even a transfer partner for the ThankYou Preferred card (normally 1000 ThankYou points to 500 JetBlue TrueBlue points, with this promo yielding 625 points).

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Sep 07 2017

United Airlines just announced Houston – Sydney service operated by a Boeing 787-9 starting January 18. This will be United’s second longest route after Los Angeles – Singapore which launches in October.

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Sep 07 2017

Last month I wrote about 30 Air India pilots testing positive in preflight alcohol tests over 3 years. That seemed like a lot.

I was surprised to learn that 132 pilots and 434 crew members have “regularly been ‘evading’” mandatory alcohol tests.

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Sep 07 2017

Marriott’s end of year promo is out. It’s called MegaBonus, because that seems to be the only promotion name Marriott can regularly remember. However it’s “the good kind” of MegaBonus, stay twice and earn a free night.

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